How to Crochet a Blanket for Someone You Love

Now then, there's nothing better than snuggling up under a cozy blanket with someone you love! So why not make that person a blanket and they can think of you each time they use it. It's a piece of comfort when you're not there and involves so many hours of work and thought that should will feel very loved under it!

1. Pick your person. Who would you like to feel loved by you? Maybe a parent, boyfriend or sister? Whoever it is, they're about to get a few months worth of your attention so make sure you've resolved any niggles with them before you begin.
2. Decide what type of blanket fits that person. A single person, a soon-to-be mother, a family, etc.
3. Pick your colors.
4. Learn to crochet a square. These are really easy and only involve repeating a basic stitch. You could practice a few rows of a double crochet stitch with some old wool and keep practicing until you get nice and straight edges.
5. Make your first square. One way is to do 23 chain stitches (the first 3 act as your first double crochet). Hook into the fourth chain space in your foundation row and continue down the chain. This makes a length of 20 stitches and will make a perfect square if you continue for 7 rows.
6. Design your blanket. If you're a more organized sort of person than me you would probably have wanted to do this a lot earlier. One thing you can do is make a square in each color and come up with a design after laying them out on the floor and imagining my options.
7. Start sewing your squares together. As your squares start to grow in number start sewing them together so you remember which colors you still need to make.
8. Finish off. When your blanket is big enough and you're happy with it, use a single crochet stitch to edge the blanket. Just hook straight into the blanket on one of the corners and keep going all the way around. You might need to guess where they should go when there aren't chain spaces to hook into. Keep going as many times as you like until you're happy with the edge.
9. Back the blanket with a fleece. You don't have to do this but it makes your blanket warmer and will stop it from stretching out of shape, protect your stitching from being pulled and hide the back. Simply sew three edges of your blanket to the fleece so that when you turn it inside out the back of the blanket is hidden. Finish off your final edge as neatly as possible.
10. Proudly present your blanket to your loved one.

• Search online for a good illustration of how to crochet.
• Use a 5mm hook or similar.
• Be patient! It took me six months to finish my sister's blanket but the squares were small and complicated.
• The bigger the square the quicker it will be for you to finish.
• Try a factory outlet shop or discount shop for wool. It doesn't need to be posh, expensive wool and you'll need a lot so the cheaper the better!
• A medium blanket takes approximately 6-10 100g balls of wool.