Trying Something New: Corner-to-Corner Crochet Baby Blanket
People in my life all have babies at the same time so I’ve been frantically making a lot of new blankets this summer. One technique I tried for the first time was corner-to-corner crochet.
The Technique
First of all, I was so in love with making this blanket that I wrote the pattern down and will definitely make another once the holidays are over.
If you want to give the pattern a try, you can find it here.
I've seen so many beautiful C2C blankets on Instagram and Reddit, but didn’t know how they were made. While researching how to get started, I went down a little rabbit hole and learned a few things:
“Corner-to-corner” (or C2C) refers to technique not the stitch. The most commonly used stitch for this technique is the box stitch (this is what people call the C2C stitch - wrong!).
C2C can be made using traditional double crochet or half-double crochet stitches.
Other advanced stitches that work well are the bean stitch, berry stitch, diamond stitch and brush stitch. I’d never heard of any of these before but they look really cool. Happy Googling (if you dare add more to your crochet to-do list).
Getting started was super easy. I used the box stitch which just uses double crochet and chain stitches, so while it looks really intricate it’s actually very simple.
The Yarn
I chose Premier Yarns Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted Gradient and I am obsessed. This is my second project (check out my Boxes of Joy Blanket) with this gradient yarn and both projects have turned out so beautiful. The color transitions are perfect - I’ve never worked with another transitioning yarn with such a good effect. I actually opted not to put a border on this blanket because I didn’t want to take away from the perfect flow of color change.
The yarn is also very soft for an acrylic and works up smoothly. I’m not exaggerating when I say I can crochet way faster with this yarn than other acrylic yarns.
Main Takeaways
If you're looking for a new style of crochet but might not be up for a massive challenge (hey we all get there sometimes), I highly recommend giving C2C a try.
Pros
Works up fast!
No complicated instructions; perfect for multitasking.
A lot of opportunity for creative color patterns (like stripes).
Watch Outs (no real Cons for this one)
If using the traditional C2C method, the blanket will be a perfect square. I like rectangle blankets so I had to think outside the box for this one.
This stitch is a yarn eater! Plan to use double the amount of yarn you think you need. I lost crochet-roulette twice with this project. For example, this crib sized baby blanket used 6 skeins.
