A year in the making and the Animal Square Crochet Blanket is finally finished! Every month from January to December of 2023, I posted a free pattern for a different animal crochet square. Now I will show you how to join them and add a border to make a blanket!
You can start on this project at anytime. All of the links to each pattern post can be found on the Animal Square CAL Landing Page HERE.
I made TWO of each square. This is so they can be placed back-to-back so the blanket is reversible and the messy stitching is hidden between the sandwiched squares.
I am using Red Heart Super Saver in color Aran to join my squares and for parts of the border. You will only need one skien! I like that this is a neutral color that lets the squares stand out. But please feel free to use any color you’d like! I love to see those bright and colorful blankets.
You can shop all shades of Red Heart Super Saver Yarn HERE on Yarnspirations.com
HERE is a video tutorial to go along with the photos below:
The first thing you will need to do is to join each pair of squares together. I did this by crocheting them together (back-to-back) with double crochet stitches around the edges. Make 3 DC in each corner.
Now it’s time to join the squares! One of my favorite joining techniques is the Slip Stitch Join. It’s fast and easy and creates a really tight join between the squares. I go over this technique in the video below if you need help.
I decided to make a simple border, although since the finished size of this is about 28 x35 inches but you could make it much bigger by adding a larger border, more squares, or larger borders in-between each square.
I started by making one round of SC stitches in Aran yarn along the entire outside edge, making a SC + chain 2 + SC in each corner. Then I added in some color!
I chose a bunch of colors from the blanket: gold, cafe latte, Turqua blue, dusty gray, baby pink, perfect pink, oatmeal, spring green, black, red, coffee, pumpkin orange, medium purple, cornmeal.
In that order, I alternated those colors along the blanket edge the length between every corner and join.
Then for the final round of the edge, I made one last round of SC stitches in Aran.
Then I added 4 two-color pompoms to the corners!
And it’s completely reversible!
I hope you enjoyed this year-long project!
It all started with the 2022 Gnome Project, this year was the 2023 Animal Square CAL, and I’m wondering if I should keep this going and do another monthly crochet-along for 2024? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions!
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