Linen Stitch Crochet Square Blanket

I mentioned the new yarn I bought recently and gave a teaser last week of my progress on the blanket but I thought I’d do a full post on the blanket because a) I’m fully in love with it and b)…. Okay, I’m just fully in love with it and hopefully no one has got bored of me mentioning it yet!

So most of you probably know that linen stitch is pretty much my favourite ever crochet stitch and I was dead set making a blanket using it.

I’m not following a pattern but I did take inspiration off a couple of designs on ravelry and switched things up.

These two:

I loved the colour work in the shawl (which you can find here). The way they used the stitch to create something even more interesting simply by changing colours but that pattern would mean cutting the yarn at the end of each row and weaving in the ends. Ends are my nemesis and making something that would have had a hundred or so just wasn’t going to happen. I needed a way to use the design without having to cut which means doing it in the round.

Enter inspiration two. The moss stitch square (which you can find here). The pattern calls for stitching continually rather than joining after each row to avoid a visible seam but doing that skews the square. So I decided to change the pattern. Join and turn the work after each row (this makes it truly reversible as one side of stitches aren’t more defined than the other).

But enough of inspiration. Here’s where I’m up to with the blanket so far….

It’s a little bit all American right now with the colour scheme as my mum pointed out. But the next colour after I’ve finished the cappuccino part will be purple.

It’s currently about 90cm x 90cm (or 3ft square) which doesn’t sound much to me but its already a decent sized blanket (it’s larger than any lap blanket I’ve made so far).

To get to 3 ft I’ve used about 350g of the 4ply yarn overall. Probably a bit less than that. I have about 250g left to use but each row is taking more yarn so it’ll be interesting to see how large it ends up.

And it is so cosy! I keep snuggling it up. And when it lays on me while I’m crocheting I’m so warm and comfortable. It’s definitely my favourite thing I’ve ever made.

The only issue is the join. You can see it on the main photo but here is a close up (excuse the unwoven ends).

It’s not that noticeable but it is there. I’d still rather have it like this than stitch it continuously and have it skewed though because one of my favourite things about this stitch is how sharp and straight the edges look.

I’m going to add a quick tutorial for anyone who wants to know how I’m stitching it:

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Instructions:

Things to know:

I used King Cole Big Value 4 ply (A mix of the original and baby colours). You can use any yarn you wish but for me this was the perfect weight and thickness. And the yarn is super soft and inexpensive so I would recommend it. The 4ply fingering yarn calls for a 3.25mm hook but I went up to a 4,00mm hook and it has the perfect amount of drape for me. The tension you use may affect this but just be aware to go up a size or two.

Row 1:

Start with a magic ring and crochet: SC, Ch2, SC, Ch2, SC, Ch2, SC, Ch2 into the ring then slip stitch to join into the first SC and pull tight. These are your four corners (if you wanted to make a rectangle you could add a SC, Ch1, into two of the sides)

Row 2:

Turn the work. Ch1. (SC, Ch2, SC, Ch1) into each of the four corners and SS to join.

Row 3:

Turn work. Ch1 and SC directly into the stitch below then Ch1. Now you’re simply using linen stitch (SC,Ch1) in each of the Ch1 spaces along the edges and doing (SC, Ch2, SC, Ch1) in each of the corners. Once you reach the end of the round DO NOT Ch1. You want to end on a SC, then SS into the starting Ch1. Make sure you pick up both loops of the Ch1 and not the gap between the SC and Ch1 as otherwise you’ll end up with a bump.

Then you’re just repeating that last row as the blanket grows. This is the neatest way I’ve found to do it.

To do the colour stripes in these photos you simply alternate between the two colours you want. The way the stitch is constructed makes it look as if you are alternating stitches,

I’m making one huge linen stitch square but you could also make multiple smaller ones and join them together.

If you do try it out, I would love to hear about it.

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