Hello and welcome to Patchwork House . . . . .
my little corner of the world in England, where you will find me addicted to colour and playing with yarn!


19 April 2019

The waffle blanket



This year I have discovered a new love!
If you too like texture
 and want to make the thickest, most squishy, dreamiest blanket ever,
 then take a look at the waffle stitch blanket.


For my first adventure in texture and colour,
 I used the
 in my favourite 
 with a 3.5mm hook.

The colour packs I have put together also have 2 balls of cream,
 as they were originally set up for the rainbow granny blanket.

I learnt how to do this stitch,
 using an excellent video tutorial on You Tube
 by Olivia aka Girly Bunches
You can find this 

It really is a very easy stitch and you will soon be hooking,
 while talking and watching tv.


This blanket has the most fabulous texture,
 with interesting patterns both back (above) and front (below).
I made 2 rows in each colour to achieve this narrow striped design.


Immediately I finished the red rainbow,
 I was fast onto another using 
I was totally hooked and enjoying every stitch.

 Colour therapy from this fabulous colours
 and crochet therapy from the amazing stitch.
 It soon became easy and I was hooking away fast from memory.


When you look at the waffle stitch from different directions,
 it has different looks. The texture is fascinating
 and I soon found myself running my fingers along the waffles.
It is so very tactile and sure to be a winner for children in pushchairs!


To frame my blankets I chose a plain linen stitch border in 1 colour.
 This sits nice and flat and makes a stunning frame to the blanket.


Linen Stitch border
(UK crochet terms)

Foundation row ~ dc in corner, 2 chain, repeat, dc 2 chain, all the way round,
 spacing out the dcs so as to make your blanket edge straight and flat,
 we do not want a frilly blanket here!

Round 1 ~ dc in dc, 2 dc in chain loop, repeat with 3 dc in corner stitch.
Round 2 ~ 3 dc in corner stitch, chain 1 miss a dc, dc in next dc, 
chain 1 miss a dc repeat then slip stitch into first stitch
.
TURN YOUR WORK 
so you are now working from the back

Round 3 ~ dc in the chain space, chain 1 , dc in next chain space chain 1 
repeat with 3 dc in the corner, slip stitch into first stitch. Turn your work.

Turning the work after every round helps to keep the border nice and flat.

Keep working until you have the required depth of border.
It can be left with a nice straight edge as here in the pink rainbow blanket
or
an edging can be added as in my pink/grey blanket (see later).
For this I changed to a different colour
 and made the final round in reverse linen stitch.
 This feels strange at first working backwards,
 but you soon get into the rhythm of it.


After the bright waffles, orders started coming in
 and I had the pleasure of making 2 grey blankets for customers.


Lemon, silver and white



then candyfloss, silver and white





is the most fabulous place for crochet inspiration.
Try searching for appropriate hashtags
 and you will have hours of pleasure discovering new people to follow
 and new ideas to make!
 I was inspired by many wonderful blankets and crocheters
 and next discovered the square waffle blanket.

For this pattern I learnt from another excellent video tutorial on You Tube,
 by Natasha aka Buttonnose Crochet, you can find this 


This time I chose blues,
denim, cloud blue, silver and white,


and again the reverse linen stitch edging 
completed my square.


By now I was totally smitten with this
gorgeous
squishy
warm
cosy
blanket
and decided I needed one in my own life!
Sitting under a blanket to rest is a big part of everyday life for me.


So it wasn't long before I had picked out the beautiful soft vintage colours
I used 8 shades,
 duck egg, parma violet, grape, pale rose,
 mocha, vintage peach, mushroom and grey.



My border this time was made in stripes,
 using up the oddments I had left and I like the simple straight edge here.


If you too have caught the waffle bug
 do share your photos in my Facebook group

and use
 #inspiredbythepatchworkheart 
as a tag on Instagram.

It makes me so happy to see what you are making!

My blog has recently been updated with 2 new pages
and 
to make it easier for you to find things again in future.
Yoy can find these pages listed at the top right of the blog.
Take a look now and see what a wonderful resource this is!

Happy hooking friends

Heather
x x x






10 comments:

Jane said...

OOOHHHHH how lovely! I only learnt to crochet last summer and I'm still hooking away at the basic Granny stitch. I have a long thin storage bench cushion to cover and I wanted something easy, but tactile. This may just be the stitch I'm looking for. I'll be looking at the videos. Thanks and best wishes, Jane :)

Sandra said...

What an amazing stitch and the texture is wonderful. I love your bright colours!

casa crea d' emilia said...

I always love seeing your color combinations at instagram and here on your blog. And the waffle stitch looks amazing.
Have a lovely easter weekend.

Sweet greetings,
Emily
(casacreaemilia.blogspot.nl)

Carrie said...

These blankets are just gorgeous! Enhanced as always by your colour choice xxx

Karen said...

So many pretty color choices. I have made a waffle stitch blanket but I used a variegated yarn. You have inspired me to try and make one using many different colors of yarn.

Unknown said...

How do you join a different colour row when doing a waffle stitch I love your rainbow waffle blanket I am halfway threw a brick stitch crochet pattern I am left handed crochet

The Patchwork Heart said...

to change colour simply pull the new colour through the last loop, of the last stitch, on the previous row as for any blanket. For future reference unknown comments can not be replied to. If you leave your name I can email you to help.

Carolyn said...

Love the look of this stitch so would like to make a baby blanket. Can you tell me what size the lemon, grey and white blanket was and how many stitches you chained to start off with. Beautiful work as always.

The Patchwork Heart said...

Carolyn, Well that depends on your own tension, your hook size and how big you want the blanket. The tutorial I suggest shows how to calculate.
I used 102 chain and it measured 60cm square as do all my baby blankets. Hope this helps you get started.

Kate said...

These are gorgeous! I’m about to start a blanket for my friend’s baby girl and wasn’t sure if stripes with the waffle stitch would work. Thank you for the confidence to try it out!

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