How to Crochet a Baby Blanket for Beginners: Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial

When people ask how to crochet a baby blanket, the pattern is rarely the hard part. A baby blanket is a rectangle, and any stitch will do. What matters is everything around the pattern: the size, the yarn, and the stitch you choose — because a baby blanket has requirements an ordinary blanket doesn’t.

It has to be washable at high temperature, repeatedly. It has to be soft against skin that reacts to everything. And it must not have holes that small fingers can push through and get caught in.

That last one rules out more patterns than beginners expect, including some of the prettiest ones.

About eight hours for a pram blanket.

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Cat Coaster Crochet Pattern

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What you need to know first

• Chain stitch
• Single crochet or double crochet
• Turning at the end of a row

What size should a baby blanket be?

Size depends entirely on what the blanket is for, and the difference is large.

If you’re making a gift and don’t know, make the pram size. It’s the one that gets used every day, it fits a pushchair and a car seat, and it doesn’t take a month.

A safety note worth stating plainly: loose blankets are not recommended in a cot for babies under twelve months. That isn’t a reason not to make one — pram blankets, floor blankets and lap blankets are all used constantly — but it’s worth knowing so you’re not surprised if a new parent uses it differently than you expected.

Choosing the yarn

This matters more than any other decision here.

Go for a soft acrylic or an acrylic-cotton blend. Machine washable, tumble dryable, cheap enough to replace, and soft enough for newborn skin. Anything labelled “baby” in worsted or DK weight is designed for exactly this.

Avoid wool unless you know it’s superwash. Regular wool felts in a hot wash, and a baby blanket will be washed hot, often, and at short notice.

Avoid anything fluffy or shedding — chenille, eyelash, mohair. Loose fibres near a baby’s face aren’t worth the texture.

Avoid dark dyes for a newborn gift. They can bleed in the first few washes onto everything else in the load.

For yarn weights, the Craft Yarn Council’s yarn weight system explains what the number on a label means. Worsted (4) or DK (3) are both right here.

How much: about 700 metres for a pram blanket in worsted weight.

Choosing the stitch — and the hole problem

Here’s the part most baby blanket tutorials skip.

Open, lacy stitches look beautiful and are genuinely risky for a baby blanket. Fingers and toes go through gaps, and a baby who can’t free a trapped finger becomes a distressed baby. Anything with holes bigger than about a centimetre is worth avoiding.

Safe and good choices:

• Single crochet — dense, no gaps at all, warmest. Slowest, but the safest fabric there is.
• Half double crochet — small gaps, soft, drapes nicely, works up considerably faster than sc. The best balance for most people.
• Moss stitch — alternating single crochet and chain-1. The gaps are tiny and the fabric is soft with lovely drape.

Avoid for babies: shell stitch, mesh, open granny patterns, and anything described as lacy.

A granny stripe blanket is a lovely blanket, but its gaps are on the large side — better for a toddler than a newborn.

The pattern

This is the half double crochet version — the one I’d recommend for a first baby blanket.

Step 1: The foundation chain

Chain to your width. For a 75 cm pram blanket in worsted weight, that’s around 110 chains.

Don’t take that number on faith. Chain 30, measure it, and work out your own chains-per-centimetre — tension varies more between people than beginners expect, and it’s how a blanket ends up 60 cm wide instead of 75. If you’re unsure, crochet gauge explained covers the arithmetic.

Chain loosely. A tight foundation chain pulls in the bottom edge of the whole blanket.

Step 2: The rows

Row 1: hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook, then hdc in each ch across.

Row 2: Ch 2, turn. Hdc in each st across.

Repeat row 2 until the blanket measures 90 cm, or your chosen length.

The ch-2 at the start does not count as a stitch. Don’t work into it at the end of the next row.

Count every row while you’re learning. A blanket is long enough that a one-stitch drift per row becomes a visible slant by the end. A stitch marker in the first stitch of each row prevents it — the same habit covered in how to count crochet stitches.

Step 3: The border

A border matters more on a baby blanket than on any other blanket, because the edges get pulled, sucked and dragged constantly.

Round 1: sc evenly all the way around, working 3 sc into each corner.

Round 2: sc in each st around, again with 3 sc in each corner.

Two firm rounds of single crochet is enough. Fasten off and weave the ends in twice, in opposite directions — a loose end on a baby blanket is a loose end in a baby’s mouth.

Skip the picots and bobbles on a gift blanket. Decorative edges come loose, and small raised pieces are exactly the wrong thing near an infant.

Washing instructions to include with a gift

Write these on a small card. It costs nothing and it means the blanket survives.

• Machine wash warm, 40°C
• Tumble dry low
• No fabric softener — it coats the fibres and reduces softness over time
• Do not iron acrylic

Troubleshooting your crochet baby blanket

It’s coming out narrower than planned. Your chain count didn’t match your tension. Measure a 30-chain sample before committing next time.

The blanket is slanting to one side. A consistent stitch count drift. Count at the end of every row.

The bottom edge is tighter than the top. Tight foundation chain. Use a larger hook for the chain only.

It curls at the edges. Common with single crochet. Block it, and add the border — two firm rounds usually settle it.

It’s stiff rather than soft. Tension too tight, or the hook is too small for the yarn. Go up a hook size. A baby blanket should be floppy.

It’s taking forever. You probably chose single crochet. That’s the trade-off for the densest fabric — switch to half double for the next one.

Variations

• Striped: four rows per colour in soft pastels or, better, in strong clear colours. Newborns see high contrast far more easily than pastels.
• Two-tone: the body in cream with a coloured border. Always looks considered.
• Textured: alternate two rows of single crochet and two of half double for gentle horizontal bands with no gaps.
• Lovey size: 30 cm square with a small crochet animal attached — the amigurumi bunny works well, with embroidered eyes rather than safety eyes.
• Matching hat: a crochet hat in the baby size from the same yarn makes it a set.

Frequently asked questions

From the shop · New pattern

Cat Coaster Crochet Pattern

A sweet cat-ear coaster in just 5 rounds. Beginner friendly, printable 7-page PDF for $4.99.

See the pattern →