Le Ciel Bleu Blanket (Free Crochet Baby Blanket Pattern)

If you like this pattern check out my Beginner Friendly Baby Blankets Roundup up for more inspiration!

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Inspiration

I’m at the age (or time in my life, whatever) that I don’t have a lot of friends I see or hang out with regularly and most of them are already content with the number of children they have.  So, when I found out that a friend of mine was pregnant I immediately got excited for making baby things!

If you like this baby blanket, you might also enjoy the Fabowlous Beanie pattern I designed to gift with this beautifully textured blanket.

My absolute favorite thing to make for babies is definitely blankets, loveys, and toys.  Everything else is cute and all but they grow out of clothing so quickly it’s *almost* not worth it to me.

The name for this blanket is French for ‘the blue skies’.  I’ve always had a love for the French language and when I got the suggestion for this name in English I thought it had a nice ring to it in French!

About The Yarn

I found this Baby Bee Sweet Delight Goo Goo Giggles on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1.32/per skein and grabbed all 3 that I could find.  Well, as we all (I think) know, 3 skeins of lightweight yarn are just not enough for an entire blanket so I decided I wanted to use this beautiful ‘painted’ looking yarn for the border and another solid coordinating color for the body of it.  I wanted the whole piece to be textured so I decided on bobbles for the border and the Lemon Peel Stitch for the body.

My mom and I went to Hobby Lobby together after I had already picked out the Goo Goo Giggles color to choose another solid coordinating color to go with it and she convinced me that the Baby Bee Sweet Delight in Surf Baby would be a good choice.  She told me that some of the gifts that she loved most when I was born were the blue ones because almost everyone gets pink and purple for baby girls.  Well, “Mom is always right”, right?!

Well, I went with it and I love it! So here’s the easy pattern for it 🙂 Keep scrolling for an update on how to size your own blanket!

Update: A Guide to Swatching and Sizing

As I was working my second blanket in Lion Brand Pound of Love in Cherry and a 4.5mm hook I actually got a message from someone looking for guidance on how to resize this pattern for a heavier weight yarn. So, naturally, I decided I wanted to do an update to include how to size your own blanket using any weight yarn. It’s pretty simple once you know how to do it and you can use this ‘tutorial’ for lots of other pattern alterations also.

Swatching

First, you need to make a swatch. I know, I know, I hate swatching also, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil. And in this case, it’s super important to get the size that you’re going after. Without swatching, you could end up with a blanket way bigger or smaller than you intended. Sometimes that’s ok though! So I suppose this part is, technically, optional. Anyway, this will help you get your desired end size if you’re looking to make a specific size like a baby blanket or a throw sized blanket.

Note: To swatch, ch an even number of sts a little wider than 4″. Sc in the 2nd ch from your hook and in each ch across, ch 1, turn. *sc, BO* across, sc in last st. Repeat these 2 rows until you have a square (as many rows of bobbles as you have wide).

When I swatched for this blanket I got 7 bobbles per 4″. Baby blankets are usually 30-32″ wide. I like to make them 32″ for the sake of easy math since 32 is divisible by 4 (your swatch should always be 4″). So the calculation for my 32″ wide blanket at 7 bobbles per 4″ is 56 bobbles wide.

Example:

7 bobbles=4″

32 (inches wide) ÷ 4 (inches per 7 bobbles)=8

7×8=56

I need to work my blanket at 56 bobbles wide to make a 32″ wide blanket.

Starting Chain Count

Calculating the starting chain number is pretty easy also. Start with the number of bobbles you need, multiply by 2, then add 2.

Example:

56 bobbles x 2=112

112+2=114

My starting ch should be 114 for a 56 bobble wide blanket.

Sizing

Now let’s talk briefly about the width of the border. Obviously how wide you want it to be is up to you but to make it easy on myself I made mine 4″ wide. So this means that I started with 7 rows of bobbles and had 7 bobbles on each side of the bodywork.

Last but certainly not least is the length of the blanket. I personally prefer rectangle blankets over square ones so I’ll talk about that first. For the length of the blanket, I simply worked the number of bobbles wide (56 for the sake of this example) between the top and bottom borders. So after my first 7 rows of bobble border, I worked 56 rows of bobbles before I started the ending bobble border. I ended up with 70 rows of bobbles from start to finish.

If you’d like to make your blanket square, simply work the number of bobbles wide minus the border for the body.

Example:

My blanket is 56 bobbles wide

My border is 7 bobbles wide on each side

56 (bobbles wide) – 14 (border x 2) = 42

So I would work 42 rows of bobbles for the body between the top and bottom borders and have 56 rows of bobbles from begging to end.

I also wanted to note that my second blanket came out to be 32″ wide x 36″ long, which is a little wider and not quite as long as the first one I made but still within the average range of a baby-sized blanket.

This swatch tutorial and formula will work for any weight yarn. I recommend using the hook size that your yarn calls for with this design. I hope this helps you make a beautiful blanket in any size you’re looking to work up!

Materials

Approximately 810 yards/250 grams color A (bobble border) Baby Bee Sweet Delights in Goo Goo Giggles (or your choice of yarn)

Approximately 870 yards/265 grams color B (body) Baby Bee Sweet Delights in Surf Baby (or your choice of yarn)

US Size G/6/4mm crochet hook (I use these!) or size needed for chosen yarn

Tapestry needle for weaving in ends (I use these!)

Scissors (These Fiskars are my fav!)

Notes

-My original blue and multi-colored blanket measures 30″ x 38″ with a 4mm hook and category 3/light weight yarn. See above for an update on sizing customization.

-This blanket can be made in almost any yarn, just use the recommended hook size for that yarn.  Keep in mind, if you use a heavier weight yarn your blanket will be larger in size. Again, see above for an update on sizing customization.

-This blanket is made all in one piece.  The border is worked at the same time as the body.

-While working this blanket I used 3 skeins of yarn at once (1 for each side for the border and 1 for the body), instead of carrying the yarn throughout the body.

-When indicated to switch colors, yo and pull through loops on your hook with the new color before finishing the last stitch with the old color.

-When dropping an old color of yarn and beginning a new color, make sure to always drop the old color on the WS of your work, all EVEN rows are the WS of your work.

– *   * indicates a repeat

Stitch index

R-row/round

ch-chain

sl st-slip stitch

sc-single crochet

dc-double crochet

BO-bobble (dc4tog all in indicated stitch)

Special Stitches:

Lemon Peel Stitch-alternating sc’s and dc’s in the same row and placing dc’s in sc’s and sc’s in dc’s in subsequent rows.

Click HERE to see my blog post on how to crochet the Lemon Peel Stitch as well as a video tutorial.

Pattern

Foundation: with color A, ch 132

R1 (RS) sc in 2nd ch and each st across (131)

R2 (WS) *1sc, BO* 65x, 1sc in last stitch, ch 1, turn (131)

R3 131sc, ch 1, turn

R4-15 repeat R2-3, ch 1, turn

R16 *1sc, BO* 7x, switch to color B (before finishing last BO), *sc, dc* 52x, sc next st, switch to color A, *BO, 1sc* 7x, ch 1, turn

R17 14sc, switch to color B, *dc in sc, sc in dc* 52x, dc next sc, switch to color A, 14sc, ch 1, turn

R18 repeat R16-17 until you have a total of 71 rows of bobbles (64 rows of bobbles after you start the body), ch 1, turn

R19 repeat R17, ch 1, turn (last row of body and color B, break yarn)

R20 131sc with color A, ch 1, turn

R21 1sc, *BO, 1sc* across, ch 1, turn

R22-33 repeat R20-21

R34 131sc, ch 1, do not break yarn

Border row: 1sc in each stitch across and each row down all the way around your work placing 3sc in each corner, join with a sl st to the first sc of the border row

Finish off and weave in ends!

All of my kids love everything I make and Lucy helped me model and photograph this particular one so below is a cute snap of her helping me!

If you make something inspired by my blog I would love to see pictures! Tag me in your photos and use #LeCielBleuBlanket and #Yarnique.

Happy making friend!