Left Hand Waffle Weave Stitch Baby Blanket Free Pattern Workshop ~ Easy Baby Gift Blanket Crochet

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today we are making this waffle weave baby blanket. This, I'm going to show you how to do the waffle weave stitch because this is just a basic, gigantic, rectangle, square sized baby blanket. So it's just having this stitch pattern work over and over, but I'll give you the pattern so that if you want to make the baby blanket you can. Or I'll also tell you how you can adjust the size for this. Super simple. Um, the yarn that I'm using is a little bit thicker than this yarn. This is a Bades Bork. The yarn I'm using is more worsted, so you'll see kind of a difference in the texture. If you're going to use a worsted weight yarn, go up in hook size. So you'll see that this yarn that I have here, I used a six millimeter USJ hook. You'll see the difference in the texture. This is very drapey, very soft. I'm using large hooks, larger than I normally would for this yarn because of the way this stitch is made. We want lots of loops. We want it to be drapey and not super dense. Either way, it's very lofty, kind of a double thickness, which you'll see when we work it, how it becomes double thickness. So it's super warm. This is a great blanket, not just for a baby, but for anybody. So you can definitely make this for any size, any person, any color. I'm going to show you how to do the edging and how to get gauge and all that good stuff. So go ahead and grab your yarn if you're going to use worsted. I would probably recommend a K or an L hook of the project to otherwise use the sport weight with the J. And we'll get started. Alright, to get started with your blanket, you're just going to put a slip knot on your hook. So the easiest way I like to do it. For the actual baby blanket pattern, you're going to chain 101 chains. Okay, let me see if I can make it. What I'm going to do, just what you can do, is if you want to make this blanket even bigger, just keep chaining, so you can kind of get an estimate of what your chains are, it shouldn't shrink too much in the widthways, or make a swatch how wide you want your project, so if you're making a size bed, and you need 72 inches maybe, stitches per inch, and 72 times 4. So, use a stitch marker if you're going to do that, so, well, it doesn't really matter if you're off a few chains because it's not specific to the actual amount of chains to make the waffle weave, so don't worry if it's not exact, just make as close as you can get without having to, you know, really take the time to count every single one of them and make sure you have the perfect amount, but once you get to 101 or whatever stitches you need, we're just going to stop. So once you get to the 100 stitches, 101 stitches, or whatever stitches you're going to have a loop, why do you want this? You can even start as a washcloth. You're going to start row 1, which is really simple. You're just going to chain. So stick with just this back loop because you're going to use one of the other loops to try not to scarf and shawl together. A shawl pin that I'll be giving away when it's in a package, of course. Website will probably post that tomorrow. Oh, so what? So, we worked into the back loop. What's left in the front is this front loop. So we have these coming down all around. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to stick a pin through that front loop so when I flip, you can see what's going on. So if you have a stitch marker or a pin or anything, this is a good way. I'll actually put it over here so that you can see the very first stitch. I'm going to put it through that very first loop, flip this around, because what we're going to be doing is working into our back loop. You can see the pin is coming out right here. This would also be if I go one over, because usually that first stitch is kind of small and a little difficult to take it in the second stitch. It might be a little easier. Here is the back loop is right above it. This, or the bottom bump, sorry, not the back loop. The bottom bump is right above it, and that's what we're going to do. You can also look at the back side of your single crochet. It kind of looks like two legs with a mushroom top, so the legs are sitting like this, and they're sitting right on top of your bottom bump. So this is what we need to recognize. So now, we are going to insert our hook into this bottom bump, but we're also going to insert it into the front loop of your stitches, so this is another loop that you need to recognize. So if you're just looking at this, it's that one right on top facing you, you want to get more down and dirty, look sideways, you'll see your V's at the tops of your stitches, it's going to be the one on the right that we're going to go into also. Also, the way we're going to do that. We're going to go, coming down here to this bottom bump, from the bottom to the top, straight up through that front loop of my stitch. You can see that I'm right in between the V. This is going to create that waffle weave texture, so I can just lay my yarn over my hook, turn my hook. That way is kind of the easiest way to get through these stitches, because whenever you have a V, if you go towards the center of that V, it's the easiest to get through. towards your next stitch. Bringing it up to the top of your stitch, because you could go ahead and single crochet right there, but you're going to have a really scrunched, tiny stitch. So it's sitting on top of your work. Yarn over and pull the bottom bump down here. So if you need to, put some stitch markers in those front loops, because those are kind of easy to see from the front here. Finding that bottom bump. Straight up to the loop right on from row one with your hook. So you see now why we're using kind of a bigger hook for the yarn. Because if this was like an H hook or a 5mm, my stitches would be really tight and it would be a lot more difficult to get my hook through. Using a larger hook gives you more room so that you can get through these nice and easy. Bottom bump again. That foundation chain can be a little bit difficult to get through. I like it to be a little bit more tighter than looser so that it looks a little bit better. So if you don't want to put in edging, you don't have to if you want the edging. So you're going to do this all the way through. Stitches, can you skip that first? chain so you should have 100 stitches now or whatever size you're gonna make it. I'll go for row three so you can see how you're gonna work that because you don't have a foundation chain foundation that foundation chain to work into anymore so I'll show you how to do that right after you finish this row. The end of my first row or second row technically but kind of the first row of waffle weave and I wanted to make sure that you guys know how to work into this last stitch because it looks strange and it's because of that turning chain so it's You're just working into the last stitch that actually looks like a stitch, so if you turn your hook sideways, you have worked in right here, and then you have this last one here. The top of your stitch almost looks like it wasn't worked into, the second to last one, but you can see that one piece of yarn going across. We have over here is our turning chain, so it's kind of just like a little nub, so we ignore the nub and just work into that last stitch. There's two rows, but it almost looks like just one row because of how we worked that stitch where it came. The first row didn't create a whole lot of height, so you can see that this could take quite a while, so if you want to just try it out on a washcloth first to make sure you like doing this stitch. But it's a great kind of mindless stitch where you can just keep watching some TV. So now we are ready for row three. Alright, so for row three when we turn, do the same stuff that we just did. We have the lines across the bottom, and your front loop on top. And that's basically what you're going to be working into, but just so you understand the mechanics of it. What that line is, remember this down here was our, where we worked into the foundation chain and then we came up and we worked through the front loop of the single crochet, so if I turn it, what you're seeing here is the back loop of that single crochet, see how it's been worked into down here, so what you see is the rest of the row 1 loops, that we're now working into with our row two front loops so we're kind of working into both loops but at different rows so each row is going to have the current front loop of um the pre the front loop of the just row you just made and the back loop of the row before that So hopefully that makes some sense. Otherwise, just look straight at your project and look for the two most visible loops that you have. So again, I chain one, then I go up through there, through that back loop, or just the loop that you see at the bottom, and then through the front loop at the top. Yarn over, you both pull it up, pulling it up, starting to see the texture of the waffle weave. So these get a lot easier to work into as you go. The foundation chain is usually the hardest to do. Then as I work that, so you can start to see those little holes of the waffle, I turn it over, you can see I have that back loop that I didn't work into, and that's going to be the next one I'm going to use. Because now we have two, but we want to use the closest. So I'll finish this row, and then we'll do row four together also, so you can see where you're putting your hook. Okay, last stitch of the row. It's a little crunched and funky looking, but we still have those two lines, so make sure that you're doing that last stitch, kind of difficult to count, 100 stitches to make sure that you've got them all after every single row. You can see that they should line up pretty well. You should have just kind of a little nub here from the turning chain. And then you've worked into that stitch, so usually at the beginning of the row or the end of the row is where you end up losing stitches if you're brand new, so you just want to kind of watch those two places if you don't want to actually sit there and count. And also if you need counter stitches, you can either count the back side, it's kind of easier than the front side, or just count the tops, count the Vs, so you want to make sure that you have a hundred, for sure you can count each time, but... Just making sure you work into that last stitch should help you. So now you can see that we have two line dashes, but you're only going to work under the closest dash to you. I say dashes because they look like little dashes coming across. So we don't touch the bottom row now because that one is complete. We have our little holes for it in the front, our little waffle weave, and now we're working the waffle weave into the next one. So again, chain one. Come up, so make sure that you're going into the right stitch, so you can see you have this little thing right here. That's part of the turning chain. You want the big dash. Make sure you go into the right dash, that you don't create a stitch, because if you go into both of those, you won't create a stitch. And then start doing your single crochets again. Basically what we do for the entire pattern, create same thing over and over. The baby blanket, I went for 200 rows, so if you like the size measurement that you see in the pattern, that's what you're going to want to go for, 200 rows. If you're making this for a special size, so like a queen size bed, you're going to want to measure the bed, and then you can just measure this as you go if you don't want to pay attention to your rows. It's probably easier than actually figuring out how many rows you need when you re-gauge, which I'll just show you how to re-gauge in a little bit once I get some more height to this. That would probably be a lot easier because counting the rows on this might not be too fun. It's not super hard, but it's kind of like two rows for each, between each dash. It'd probably be a lot easier just to measure it, so you can do that. Whatever size you want to make. As you can see on this side, we have our loop that we're going to be working into next. We have our waffle down here. Once we work into this loop, we're going to have another waffle right above it. Here we have our waffle forming. So we have kind of our first set of waffles on each side. And as we go, they are going more... It's really... It's actually quite soft. It doesn't feel... It doesn't feel... Very stiff, like you would think it would because of how doubled up it is, but it's very lofty and it catches a lot of air, so it keeps you really warm. It would be a really good blanket for anybody, not just a baby. I'm going to go and do all the way to the, so this is about a square, and then I'm going to show you how to do the gauge, and just in case you want the same exact size blanket, or you just keep going to the size that you want, and then we'll come back and do... The edging. So the edging is really simple but I'll show you just in case you need it. All right I'm going to show you how to get gauge or check gauge on your blanket. So I'm using the actual baby blanket because opposed to the worst of weight that I use for the sample. That's um this is going to be closer this is going to be what the gauge on your pattern is. So if you're doing the baby blanket that's the gauge that you want to get. If you want the exact same size. Otherwise, just go ahead and do it and you'll get close enough with using the hook that's recommended. But if you are a stickler for the exact same size, this is how you check it. So what you do is you take your gauge checker or a measuring tape, whatever you have on hand. I like the Susan Bates Knit Check because it's metal so it doesn't bend and it has a little window cut out. For my gauge. So I'm looking at these V's, these little guys here, the single crochets. So what I want to do, you can see kind of this line coming down on each one, just line up right against that. Line it up, make sure your project is laying flat and loose, and then count those little V's. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and a half. So you can see just half of that V sticking out there. So seven and a half stitches for two inches. That'd be 15 stitches for 4 inches. And then I'm going to work my way up. So each of these, this V between this V, between the two Vs, is two rows. Because remember we did that waffle stitch that kind of scrunched them down. It took part of a row before and part of a row even the one before the before. So it's using up a lot of space. So, each one of these little V's is going to count as two rows, so I can say I have 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and then I have kind of a half right here. I'm saying 2 because I have this V and then I have this space before, so that's counting as 2, 10, 12. Looks like that V right there. It's not quite a total V. A little bit off but I'm going to go for 13. I'm going to say 13 is close because this isn't detrimental to get the exact gauge. It's not going to mess up the fit because you don't wear it. So I'm going to put 13 for the gauge, but now you know how to actually count it, what it means. Let's get back to the project. I'm going to show you how to do the final row so you don't have the weird line that you're probably going, like, how am I supposed to get rid of this line at the end? Let me show you that now. Okay so I finished this last row. I'm pretty close to a square. I just kind of wanted to make a square. I'm folding it to the corner to the left so that probably this next row should cover that. And you've probably been working going what am I going to do with this? If I'm not working in every time I make a row I'm going to have this on the other side. So now we're going to do the finishing row. So this is going to be the last row of your project before the edging so that you can get rid of this line to make or you won't create the line on this side when you're making the spiral just like normal. We're going to chain one. Okay so we're going to chain one then we're going to start everything like normal. We're going to go through That loop. But instead of catching just the front loop this time, we're going to catch both loops. So I'm going to go under both loops at the top. And what that does, because if I went under just the front loop, we would create that back loop ridge again. But if I go under both, I have no ridge. So make sure this is the last row that you do, because you won't have anything to create the waffle stitch in after this. Again, bottom. Pro at getting through the front loop now. A little bit difficult to do, but you get used to it. So now, when I turn it over, I have no ridge. Really different because it doesn't have the square of the waffle weave, but because it's only one row and it's near the end, it should not show up too badly. You'll lose it, you know, the first time you go to use your blanket. So I'm going to finish this row and then we are going to do the very easy edging for this blanket. I try to keep it simple because this is a very kind of simple utilitarian stitch. So I kind of end the edging the same way. So let me show you how to do that in just a second. It would definitely be kind of the right side. It goes all the way around. You can see this last row right there just is slightly different. It's not, like, super different to where you can really notice it, so if you want to pick, like, a wrong right side, I would pick the side that you just finished and fastened off as the beginning for your edging. We have our yarn and the slipknot on our hook, where I end it over here. You can start wherever you want, it's totally personal. Standing single crochet, that way I don't have a slipknot. So when you see the pattern, it'll say, SC evenly around entire blanket. And then SC three times in each corner to make a turn. So what that means is when you get to the very last stitch that you're at, you're going to put three single crochets in it. I'll start it here so you can see this. Three single crochets, and that's going to create an automatic turn. I also want to start here so you can see the sides, because it's easy to work in the front and bottom because it has loops that are already predetermined for you to work into. When you get to the sides, it's not so simple. You have to kind of figure out where you want to put your hook. So that your stitches are even and they look nice and you're not taking up too much of your side edge here. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to go for these little V's here. I'm going to see how much space this gives me when I single crochet into them. Because remember this was kind of scrunched down so it's not like I can fit two whole stitches in here. It's a little bit different size. So I'm going to go for each of these V's that I see that are laying sideways and see how that spaces out for me. You see I'm skipping this thing right here and I'm going to this next V. Sometimes this will be too far apart, sometimes it'll be too close together, so kind of do five of them. I try to pick something that looks the same that I can work into so that it looks nice. So you can see that I'm getting a good line. So what you do is you kind of lay it out. See if it's puckering like this when you're working it and then you have too many stitches and too many single crochets. If it's pulling apart like this and your blanket's real pulled apart, you have them spaced too far apart. But if you lay it flat and the stitches all kind of lay nice and flat, then you know you're pretty good. So I think that's a good spot for me to go. It's all kind of trial and error when you start working these side stitches. I lost my rhythm. If you have problems with the sides, take your time on the sides so that it looks nice. Because if you really want to do it really fast, it'll end up looking kind of strange and either stretched out or too many stitches. Take your time on the sides. The ends are very simple, but I'm going to go ahead and speed up so we can get there. So these are going to be a little cockeyed. over here to this corner again we're gonna do three stitches right into the corner so you can either go right here or right in that very first loop either way I'm gonna go kind of like right there's no wrong or right way to do this the wrong way would be too many stitches or too less but as in where you place your hook is up to you what you like the look you wanted to go even like further Further, like all the way down here, and create a really fat edge. This is that beginning foundation row, so it's a little strange looking. You can just go for this one loop that we actually didn't work into, which was the front loop. So we did not work into the front loop on the foundation chain, so you can just go into that if you want. It creates a little bit of a gap, but it should lay flat once you're done. It creates kind of a big hole, but as it lays flat, it's fine. So whatever you want. One thing, you're just gonna go all the way around. For the round after. So you're going to join and then single crochet, so this will be a lot easier because you can just single crochet into the ones you went into. And then here at the corner, you're now, because you have three stitches in the corner, you're going to do three in that middle stitch. So I'm going to join with a slip stitch in the very first single crochet. If you joined your round with a slip stitch and then did the chain one, still join it at the first single crochet, just makes it look nicer. Then for the next round, I'm going to chain one. And then I'm going to single crochet in that same stitch. So this is the first of the three of the single crocheting in that very first stitch. Then I'm going to do three in the middle here. Three to create another turn, we are not going to get around the corner, and then again I just single crochet and all these single crochets. This is a lot easier to do because you can see them. So on this side, I tried to kind of get close to the edge. I'm going to show you the difference that I did here. Kind of close to the edge so it kind of looked neat the best I could. This side, I went straight into the first waffle stitch. So I did one in every single waffle stitch so you can kind of see the difference. Maybe what you might like one better than the other is that for your edging. So you can either try going in the waffle stitch or go right along the edge depending on what you like the look of. So you're going to go around again and do those three in each corner and join up and then your blanket's going to be complete. That is the waffle stitch. If you guys have any questions, leave them below and thank you.