Sunshine on a Cloudy Day C2C “Calming Blanket” Free Crochet Afghan Pattern!

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THIS CROCHET AFGHAN WEIGHS OVER SIX POUNDS!

WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?!?

Maybe you’ve heard of weighted blankets. It is an afghan/quilt/blanket that is purposefully created heavy (rule of thumb is 10% of the user’s body weight generally) and is used to help a person, who may suffer with anxiety or other challenges. Buying a weighted blanket can help anxiety providing comfort when needed. The weight of the blanket helps someone feel calm and relaxed, helping to manage their anxiety or challenge. With anxiety in general on the rise having the right anxiety relief has never been more important. This is why weights blankets are becoming increasingly popular. This can be considered a weighted blanket for someone up to 60 (plus a little) pounds; and though he is much larger, even my 6’1″ husband loves it! Wanna get super wild and weighty? Make TWO identical ones and crochet them together for an over 12 pounds blanket!

I can assure you my children, husband, and myself, find the heaviness of it to be EXTREMELY calming! Therefore, I’ve decided to call this a “Calming Blanket” No promises or guarantees, but I do hope if brings you joy as it has brought my family!

So, why is this simple C2C noteworthy?

  • It is designed to use just one ball of each color.
  • It only uses complete rows, no mid-row color changes.
  • It uses as much of each ball as possible, while keeping full rows only. (except for 2 of the colors which I dipped into for other projects, lol!)
  • Want to DOUBLE THE WEIGHT? Make two identical and crochet them together back to back. How amazing would that be!

Have you never done C2C? No worries, I’ve created a clear to the point video for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vPIqWHdyo

The Pattern:

Materials:

  • (1) ball each Bernat Blanket Brights yarn in Pixie Pink, Race Car Red, Carrot Orange, School Bus Yellow, and Go Go Green, Busy Blue, Royal Blue, and Pow Purple
  • (1) ball each Bernat Blanket yarn in Pale Gray, and White

This is a total of 2200 yards of super bulky weight yarn. These are the jumbo balls at 220 yards each.

(For similar, but not exact results: Blanket yarn is a super bulky 6 yarn. You can hold 3 strands of worsted weight yarn such as Red Heart Super Saver together to sub making sure to triple the yardage of the Bernat Blanket requirements!)

  • Size L (8.0mm) crochet hook
  • tapestry needle for weaving ends, scissors, tape measure, 4 stitch markers

Finished Size: Approx 60″ x 60″

Gauge: Each block of C2C should be just under 1 1/2″ square. The 1st four rows will measure 4″ along the straight side edge.

Instructions:

If you’ve not done C2C, be sure to watch this video I have created. It is a concise yet thorough tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vPIqWHdyo

Working C2C, here is the row count for the afghan. You will need to understand C2C as this is not a completely written chain for chain pattern. It is a SUPER easy process, watch the video and it will all make sense!

Increase Rows:

Rows 1-9: Work in yellow, at the end of row 9 cut yarn. All rows up until row 42 are worked with increasing in the C2C method, this is also shown in the video.

Rows 10-18: Join gray with a sl st in the chain space of the last yellow block worked to start. Work these rows in gray, at the end of row 18 cut yarn.

Row 19-23: Join pink with a sl st in the chain space of the last gray block worked to start. Work these rows in pink, at the end of row 23 cut yarn.

Rows 24-32: Join red with a sl st in the chain space of the last pink block worked to start. Work these rows in red, at the end of row 32 cut yarn.

Rows 33-39: Join orange with a sl st in the chain space of the last red block worked to start. Work these rows in orange, at the end of row 39 cut yarn.

Rows 40-43: Join yellow with a sl st in the chain space of the last orange block worked to start. Work these rows in yellow, row 43 is your LAST INCREASE ROW. You are at the mid-point of the afghan now. HALF WAY DONE!

Decrease Rows:

Refer to the video if needed, all remaining rows are worked as a decrease row

Rows 44-50: Join green with a sl st in the chain space of the last yellow block worked to start. Work these rows in green, at the end of row 50 cut yarn.

Rows 51-57: Join light blue with a sl st in the chain space of the last green block worked to start. Work these rows in light blue, at the end of row 57 cut yarn.

Rows 58-63: Join dark blue with a sl st in the chain space of the last light blue block worked to start. Work these rows in dark blue, at the end of row 63 cut yarn.

Rows 64-85: Join purple with a sl st in the chain space of the last dark blue block worked to start. Work these rows in purple, at the end of row 85 cut yarn.

Cloud Edge:

Join the white yarn in any corner of the piece around. There is no right side/wrong side of a c2c really, so choose which side you like to start.

As you work the edge, you will notice the edges, as the c2c blocks are made, have the end of a dc on one row and the actual tops of stitches on the nxt. You want to work 3 sc in the side of each block along the edges. For the blocks that are sides of the dc, you will want to grab a strand only of the stitch as opposed to completely encircling the stitch to edge. This keeps gaps from forming as you edge.

Round 1: ch 1, work 2 sc in the same corner space, work 3 sc in the side of each block evenly spaced down the afghan. Continue around in the same manner, working 3 sc in the side of each block and 3 sc in each corner space, until you are back at the 1st sc made, join with a sl st to the 1st sc made once completely around. Mark the 2nd sc of each 3sc corner as you work with a stitch marker.

Round 2: ch 1 (does not count as a st), you should be in the center sc of the 1st 3sc corner made, work 2 hdc in this stitch to create the 1st part of the new corner of round 2, hdc in each stitch down the side until the marked 2nd sc of the nxt corner is reached, work 3 hdc in the marked corner st. Continue around in the same manner, working 1 hdc in each sr around and 3 hdc in each marked corner st, until you are back to the 1st corner worked, make one more hdc in the corner sp and sl st to the 1st hdc made. Mark the 2nd hdc of each 3 hdc corner made with a stitch marker again.

Round 3: ch 1 (does not count as a st), make 4 hdc in the same st as the ch-1, sl st in the next 2 sts, *4 hdc in the nxt st, sl st in the nxt 2 sts, repeat from * until you reach the 1st marked hdc in the nxt corner, work 4 hdc in the marked stitch. Repeat in the same manner around, repeating from * until you have worked around the afghan, sl st to the 1st hdc made on the 1st corner worked.

In essence for every 3 hdc made of the round two, you will have “sl st, 4 hdc, sl st” to create a slightly ruffled cloud edge.

Surface Crochet the Sun Rays:

Using the yellow yarn, surface crochet a ray of 9 sl st each from the tip of each yellow block on row 9. If you are unsure how to surface crochet, here is a Youtbe video (not my own) to show you. This is the video I used to teach myself and from a fave, Repeat Crafter Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmXuTlnnzMQ

Weave in all ends, and enjoy!

Much Love and Yarn,

Stephanie

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36 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you, for sharing this pattern for free, Stephanie! It is so cute and colorful. My son is autistic and he loves his blankets literally to death, so I can’t wait to start this one. I know he’ll really love it.

  2. I am in love with this blanket! I am almost finished with the green and I can’t wait to give it to my Autistic 5 year old!

    I also would like to make a weighted blanket for my 2 year old autistic who also has night terrors. Would halving this pattern (only doing half of each color) keep the correct dimension ratio? 3 pounds would be perfect for her.

    • I’m wondering if instead of making it smaller, you could perhaps maybe make it same size buyt in worsted yarn and drop hook size to a G, which would result in both a smaller and probably about 3lb afghan!

  3. I fell in love with this blanket whe I saw the pattern, think using a lighter yarn and smaller hook would make such a difference finished it in 4 days and it is only 30 by 30 so I can’t bare to take it all apart so am going to add alot a lot of clouds around it to make it bigger. I’ll know on the next one and just add more rows of each colors. Thanks for the pattern.

    • So welcome and yes, I would do the clouds or even a block stitch border to grow it! If you want to do a C2C in the future that calls for the super bulky, try double or triple stranding your worsted weight yarn!

  4. This is my first C2C crochet; your video was very helpful and I completed the first 9 rows very quickly. Now I’m ready to switch to gray yarn, but I’m confused about where to slip stitch. I tried googling how to change color in C2C but all the info I found was about changing in the middle of a row, not the end.

    Your pattern states that I should slip stitch into the chain space, but since I’m increasing, I feel like I should slip stitch where I left off, at the top of my last double crochet, and then chain 5. Am I missing something? Maybe it will all become clear if I just follow your directions? ?

    • hi! I am sorry if my reply is finding you late! I like to change colors always at the yarn over/pull through just PRIOR to where the new color will be used. If you would like to send me a photo through my Facebook page messenger I would be happy to help more if you need a visual! http://www.facebook.com/crochetverse

  5. I’m considering making this blanket a weighted one — making two blankets and attaching them together to create a heavier one. Has anyone actually tried this? What would be the best method to stitch them together? Plus if I wanted to make a smaller blanket, how do I adjust to keep the added weight? I’m trying to determine if I can crochet a weighted blanket without having to add those beads or rice.

    • This is pretty heavy one thickness if you use the blanket yarn. I think two could most definitely be crocheted together to make it extra heavy. I think you would need to secure it throughout the main section in some places so it remained together as well. The rule of thumb is 10% of body weight for the weighted blankets, so keep that in mind when doing your piece. I do not think I would make it smaller in size, it is throw size and pretty common sized, smaller might be too small even for an average child.

  6. Hi Sue I am just putting on the boarder on a double sided one… I needed it to be at least 10 pounds. ( Dr said 10% of body weight)… anyway.. I double yarned AND double sided. I wish I could share a pic. It is 11.2 pounds currently without the boarder! my wrists are getting sore

  7. What adds weight to the blanket? Surely it isn’t so large as to use 10 lbs of yarn? That would be huge!

    • The blanket weighs 6lbs and yes it is entirely yarn! The blanket yarn is thick and dense so while fairly heavy it is not an unreasonable size at all.

  8. Hi
    I want to make this but I want it smaller and not weighted. Any suggestions on yarn weight and hook size ? Thank you ?

  9. Stephanie, I just adore this blanket. I am getting ready to start two, one for each of my grandchildren!!!! Thank so much for sharing this pattern!!!!!! Oh, and I plan to make one for myself, as well. Got to test it for myself, you know…. 🙂

  10. Thank you for sharing this beautiful and helpful pattern. What is the best way to launder it? It’s so pretty but concerned about maintaining it when it becomes the official blankie of choice in little hands.

    • I will say that this blanket is one of the most used in my house and launders and wears well. The only thing I recommend is knotting your end tails and making them extra long and weave in extra because sometimes blanket yarn ends pop out more than other yarns.

  11. I cannt find the orange anywhere! Suggest a substitution please?…. This yarn is the hardest to find!

    • Have you tried lovecrafts.com? They usually carry all the colors. If not maybe skip that and do white?

  12. I used an I hook with worsted yarn, added two rows to every color, until purple when I had to add the remainder to finish the square. I don’t crochet too tight and I ended up being about 4 Ft x 4 ft with the border. I hope that helps someone trying to determine the size it will turn out by using worsted yarn.

    • Hello, in order to continue to offer the patterns free of charge, they are only available on the site. Some print screenshots if their internet is not good for that.

  13. I’ve completed the blanket and its not a perfect square. Do u suggest blocking? It’s beautiful but I am beat after weaving all of those tails! ?

  14. The pattern states that an individual stitch square should be 1.5 inches, but four rows is four inches. If four rows along the straight edge only equals four inches, and the straight edges are only 43 rows long, how then does the blanket measure 60×60?

    If each row should be 1.5 inches, then four rows would be 6 inches instead of four.
    Is four rows supposed to equal 4 or 6 inches?

    • Due to the leaning nature of crochet, sometimes the squares don’t measure precisely the same H x W. The measurements given are based on the final blanket and it’s finished size based on these parameters and conditions of crochet 🙂

  15. I do not want to use the pink color, should I just increase the gray, since I do not think you need all the gray?

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