Corner to Corner | Crochet Stitches and Butterfly Kisses

Whew! I knew that I wanted to make a blanket for my son’s 16th, since I made a blanket for my daughter’s 16th. It’s been a creative challenge for me in many ways.

First finding a subject that spoke to who he is, what his interests are; took some time. He likes superheroes, their villains and ‘antiheroes’ but he found the patterns too ‘baby-ish’ He enjoys sports but again, none of the designs seemed right. At last, he decided that Jack Skellington would be a good theme. When I found a pattern it was a friendship bracelet design.

I toyed with a few ideas on how to turn the pattern into a bed sized blanket for a teenaged boy. At first, I thought I’d make a bunch of 2″ squares but the thought of sewing that many squares together was a bit overwhelming. I then sat down and figured out how many double crochet stitches across / down would be needed so I could just go row by row (like a traditional blanket.)

I even had a start on the traditional style blanket before the holidays. However, I found some C2C blankets by RepeatAfterMe.com and I had my “ah-HA” moment. I watched a few videos, in particular, the how to make a Corner to Corner scarf by Crochet Crowd, were very helpful.

I printed the pixel pattern and added squares along the edges to make the pattern wide enough for a blanket. {It’s more of a long lap blanket.} The pattern I found didn’t have squares that are regular graph paper size so I had to draw the squares. In the Crochet Crowd’s video, he talks about a website that will help you create patterns but that wouldn’t work for this design so….

Once this was done I could count the number of each colour squares in each diagonal row. I also noted up and down and where I would only be growing one side to create a rectangle vs the traditional C2C square.

I’m finally enjoying the journey for this blanket and feeling the pressure. I have just over a month to finish it before my not-so-little-man turns 16. I hope I’m as proud of this blanket as I am of him!

C2C Jack Skellington – in progress by Crochet Stitches and Butterfly Kisses

EDIT: Directions for the blanket can be found here.

I have to weave those ends every few rows because it looks so messy and confusing!

Like slipping into a warm bubbly bath and that “ahhhhh” feeling. I found inspiration for my son’s birthday blanket.

I had previously thought I’d do it row by row and even spent the time to figure out how many stitches for each row to make the pattern. While I’m proud of all the work I put in to figure this out… the project itself seemed so big.

While flipping through Pinterest I decided to look at some of the videos for the C2C / Corner to Corner blankets. And VOILA I found some inspiration.

I think the project size and the thought that the end product would look “ok” not ‘wow’ like my daughters (Doctor Who / birthday blanket) feed my procrastination.