I’ve had this berry blue color of Caron Simply Soft in my yarn stash for a while and I’m glad it’s finally time to start making some more spring flavored blankets. I decided to challenge myself to learn the Mixed Cluster Stitch for this blanket, which was a little tricky to figure out at first, but I really wanted my stripes to have the straight lines that this stitch provides, so I kept practicing until it made sense and even watched my mom’s video tutorial from another blanket she made using this stitch.
My mom and I like to joke that she’s never really taught me to crochet in person – most of what I’ve learned has been from her crochet videos. Which is mostly true – she taught me how to Tunisian crochet several years ago and then I think I had one lesson in person where she taught me the moss stitch, but after that I just started watching her videos and reading her patterns as I was helping her with this blog.
My sisters and I like to tease my mom sometimes that if I ask her a crochet question in person, she’ll just kind of give me a vague answer and say something like, “you just figure it out,” but when she’s filming on video she’s very calm and tries to explain everything, which is why I always watch her videos before calling her to ask for help :).
But I really admire her willingness to record videos – one of the first things we learned after starting Daisy Farm Crafts was that the toughest crowd definitely lives on YouTube and that there are lots of people who are not afraid to let you know if your video didn’t quite measure up to their standards. But I’m grateful my mom keeps doing her best to share videos anyway, because I probably would not know how to crochet without them! Neither my mom or I are professional crocheters, but we try to share the details for the projects that we are making as best we can and we are always trying to improve.
Now, in case you are a beginner crocheter like me, my mom has made an updated video for the Mixed Cluster Stitch that you can watch below (or you can click here to watch on YouTube) and I hope you find it as helpful as I did!
Materials
Caron Simply Soft (100% acrylic, 170 g/6 oz, 288 m/315 yds)
2 skeins Berry Blue, 1 skein White
Size H/5.00mm hook, tapestry needle, scissors
Size
Finished size 28 in x 38 in
Stitches
Single Crochet (SC): Insert your hook, yarn over (YO) and pull up a loop, YO and pull through two loops on hook.
Double Crochet (DC): YO, insert your hook, YO and pull up a loop, YO and pull through two loops, YO and pull through remaining two loops.
Mixed Cluster (MC): explained in pattern below
Pattern
Chain 102 with Blue (or any multiple of 3).
Row 1: Starting in the second chain from the hook, SC in each chain across the row. (101 SC) CH 2 and turn.
Row 2: In the first stitch yarn over *(YO) and insert your hook, YO and pull through, YO and pull through only 2 loops. YO and skip (SK) the next stitch. In the next stitch, insert your hook, YO and pull through, YO and pull through 1 loop. YO, insert your hook into the same stitch, YO and pull through, YO and pull through 1 loop. YO and pull through all 6 loops on your hook. CH 1. Mixed Cluster completed (MC). In the same space that you ended repeat from * and work MC across to the end of the row. On the last MC, in the last stitch of the row, omit the CH 1 to close up the MC and work a DC, inserting your hook into the same space as the last MC. CH 1 and turn.
Row 3: SC in the first stitch from the hook and in the top of each stitch across, ending the last stitch in the top of the turning chain (101 SC). CH 2 and turn.
Repeat rows 2 and 3 for the remainder of the blanket.
For this blanket, I did 14 rows of blue (so 7 MC rows with 7 SC rows in between) and then I alternated white and blue for 58 rows before ending with 14 rows of just blue again.
When switching colors, you’ll want to pull through with the new color at the end of the MC row, on the last two loops of your DC. Then you’ll do a row of SC in the new color, then one MC row in the new color and then switch back to the other color at the end of the MC row.
Just to make sure that’s clear, after you finish your blue section at the beginning, you should end on a MC row and pull through with white at the end of the row. Then you should work one row of SC in white, then one MC row in white, then pull through with blue at the end of the MC row. Then work one row of SC in blue, then one MC row in blue, before switching back to white again.
When I finished my blanket, I wove in all the ends, then added a simple SC border. To do that, pull up a loop in any corner and chain 1, then SC into each stitch around the blanket, working 3 SCs into each corner. When you reach the corner you started with, work 3 SCs and slip stitch into the starting Ch 1. After I adding the border, I tied on some simple tassels.
Tassels
For this blanket I tied on some tassels in the same way I have for several of my other blankets, but this time I decided to braid them for a different kind of fringe. Here’s how to make them:
First, take some yarn and wrap it around a notebook or anything square. For my braided tassels I used a book that was about 8 inches in length. After you wrap the yarn, use some scissors to cut it in half so that all the strands are equal. So for this blanket my strands were all about 16 in. long.
Then, take 3 pieces of yarn and line them up evenly and fold them in half. Then use your fingers or a crochet hook to insert the loop you just made into a chain space on the end of your blanket. When you pull it through, you want the loop to be facing away from the blanket, not towards it. Here’s a picture from a different blanket I made to show you what I mean:
Pull the straight ends of the yarn through the loop and pull it tight to make a knot. Then you can either leave them as regular tassels, or you can braid them and tie a knot at the end of the braid to keep it together. I did 9 braids for each tassel before I tied it off and then I trimmed the ends so they were all about the same length.
Thank you so much for coming to read this pattern, I hope you enjoy learning this stitch and making this blanket. When you’ve finished your project, please come share a picture with us on Facebook or Instagram using #daisyfarmcrafts, we’d love to see and share your work!
xo, Hannah
Click here or on image below for printable pattern
