Do you adore the color blocking trend in home décor? Do you love to crochet? And are you in need of one or more new baby blankets — perhaps to give as a baby shower gift, or to decorate the nursery of a new arrival in your family or your circle of friends?
Would you appreciate having a whole bunch of easy, beginner-friendly crochet baby blanket patterns to work on? And would you prefer for your pattern book to feature unisex designs?
If you answered “yes” to more than one of these questions, Color-Block Baby Blankets is a crochet pattern book you’re going to want to get your hands on.
What You Need to Know About This Crochet Pattern Book:
Author: Kristi Simpson
Publisher: Leisure Arts
Copyright Date: 2017
ISBN 13: 978-1-4647-6650-3
Book Formats:
This book is available in the following format(s):
- Softcover With Stapled Binding (available at numerous retailers including Amazon and many others)
Number of Pages: 24
Skill Level: Beginner; this book is an ideal starting point for someone who has never crocheted before and is picking up a crochet hook for the first time. The book is also an excellent choice for experienced crafters who enjoy quick and easy projects.
Crochet Baby Blanket Patterns Included in This Book:
1. Nine-Color Combo Crochet Baby Blanket
This is a beginner-level crochet pattern that’s ideal for someone who has never crocheted before. This is one of the easiest patterns in the book.
2. Colorful Subway Crochet Baby Blanket
Subway tile is a top home décor trend right now, and this colorful blanket looks as if it has been inspired by that trend.
3. Converging Stripes Crochet Baby Blanket
I think all the blankets in this book are great, but this one is my favorite out of them all. It’s super creative and colorful, and it looks like an engaging pattern to work on. It also looks to me like it would be the most challenging of them all, although it has a skill level rating of easy+ (which really is pretty simple in the scheme of things).
You can make this striking baby blanket using the corner-to-corner crochet technique. If you aren’t already familiar with the technique, the instructions included in this pattern are fairly clear and helpful at explaining it. However, many crocheters find the technique a little tricky and not all that intuitive. If you find yourself struggling to learn it, this video class could help you understand how to do it.
This is the only pattern in the book that I wouldn’t recommend as a first crochet project for beginners. If you’re a total beginner to crocheting, I suggest working any of the other patterns first before you attempt this one. After you’ve worked another project or two, your tension will be more smooth and even than it will in the very beginning, which is important for success with the corner-to-corner crochet technique.
4. Starburst Motifs Crochet Baby Blanket
This charming baby blanket has a simple, nostalgic look about it. It’s colorful enough to be interesting to crochet and to look at, but not so colorful as to be overwhelming.
5. Stripes Abloom Crochet Baby Blanket
This adorable blanket looks like a gift — and, indeed, it or any of the other blankets in this book would make fantastic gifts.
6. Mitered Square Crochet Baby Blanket
This is the attractive design pictured on the front cover of the book. It’s an updated twist on the beloved giant granny square design. I love this pattern, and I think other granny square enthusiasts will be enchanted by it.
I usually recommend that beginning crocheters start off with learning the basic granny square. Although this is not the most basic granny square blanket pattern available, I think this design actually looks like a good candidate for new crocheters to get started with — because it begins with a basic granny square and then builds upwards from there in a logical way that’s easy to understand and execute.
The Best Things About This Book
These are all attractive patterns that would appeal to a wide number of crafters. Two of the blankets are granny square designs, which are perpetual favorites with the readers of this website. There’s one corner-to-corner crochet blanket, which is an incredibly popular technique right now. The other designs are worked in simple, basic crochet stitches that should be easy for most crafters to complete.
The colorways in this book are all on-trend and appealing. Most are unisex colorways that would be appropriate exactly as is for either baby boys or baby girls. In the design pictured on the book cover, you could replace the pink with blue to make the design a little more boy-friendly if you know you’re having a boy. In the colorful subway design, you could replace the blue yarns with shades of pink if you know you’re having a girl. Of course, you can feel free to recolor these designs to match the newborn’s nursery colors, wardrobe colors or any other colors that you want to work with instead of the ones suggested in the pattern. But if you aren’t confident of your color choices, and you don’t want to stress out about choosing new colorways for your blankets, you can rest assured that the color selections presented in this book are fantastic as is.
For such a short book, there’s a nice variety of blanket patterns included.
I already mentioned that the patterns in this book are all gift worthy, but it bears repeating; these baby blankets would all make wonderful baby shower gifts.
Other Observations About This Book
The patterns in this book include written text instructions, multiple color photographs and multiple helpful diagrams, some of which are also in color and some of which are black and white. In the back of the book, you’ll find some general instructions for crochet abbreviations, gauge and crochet techniques you’ll need to know. This section includes some line-art illustrations.
Several of the blankets in this book do not include instructions for edgings. I’m personally totally OK with that; in fact, my most popular baby blanket pattern does not include edging instructions, for 3 reasons:
- Because the blanket works up much faster without an edging
- Because I think the blanket really looks better without an edging.
- Because adding the edging would have transformed the pattern from an easy, beginner-friendly pattern into a more challenging design due to tension challenges.
BUT my second-most frequently asked group of questions about that pattern are along the lines of:
- Did you forget to include the edging instructions in your pattern? Can you email them to me?
- What edging do you recommend for this baby blanket?
- Don’t you think this blanket looks a little unfinished without an edging?
From this experience, I have deduced that there are many crocheters who simply are not comfortable crocheting blankets without edgings– they expect to finish each afghan or blanket with an edging. If that’s you, and you decide to buy this book, please keep in mind that you’ll be on your own with figuring out which edging you want to use on 3 of these blankets. You’re more than welcome to use any of our crochet edging patterns — I’m sure you’ll find options that would work well for your needs. Either that, OR you could simply work on getting comfortable with the idea that not all blankets need edgings. I personally agree with the design decisions the author and her team at Leisure Arts made to NOT include edgings on the 3 designs that don’t have them — they’re simple, lovely and effective without edgings, in my opinion.
If you never learned how to crochet, or you’re rusty on your crochet techniques and you need to brush up on them, this book isn’t going to teach you all the basic stitches you’ll need to know. For that, I recommend picking up a separate crochet manual. We’ve posted a list of our picks for the best crochet books for beginners; you’re invited to check it out. We also make a complete beginners’ guide to crochet available if you’d prefer to work from online tutorials while you get up to speed on your crochet techniques.
Conclusion
I’m delighted to recommend this book to other crochet enthusiasts, particularly new crocheters who are looking for easy blanket patterns to work on — although this book is a fantastic value for crochet enthusiasts of any skill level.
I think this affordable little booklet is an excellent value for its cover price. The retailers I’ve linked to below often sell books at discounted prices; if you’re able to find the book on sale for less than its cover price, it’s an even better value.
Where to Buy This Book:
Similar Crochet Books and Related Resources
This book is included on a couple of our “best-of” lists, including this list of best crochet baby blanket books.
Learn More About Crochet:
- Click here to find my picks for the best crochet books.
- Click here to learn more crochet techniques.
- Click HERE to Find Fabulous Yarn for Crochet and Knitting
- Click here to learn about crochet hooks.
- Click here to find my favorite crochet project bag.
Learn About Other Types of Needlework: Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, Embroidery and More
- Discover my top picks for 2025’s best knitting books HERE.
- Click here to get updated on the latest craft supplies.
- Click here to learn about knitting.
- Click here to find our beginner’s guide to knitting needles.
- Click here to find outstanding craft project ideas.
By Amy Solovay
About the Author: Amy Solovay is a real person; she is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write articles for this website. She is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds a bachelor’s degree with a studio art minor; she has also earned a separate degree in textile design. Amy learned to crochet as a small child, and she still enjoys crocheting all these years later. Beyond that, she enjoys introducing other crafters to the best new craft supplies, and she also loves helping crafters learn new techniques for making the most of the craft supplies they buy.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles.
Nowadays, Amy uses online platforms to teach digital courses to craft pattern designers, content creators and influencers all over the world. If you’re an artist, crafter or DIY enthusiast who is interested in earning income from your creative work, you’re invited to visit Crafterprise.com to learn more about monetizing the arts, craft(s) and / or DIY projects you do.
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This page was last updated on 10-4-2024.