Wondering how to crochet motifs for blankets?
I invite you to read on if you’re hoping to accomplish any of the following goals:
- You want to learn how to choose the best crochet motifs for making blankets.
- You want to find crochet motif patterns you can use for making blankets.
- You want to find crochet blanket patterns where the blankets are primarily made up of joined motifs rather than crocheted panels or crocheted rows.
How to Choose the Best Crochet Motifs for Making Blankets
Tip: You can make your blanket-making process easier by choosing crochet motif shapes that tile.
What does that mean, exactly?
Well, when you create your blanket, you will want to be able to lay the motifs out flat, so that they touch each other. And when the motifs are laid out touching each other, you want to be able to easily sew them together, without their being big holes or wonky places.
For example, squares tile. So do hexagons and octagons.
Because of this, squares, hexagons and octagons are some of the most popular crochet motifs for blankets.
See Also: Crochet Motifs
Now let’s talk about crocheted motifs that do not tile.
For example, circles do not tile on their own, without you taking additional steps to fill in the holes between them.
You can make blankets out of circle motifs, but if you lay a bunch of crocheted circle motifs flat, so they touch each other, and then you join them together in the places where their outer edges touch each other, there will end up being big holes in the blanket.
If the circles are small enough, maybe this could be tolerable.
But the bigger the circles get, the bigger the resulting holes get, too. So this is probably not what you want to do.
If you want to use circles as a major design element in a crocheted blanket, you have to pair up the circles with one or more shape(s) that will fill the negative spaces (in other words, the holes) that end up in between the circle shapes as a result of their joining.
Or, you can crochet circle shapes to start with, and then change yarn colors and work more rounds, adding corners that will transform your circles into some other shape that tiles seamlessly.
For example, take a look at the front cover of the book called Scrappy Afghans, published by Leisure Arts. Here you can see an example of circle shapes that were transformed into squares.
You can transform circles into hexagon shapes and octagons in much the same way.
It’s possible to make wonky-shaped crochet motifs that aren’t perfectly square, or perfectly hexagonal, or perfectly anything.
But I don’t recommend doing that unless you want to have a massive headache joining the pieces together.
Pictured here, you can see one of the most ambitious crochet projects I ever completed. It’s a freeform crochet blanket made up of irregularly-shaped crochet motifs.
None of these motifs tile on their own, so fitting them together was not easy. It was a lot of work to create pieces that would fit together well enough to be stitched to each other.
Important Takeaway: There are good reasons why crafters typically make blankets using regularly shaped crochet motifs like squares and hexagons, rather than irregularly shaped crochet motifs like the ones you see above.
While it’s possible to make blankets from irregularly shaped crochet motifs, it will take you a lot more time, effort and planning to complete a project that way. I did it once, but I’m not planning on doing it again.
Find Crochet Blanket Patterns That Incorporate Various Motifs Including Medallions, Squares and Others
Unexpected Afghans
Crochet motif patterns are an important focus in some, but not all, of the lovely blanket patterns in the Unexpected Afghans book.
Learn More:
- You can check out my detailed book review of Unexpected Afghans HERE.
- Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.
Quick Comforts
The patterns in Quick Comforts aren’t all crochet motif patterns — but the motif patterns you do get are lovely ones. For starters, check out that amazing blanket on the front cover to see one example.
Learn More:
- You can check out a detailed book review of Quick Comforts HERE.
- Click here to shop for this book at the publisher’s website.
See More of My Top Picks for the Best Crochet Motif Pattern Books HERE.