FREE CAL – Plants with Yarn C2C Afghan | Corner to Corner Crochet Afghan | Crochet Along
The Plants with Yarn C2C Blanket is the perfect summer crochet along. It is a collaborative CAL which means a group of crochet designers worked together to come up with the blanket pattern as a whole. It’s a great way to get to know other designers while making one project.
This blanket pattern is dedicated to all the house plants I have killed during my lifetime.
*Moment of silence
OK. Ahem…
Back to the design.
This makes a perfect summertime project because although the finished project will be an afghan, each section of the crochet along is its own blanket square. Each square is only approximately 12”x12” or so. You won’t get too hot working up each section of this CAL. At the end, we will seam the squares together and add a border. Work on it in the cover of night or in front of a fan. It’ll be worth it in the end!
Let me officially introduce you to the Plants with Yarn Blanket CAL!
Note: Affiliate links are found throughout this post, meaning if you make a purchase after clicking one of those links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support! Such purchases help me be able to provide free CALs like this one!
What is a Crochet Along?
Perhaps you have never participated in a Crochet Along before and you may be wondering what in the world I am talking about. A Crochet Along (CAL) is essentially an event where you crochet along with other people creating the same project. Each part of the pattern is released bit by bit, and you work at the same pace as other participants.
Interested in other blanket CALs?
Bookmark this page
How do I do that? Here is an article on how to bookmark pages.
A few more ways to bookmark the page:
- Double click the URL bar in your browser, hold and drag it to your favorites.
- Share it with yourself in a text message, copy the URL and send yourself a text message with the URL.
- E-mail it to yourself with the subject “Plants with Yarn CAL” so you can find it again.
Can’t work it up now? Pin it for later!
How it works
There are 12 different plant-themed C2C squares designed by 10 different designers. The chart for each design is free on the designers’ blogs. To find the free charts, scroll down on this post until you see pictures of each section and press the button the says “Click here for the free chart.”
If you would prefer to have downloadable charts or to follow the written instructions or color blocks instead, you can purchase the full pattern which includes the charts and written instructions for each section right away in a PDF.
After grabbing each new pattern, make sure you hop on over to the Juniper & Oakes Crochet Community. You can ask questions, post pictures of your WIPs and finished squares, watch Live videos. It will be a lot of fun! If you don’t have Facebook, you can still participate in the CAL by creating your blanket on your own. Definitely post pictures and share about the CAL on any social media you have. Be sure to tag me @juniperandoakes and use #PlantswithYarnCAL so we can see your progress.
How big will my blanket be?
Such a good question! The answer will depend on many factors: yarn, hook, tension, etc.
My blanket is approximately 40” x 50”. My gauge is 8.5 pixels x 8.5 pixels in a 4” x 4” square.
You can get a good estimate at the size of your blanket by using this C2C calculator by Tasha at Stardust Gold Crochet. All you have to do is crochet a swatch of four rows of C2C stitches using your yarn and hook of choice. Then fill out the calculator at the bottom of THIS page and it’ll tell you how big your blanket will be.
FYI, each design is 25×25 boxes, and the final blanket will be 75×100 boxes.
The Yarn.
The yarn I used for this blanket is Heartland Worsted by Lion Brand.
Thank you to Lion Brand for sponsoring the yarn. I was allowed to pick the yarn I wanted for this project, and of course I picked Heartland. I love the heathered colorways, and I love that each color is named after a National Park. Yay!
I used the following colorways (the # of skeins are listed as well):
- Acadia (7)
- Rocky Mountains (2)
- Haleakala (2)
- Joshua Tree (2)
- Channel Island (1)
- Lassen Volcanic (1)
- Kobuk Valley (1)
- Redwood (1)
- Sequoia (1)
- Bryce Canyon (1)
- Great Smoky Mts (1)
- Black Canyon (1)
I will NOT get offended if you take creative liberties on the color scheme. Be sure to share pictures in the FB group so I can see what you come up with!
The amount of yarn needed depends on different factors like yarn weight, hook size, and tension. Read the directions, make a swatch, and enter in your measurements to get a fairly accurate yardage amount.
The Hook.
I am using a G/4.00 mm hook to make my blanket. I love this Streamline Laurel Wooden hook Furls Crochet. If you have never tried a Furls hook, I suggest you head on over to their website and order one now.
You don’t have to use a G hook. I usually use an H or a J, but wanted to try a more tight-knit blanket that may actually be turned into a tapestry for my wall? We’ll see!
Be sure to make a swatch using the yarn and hook of your choice, and use the calculator above so you are not surprised by the size of your blanket.
What is Corner-to-Corner crochet?
I have written this whole post with the assumption that you all now what C2C crochet means. C2C stand for “Corner-to-Corner. It is a crochet technique were you work diagonally creating tiny squares or pixels. You work each square from the bottom right side diagonally to the top left side. This method works really great when
The traditional C2C stitch consists of a ch 2 + 3 dc to form one C2C pixel, and each increase is ch 6 + 3 dc. To make my blanket a more manageable size, I used ch 2 and 3 hdc for each pixel, where each increase was ch 5 + 3 hdc.
It seems complicated, but I promise, it’s super easy (and addictive) as you go.
Feel free to watch the video below to familiarize yourself a bit with the technique.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, comment that you joined in from the Plants with Yarn CAL, and like the videos. Thank you so much!
Crochet colorwork with C2C can be a bit complicated, so watch this video for some tips.
The Pattern.
As mentioned earlier, the free charts for each blanket square are availble on each designer’s blogs throughout June. But if you would like the full blanket pattern all at once, you can purchase the full pattern. The full pattern includes printable charts AND written instructions AND color block instruction for the whole blanket, plus pictures and video tutorials on C2C crochet – plus how to seam and add a border.
Plants with Yarn C2C Afghan – Charts
Note: This chart is “free on the blog” meaning there is not an “ad-free pdf.” If you prefer to see the chart with out ads, or wish to easily print the chart. Or have access to the written instructions, please purchase the full CAL pattern. Click here to watch my chit chat about my square.
Square 12: Spider Plant by Remington Lane Crochet
The final square of this CAL features the beginner-friendly Spider Plant which is great for those just starting off their gardening adventures.
Click the button below to view the chart free on her website.
Prepare your Squares to be Joined
After we have all 12 squares, we will begin seaming the squares together. In the meantime, if you’re all caught up, you can prepare the squares to be seamed by:
- Creating a HDC Border around them
- Blocking
The Picot Border by Juniper & Oakes
These simple little picot stitches make it seem like there are fresh leaf buds growing around out plant-themed blanket. How perfect!
Action Items
- Subscribe to the J&O newsletter.
- Join the J&O Crochet Community FB Group.
- Gather your yarn and hook:
- Heartland worsted by Lion Brand (or any worsted/medium weight yarn)
- SizeG/4.0mm Hook (or whatever you prefer)
- Learn the basics of C2C crochet.
- Work up the squares above.
- Share pictures of your progress using #plantswithyarnCAL and tag @juniperandoakes so I don’t miss it!
- Purchase the full pattern.