The Cross My Heart Baby Blanket is a free crochet pattern for an oh so soft and beautiful blanket! Made with Hobby Lobby’s Baby Bee Sweet Delight yarn ** and an easy repetitive pattern!
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When I designed the Pineapple of My Eye Baby Blanket with Lion Brand’s Mandala Baby yarn, a wonderful thing happened — the repetitive pattern of the pineapple stitches ended up creating a raised Maltese Cross like design in the center! A true Maltese Cross is four v-shaped elements that come together in the center to form a cross. However, the cross design is very evident and I think it makes a perfectly lovely heirloom baby blanket!
In order for the cross to be visible and defined, it needed to be crocheted in contrasting colors to make the cross stand out. However, I didn’t want a thousand ends to weave in so I needed to be able to easily carry colors throughout. Also, the pineapple stitch is not terribly conducive to “invisible” color changes so I needed to make an adjustment with that as well.
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The cross did need to be very textured so it would stand out significantly in the blanket so I went with the popcorn stitch. The popcorn stitch you are making here is more of a mini-popcorn since I went with 4 dc stitches rather than 5 in the traditional popcorn stitch.
My original plan was to make a cross border to match the center design and I did accomplish that. However, I thought the blanket ended up looking too “busy” so I went with a very simple edging to keep the focus on the center. Don’t worry though — my work with that cross edging will not be wasted — I am already planning another design that I can incorporate that edging on! Waste not, want not!
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The picot border is simple and I wanted to keep to the theme so I changed up the picot to make little crowns around the outside edge. Perfect — simple and gorgeous!
This is the first time I have used the Baby Bee Sweet Delight yarn and it won’t the be the last! Soft, squishy and with lovely trendy colors to choose from this yarn makes perfect sense for any baby themed items!
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Another free crochet baby blanket pattern:
Supplies:
3 Baby Bee Sweet Delight Bashfull 12 oz / 1131 yards (Color A)
2 Baby Bee Sweet Delight Cloudy 8 oz / 754 yards (Color B)
Pattern written in US crochet terminology
Abbreviations:
ch – chain
sc – single crochet
dc – double crochet
sl st – slip stitch
st – stitch
sk – skip
sp – space
pc – popcorn
Special stitches:
Popcorn stitch (pc): 4 dc in same st, remove hook from loop, insert hook into 1st dc made, pull loop from 4th dc through loop.
Picot crown: (picot) worked in same st: (sc, *ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook,* repeat between * * 2 more times, ch 1, sc)
Approximate finished size: 35” square not including picot crown edge
Gauge: 9 rows dc = 4”, 16 dc stitches = 4”
Notes about pattern:
Colors A & B are carried throughout rows to decrease number of ends to weave in. While carrying yarn be sure to keep yarn being carried at an even tension so there isn’t excess yarn between stitches showing on the wrong side of the blanket.
Chain 3 counts as stitch at beginning of each row.
Row 1: (With Color A) ch 4, 2 dc in 4th ch from hook, ch 3, *3 dc, ch 3 in same sp* repeat between * * 2 more times, sl st to top of ch 3. (4 – 3 dc clusters + 4 ch 3 corner spaces)
Row 2: sl st in next st, ch 3 (counts as first st of pc), complete pc, switching to color B, ch 1, sk next st, (Begin carrying non-working yarn throughout) (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in ch 3 corner sp, switch to color A, ch 1, *sk next st, pc in next st, switch to color B, ch 1, sk next st, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc), switch to color A, ch 1* repeat between * * to end, sl st to top of pc st. (4 pc sts + 16 dc)
Row 3: (With Color A) sl st into next ch 1 sp, ch 3 (counts as first st of pc), finish pc, switch to color B, ch 1, [sk next st, dc in each st to corner sp, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in ch 3 corner sp, dc in each st to last st before first ch 1 sp, switch to color A, ch 1, sk next st, *pc in next ch 1 sp, ch 1*, repeat between * * to last ch 1 sp, pc in last ch 1 sp, switch to color B, ch 1], repeat between [ ] to last ch 1 sp, pc in last ch 1 sp, ch 1 (do not switch to color B), sl st to top of first pc. (8 pc sts + 32 dc)
Repeat row 3 to desired size.
Border:
Switch to color B
Row 1: (With Color B) ch 3 (counts as st), dc in ch 1 sp, dc in next st, dc in each st to corner sp, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in corner sp, *dc in each st and in each ch 1 sp to next corner sp, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in corner sp,* repeat between * * to end, sl st to top of ch 3.
Row 2: ch 3, *dc in each st to corner, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in corner sp,* repeat between * * to end, sl st top of ch 3. Switch to color A.
Row 3: (With color A) ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next 2 st, picot in next st, sc in next 3 st, [*picot in next st, sc in next 3 st* repeat between * * to corner sp, picot in corner, sc in next 3 st] repeat [ ] to end, sl st top of 1st st.
Fasten off. Weave in ends.
Nice patterns…especially the Cross.
Thank you so much Elizabeth! So glad you like them! 😊