Fleece Baby Blankets with Crocheted Edge

      This is one my favorite crochet projects of 2010, it's quick, easy, inexpensive, versatile, and very rewarding.This is much faster than crocheting an entire afghan. These blankets can be made with only very simple stitches such as: a chain stitch and single crochet, or can be made with more complicated stitches such as: double crochet, half double crochet, triple crochet, ect., all depending on which edge you chose to put on. I have found that I can get 2 blankets out of 24-36in of fleece, you can find this as a remnant at your local Joann's or fabric store. Joann's puts fleece on sale frequently, but regularly it costs about 7.99-13.99per yard. Because many fabric stores have lots of variety it's easy to find cute baby boy or girl fleece. Also you can easily alter you pattern from a straight edge to a scallop to a picot to your heart desire. Though no matter what you do it will look adorable. :)

To start your blanket you need to cut your fleece to size, cut slits. I do my slits about 3/4in away from the edge. The first blanket I did, I used a Crop-o-dile (which is a heavy duty hand punch.) Unfortunately I punched my holes too close together and too close to the edge so when I start to crochet the fabric stretched and tore. I had to start over by cutting off the edge and repunching. This method is tedious and uneven. If however you still want hand punch all the way around your blanket you should punch at least 3/4" away from the edge and punch your holes at least 3/4" apart. So not long after I obtained an "Original Skip-Stitch^® Blade" which can be purchased at http://www.skipstitch.com/products--orders.html. 

Hook G or H
Rnd 1
Insert your hook into a hole (make sure the right side is facing you) (sc 1, ch 1,) in each hole make sure you don't miss any. (Note: the edge of your fleece should fold back so that the bases of your single crochets are a little more 1/4")  On the corners (sc 1, ch 1) 3 times in the corner hole, (you may want to round the corner of the fleece with a pair of scissors.) When you reach your first st, sl st in it.

Rnd 2+
This is totally up to you. :)
The flowered blanket above has a rnd of dcs (with 3 dcs in the corner) and a rnd like this (sk 1, dc 5, sk 1,   sl st 1,)

 

Rnd 2

For this one it's just double crochet (with 3 dcs in the corners) and the sl st in 1st dc

Multiple colors is another fun option 
Rnd 2
Dc all the way around (with 3 dcs in the corners) Sl st in 1st dc
Rnd 3
Switch to red yarn, dc all the way around (with 3 dcs in the corners) Sl st in 1st dc
Rnd 4
(Sc, sl st, ch 5, sl st in the same st) all the way around, sl st in 1st sc

Aren't the little firemen cute. :)

Another option is "Dolly and Me" blankets

Here is the mini scallop for the doll blanket
Rnd 2
Sc all the way around, (sc 3 in the corners) sl st in 1st sc
Rnd 3
[Ch 2, (dc 1, hdc 1) in the next st, sl st] all the way around,

This is the same as the Flower blanket above.

 Have fun creating you own edge designs too! I would love to see them. :)