There is an afghan draped over the back of every chair in this house, and each one of them tells me something different about the woman I was when I made it. The first one — a simple striped thing in burnt orange and avocado green, because it was 1974 and those were the colors you could find — is still here. The edges are not even, the tension wanders from tight to loose like I could not make up my mind, and one end is a good two inches wider than the other. But I finished it. And that is the thing about afghans that matters more than anything else I am about to tell you: the one you finish is the one that becomes part of your family.
An afghan is not a small project. It is not something you pick up and put down in an afternoon. It takes weeks, sometimes months, and there will be a point in the middle where you look at the pile of yarn and the half-done blanket in your lap and wonder what possessed you to start this thing. Every single person who has ever crocheted an afghan has had that moment. Push through it. The other side of that feeling is a blanket that will outlast you, and that is not an exaggeration. I have afghans my mother made that are still warm, still soft, still doing exactly what they were made to do.
What I want to give you here is everything I know about making afghans, from the simplest strip-and-join method that a beginner can handle all the way to the kinds of patterns that take real skill and patience. I have made afghans out of every stitch pattern I know, in every yarn weight I could get my hands on, and for every occasion from baby showers to weddings to the kind of blanket you just keep on the couch because the house gets cold at night. If you are new to crochet, I would point you toward The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Crochet: Hooks, Yarn & Your First Stitches before you tackle a full afghan, but if you can chain, single crochet, and double crochet with confidence, you are ready for what comes next.
Why the Afghan Is the Truest Test of a Crocheter
A dishcloth teaches you stitches. A hat teaches you shaping. But an afghan teaches you everything else — tension consistency over thousands of rows, color management, joining techniques, patience, and the ability to look at a project that is only a quarter done and keep going. I have told more than one person that if you can finish an afghan, you can crochet anything. I believe that.
The other thing an afghan teaches you is how yarn behaves over distance. When you are making something small, a slight change in your tension does not show. But when you are working across 200 stitches, row after row after row, any inconsistency becomes visible. Your edges will wave. Your rows will bow. Your blanket will not lay flat. This is not a reason to be afraid of afghans. It is a reason to pay attention from the start, and I am going to show you how.
Before you pick a pattern, before you pick a color, you need to think about three things: who is this for, where will it live, and how much time do I have. A blanket for a baby needs soft, washable yarn and a tight enough stitch that little fingers cannot poke through. A blanket for the back of the couch can be anything you want. A gift for a wedding needs to be something special — something that looks like you put the time in, because you did. Let the purpose guide every decision that follows.
Choosing the Right Yarn for an Afghan
I have strong opinions about afghan yarn, and I have earned every one of them. For most afghans — the everyday, keep-on-the-couch, throw-over-your-lap kind — I reach for a good worsted weight acrylic. I know that will make some people flinch. There are crocheters who will not touch acrylic, and I understand why they feel that way. But here is the truth: an afghan gets used. It gets washed. It gets dragged off the couch by children and dogs. It goes through the dryer more times than you can count. A hundred-percent wool afghan is beautiful, but if the person you are giving it to does not know how to care for it, you will watch your work shrink to half its size the first time it goes through a hot cycle.
For a working afghan, worsted weight acrylic in a reputable brand — I have used Red Heart Super Saver for decades and it softens up beautifully after a few washes — gives you durability, easy care, and a price point that does not make you weep when you need twelve skeins. If you want something with a little more softness from the start, a good acrylic-blend like Caron Simply Soft or Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice will feel nicer in your hands as you work and drapes a little better when it is finished.
If you are reading about yarn weights for the first time, Understanding Yarn Weight: From Lace to Super Bulky and When to Use Each will walk you through everything. For afghans specifically, worsted weight (number 4) is the sweet spot. It works up at a reasonable pace, it is heavy enough to feel like a real blanket, and it gives you the best variety of color choices. I have made afghans in bulky weight yarn and they work up fast, but they are heavy — almost too heavy to keep on your lap. And I have made them in lighter weights, but unless you want to spend a year on one blanket, stick with worsted until you know what you are getting into.
The Strip Afghan: Where Every Beginner Should Start
If you have never made an afghan before, start with strips. I am not saying that because it is easy — though it is — but because it teaches you the most important skills without overwhelming you. A strip afghan is exactly what it sounds like: you crochet long panels, usually six to ten of them, and then you join them together to make a full blanket.
The beauty of a strip afghan is that each panel is narrow enough to carry around with you. You can work on a strip in your chair at night, in the car on a road trip, in a waiting room. You are not wrestling with a growing blanket that weighs more every row. Each strip feels like its own small project, and when you finish one, you get that satisfaction of completing something before you start the next.
For your first strip afghan, crochet each panel about six inches wide and whatever length you want your finished blanket to be — I usually aim for sixty inches for a throw or seventy-two for a bed-sized afghan. Use a simple double crochet stitch for the whole strip. Chain enough to make your six-inch width (with worsted weight and an I/9 hook, that is usually around 22 to 24 chains — but always make a small swatch first), then double crochet across, chain three, turn, and repeat until your strip is the right length.
Make all your strips the same length, and I mean measure them. Do not trust your eyes. Lay each finished strip against the first one you made and make sure they match. If one is a little shorter, add a row. If one is a little longer, rip back a row. This is where people get sloppy, and sloppy strips make a blanket that will not lay flat no matter what you do.
When all your strips are done, you join them. And this is where it gets interesting, because there are more ways to join strips than you might think. You can whip stitch them together with a yarn needle for a nearly invisible seam. You can single crochet them together for a raised ridge that adds texture. Or you can slip stitch them together for something in between. I cover joining in depth in Joining Crochet Squares: 7 Methods From Invisible to Decorative, and every one of those methods works for strips too.
The Ripple Afghan: The Pattern That Never Gets Old
If there is one afghan pattern that every Southern woman knows by heart, it is the ripple. Some people call it the chevron, some call it the zigzag, but around here it has always been the ripple. My mother made ripple afghans. Her mother made ripple afghans. I have made more ripple afghans than I could ever count, and I am still not tired of the pattern because it never looks the same way twice depending on your color choices.
The ripple works by increasing stitches at the peaks and decreasing stitches at the valleys, which creates that wave-like pattern across the blanket. The most basic version uses double crochet. You work a set number of stitches, then increase at the top of the peak (usually by putting two or three stitches into one), work across to the valley, skip two or three stitches to create the dip, and repeat across the row.
Here is the foundation that I have used for years. Chain a multiple of 14, plus 3. For a throw, I usually chain 199 (which is 14 times 14, plus 3). Row one: double crochet in the fourth chain from the hook, double crochet in each of the next four chains, skip two chains, double crochet in the next five chains, then three double crochet in the next chain — that is your peak. Repeat that pattern across, ending with two double crochet in the last chain. Chain three, turn. Every row after that follows the same pattern: five double crochet, skip two at the valley, five double crochet, three in one at the peak. Once you get the rhythm, and it does become a rhythm, you will not even need to look at the pattern.
The magic of the ripple is in the color changes. You can change color every two rows for bold stripes, every four rows for wider bands, or work a planned gradient from dark to light and back again. I made a ripple afghan once in shades of blue — starting with a deep navy, moving through royal blue, then sky blue, then a pale ice blue, and back down again — and it looked like ocean waves. That is what I mean when I say this pattern never gets old. The structure stays the same, but the personality changes completely based on what colors you feed it.
The Granny Square Afghan: Tradition You Can Customize
I have a whole separate piece on The Classic Granny Square: History, Pattern & 10 Variations, so I will not repeat all of that here. But I would be doing you a disservice if I wrote about afghan patterns and did not talk about the granny square afghan, because it is one of the most versatile blanket constructions you will ever learn.
The concept is simple: you make a collection of individual squares, then join them together into a blanket. What makes it powerful is that every single square can be different. Different colors, different variations of the basic granny pattern, different levels of complexity. I have seen granny square afghans that are works of art — each square a different flower motif, all joined together with a coordinating border that ties the whole thing together.
For a standard throw, you will need somewhere around 48 to 63 squares, depending on how large you make each one. A six-inch square is the most common size, and a throw that is six squares wide and eight squares long gives you a blanket that is roughly 36 by 48 inches before the border — which is a nice lap blanket. For a larger throw, go seven by nine, or eight by ten.
The key to a good granny square afghan — and I cannot stress this enough — is blocking. Every square needs to be the same size. If you make sixty squares and twenty of them are five and a half inches and forty of them are six inches, your blanket is going to pucker and pull no matter how carefully you join them. Block every square before you join. I explain exactly how in How to Block Crochet and Knitting Projects: Wet, Steam & Pin Methods, and it is a step you cannot skip with a granny square afghan.
The Corner-to-Corner Afghan: A Modern Classic
Corner-to-corner crochet, which most people shorten to C2C, is one of those patterns that looks far more complicated than it actually is. The whole thing is built on a simple tile made of double crochet stitches, and you work diagonally from one corner of the blanket to the opposite corner. You increase on every row until the blanket is as wide as you want it, and then you decrease on every row until you reach the far corner.
Each tile is the same: chain six, double crochet in the fourth chain from the hook, double crochet in the next two chains. That gives you a small square block. You build the blanket by adding one more tile to each row as you go. It sounds confusing written out, but once you see it building in your hands — that diagonal growth, tile by tile — it clicks fast.
What makes C2C special for afghans is the texture. That grid of little tiles creates a fabric that has wonderful drape and a visual interest that a flat stitch pattern cannot match. It also lends itself beautifully to color work. Because each tile is its own little unit, you can change colors tile by tile to create pixel-art designs, pictures, words, or geometric patterns. I have seen C2C afghans with a deer silhouette, a mountain scene, a name written across the center, and even full pictures that look like they were painted with yarn.
For a solid-color C2C afghan, the pattern is meditative. Once you have the tile memorized, it is just repetition with that steady diagonal growth that lets you see your progress clearly. I find C2C afghans work up faster than I expect because the tiles build on each other quickly, and the diagonal means you are not staring down a row of 200 stitches wondering when it will end.
The Mile-a-Minute Afghan: Speed Without Sacrifice
If you love the idea of a strip afghan but want something with more visual interest than plain double crochet panels, the mile-a-minute is your pattern. It has been around for decades and it got its name because the strips work up fast — faster than you expect — and the finished product looks like something that took much longer.
A mile-a-minute strip starts with a center chain, usually worked fairly long, and then you build outward from that chain on both sides simultaneously. Most patterns use a combination of double crochet clusters or shell stitches along the center, then finish each side with a straight edge that makes joining easy. The center creates a raised texture while the edges lay flat, and when you seam the strips together, you get a blanket with these beautiful textured columns running the length of it.
I particularly like mile-a-minute for gift afghans when I am short on time. I can finish a strip in an evening, and a full throw takes six to eight strips depending on width. Color-wise, you can make every strip the same for a uniform look, alternate between two colors, or make every strip different for a scrap-busting project that uses up the odds and ends in your yarn stash.
Heirloom Afghans: When You Want Something Extraordinary
Now we get to the afghans that take real time and real skill. Heirloom afghans are the ones you make when you want to create something that will be passed down, something that people will unfold carefully and drape over special furniture and talk about. These are not everyday blankets. These are the ones that show what you are capable of.
The Aran afghan — sometimes called the fisherman afghan — is the one I think of first when someone says heirloom. It takes its name from the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland, where fishermen’s wives knit cabled sweaters with patterns that had meaning — ropes for safety, diamonds for prosperity, moss stitch for the land. The crochet version uses cabled stitches, popcorn stitches, and raised post stitches to create those same heavily textured panels, and it is usually worked in a single color — traditionally cream or off-white — to let the texture be the star.
An Aran afghan is not a beginner project. You need to be comfortable with front post double crochet, back post double crochet, popcorn stitches, and cable crosses. If those terms are new to you, that is all right — work your way there. Make a few simpler afghans first, learn those individual stitches on smaller projects, and come back to this when you are ready. There is no rush. The pattern will be here when you are.
The other heirloom afghan I love is the filet crochet afghan. Filet crochet uses a grid of open and filled mesh squares to create pictures and patterns in the fabric. You can make florals, geometric designs, names, dates — anything you can chart on graph paper. It is worked in rows across the full width of the blanket, so it takes concentration and careful counting, but the result is unlike anything else. A white filet crochet afghan with a floral center panel and a lace border is one of the most stunning things you can make with a hook and yarn.
Getting Your Edges Right
I cannot tell you how many afghans I have seen — beautiful stitch work, gorgeous colors — ruined by edges that wave and ripple like laundry on a clothesline. Getting straight edges on an afghan is one of those things that seems like it should be simple, but it trips people up more than almost anything else.
The problem is almost always the turning chain. When you work a row of double crochet and turn, you chain three to get up to the height of the next row. That chain-three counts as your first double crochet, which means you skip the first stitch of the row and work your first actual double crochet into the second stitch. At the end of the row, your last double crochet goes into the top of the turning chain from the previous row. If you miss that last stitch — and it is easy to miss because it sits at a funny angle — you lose a stitch. Do that for twenty rows and your blanket is noticeably narrower at one end.
My solution, and I have been doing this for so long it is second nature, is to count. Every single row. I do not care if you have made fifty afghans. Count your stitches at the end of every row until counting feels like breathing. When I am working a row that should have 200 stitches, I count to fifty, then mark that spot with a stitch marker. Count to a hundred, mark it. Count to a hundred fifty, mark it. Then count the last fifty. If my count is off, I know which quarter of the row has the problem and I do not have to recount the whole thing.
Borders That Finish the Job
A border on an afghan is like a frame on a picture. It pulls everything together, cleans up the edges, and gives the whole piece a finished look. I put a border on every afghan I make, no exceptions. Even if it is just a simple round of single crochet, that border matters.
For strip afghans and granny square afghans, the border also hides the seams. A good two-round or three-round border works around the entire blanket and covers up any slight unevenness in your joining. The first round should be a simple single crochet all the way around — this evens things out and gives you a clean foundation. Work three single crochet into each corner to keep the corners sharp and flat.
For the second round, you have choices. A shell border — five double crochet in one stitch, skip two, single crochet, skip two, repeat — gives a scalloped edge that is classic and pretty. A reverse single crochet border, where you single crochet backward from left to right instead of right to left, creates a twisted rope edge that is clean and modern. For heirloom afghans, a wider border with multiple rounds of pattern stitches can be a showpiece in itself.
I generally work my borders in the same color as the main body of the afghan, or in a contrasting color that frames the work without competing with it. A dark border on a light afghan gives it structure. A cream border on a multi-colored afghan ties everything together. Trust your eye on this — hold up a strand of the border yarn against the finished blanket and see how it feels before you commit.
Caring for Finished Afghans
An afghan that gets used needs to get washed, and how you wash it matters. For acrylic afghans, the machine is fine — I wash on a gentle cycle with cool water and a mild detergent, then tumble dry on low. The first wash will relax the stitches and soften the yarn, and the blanket will feel better after it comes out than it did before it went in. Some people are afraid to wash handmade blankets, but acrylic is made to handle it.
For wool or wool-blend afghans, hand washing is the only safe option unless the yarn label specifically says machine washable. Fill a tub with cool water and a wool wash — I like Eucalan because you do not have to rinse it out — and let the blanket soak for fifteen to twenty minutes. Do not agitate it, do not wring it, do not twist it. Lift it out gently, press the water out between towels, and lay it flat to dry. This is not optional. Wool that goes through a hot wash or a dryer will felt, and there is no undoing it.
For storage, fold your afghans and keep them in a cool, dry place. I fold mine with a sheet of acid-free tissue paper between the layers to prevent creasing, and I refold them differently every few months so the same fold lines do not become permanent. If you are storing an heirloom piece long-term, a cotton pillowcase is better than a plastic bin because the fibers need to breathe.
Planning Your First Afghan: Putting It All Together
If you have read this far and you are ready to start, here is what I would tell you if you were sitting across from me at the kitchen table. Pick a strip afghan or a simple ripple. Choose three colors that you love — not three colors that match your couch, not three colors that are trendy right now, but three colors that make you happy when you look at them. You are going to be staring at this yarn for weeks. You should enjoy the view.
Buy enough yarn. For a throw-sized strip afghan in worsted weight, plan on about 1,200 to 1,500 yards total. That is usually five to seven skeins of a standard worsted weight, depending on the brand. For a ripple, it is about the same. Buy one extra skein of your main color because running out with two rows left is a special kind of heartbreak that I would like to save you from.
Use the right hook for your yarn. Check the label — most worsted weight yarns recommend an I/9 (5.5mm) or a J/10 (6mm) hook. If you are not sure which hook pairs with your yarn, Crochet Hook Sizes Explained: A Complete Reference Guide breaks it all down. Make a gauge swatch before you start, even though I know nobody wants to. A four-inch square swatch tells you if your tension is right, and it takes ten minutes. Ten minutes now saves you from an afghan that is eight inches too narrow.
If you have never read a crochet pattern before — or if the abbreviations still trip you up — spend some time with How to Read a Crochet Pattern: Abbreviations, Symbols & Charts Decoded before you start. An afghan pattern is not complicated, but it is long, and knowing what the shorthand means will keep you from having to look things up every other row.
And if you make a mistake — and you will — do not panic. Most crochet mistakes can be fixed without ripping the whole thing out. How to Fix Common Crochet and Knitting Mistakes Without Starting Over will show you how to recover from dropped stitches, extra stitches, and the other small errors that happen when you are working on something this big.
The Afghan That Matters Most
I have made afghans for every one of my grandchildren, and I have made afghans for people I barely knew because someone said they were going through a hard time and could use something warm. There is no other handmade item that carries the same weight as a blanket. A blanket says I thought about you while my hands were busy. It says I gave you my time, which is the most valuable thing I have. It says wrap yourself in this when the world gets cold.
There are afghans in this house that are older than some of my children. The colors are not what I would pick now. The stitch work is not as even as what I can do today. But they are here, and they are used, and every one of them holds a little bit of the person I was when I made it. That is what an afghan does that a store-bought blanket never will — it carries something with it.
If you are part of the Country Crafts & Homemaking — The Complete Southern Guide community, you already know that the handmade things are the ones that last. An afghan is the biggest, most generous expression of that belief. Start with something simple. Finish it. And then start the next one, because I promise you — once you have made one afghan, you will always have another one in the works. That is just how it goes.
And if you are making a baby blanket — whether as your first afghan or your fiftieth — I have patterns and guidance waiting for you in How to Crochet a Baby Blanket: Patterns for Every Skill Level. Because that is one afghan you want to get just right.
