Moon And Stars Tunisian Crochet Blanket

"Night sky can appear in so many ways depending on the time, season, weather and this ever-changing scenery was an inspiration behind this design. This blanket is a beginner friendly Tunisian crochet project introducing several different techniques used in Tunisian crochet that can be a great stepping stone to learning this crochet style. The pattern is written for toddler/ small child size of blanket; however the design can be modified easily by adding or reducing star or moon sections vertically or horizontally to make the final blanket larger or smaller according to your specific need. "

NotesThe blanket is crocheted flat with RS always facing. It consists of three horizontal sections of Star or Moon patterns (each is 50 stitches x 50 rows of Tunisian simple stitches large) that are surrounded by border (10 stitches x 10 rows) of Honeycomb stitch (Please see Moon and Stars Tunisian Crochet Blanket schematic) in alternating colours of A, B, and C.
The charts are worked flat. The Star pattern is repeated 3 times horizontally and 3 times vertically when completing the blanket, except for the first horizontal segment where it is repeated twice. The Moon pattern is crocheted once in the bottom right corner. There are two versions of the Moon pattern to choose from, one off centred (V1) and one aligned centrally (V2). The blanket pictured throughout this pattern was crocheted using the Moon pattern V1.
The Moon and Star patterns colourwork can be crocheted in two different ways depending on the preference. It can be done either as stranded colourwork or intarsia. If using stranded colourwork, the background colour is carried over and wrapped around the pattern colour every 2-3 stitches to avoid loose floats. It is important to keep the passive yarn taut but not too tight to avoid distorting the Star or Moon pattern. When using intarsia, a separate bobbin for each colour is required and only 1 colour is used at a time with the inactive colour left hanging until the next colour change.
It is important to lock the strands of yarn when changing colours in either of these methods (Please see Stitch guide).

Crochet HookJ/10 or 6 mm hook

Yarn Weight(3) Light/DK (21-24 stitches to 4 inches)

Crochet GaugeBlocked Gauge: 15 sts x 14 rows= 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 in) over tss

Finished SizeThe final blanket measurements (blocked): 127 cm x 137 cm (approx. 50 x 54 in)

Materials List

• Stylecraft Special DK (100% Acrylic | DK | 100 g (3.5 oz) = 295 m (323 yds), Apricot (A) #1026 3 skeins, Turquoise (B) #1068 3 skeins, Silver (C) #1203 3 skeins
• Tunisian crochet hook size 6 mm (J-10) with cable (at least 100 cm (40 in)) or size to obtain the gauge
• Tapestry needle
• Scissors