Recently I have received several beautiful blankets that were fleece or flannel with a nice crocheted edging. I have never made a crochet edge fleece blanket but I love how they look. They look so tidy and it looks like it would make a fast blanket. Some of them are so soft and cuddly that I wished I had one for myself!! I might have to make one for myself after I make a bunch for the kids! I looked online and found a video made by another Project Linus Chapter in Chicago. I love that they made this easy video so others can learn to do this too. Thanks PL Chicago!
It looks like Joann’s does not carry the “skip stitch” blade and I have not seen them anywhere in town. I found the blades Here on a website called skipstitch.com. The skip stitch blades fit the standard 45 mm rotary cutters. They also carry other sizes of the blades. According to the website the “Original” blade is perfect for fleece and the #2 skip stitch blade is great for lighter fabrics like flannel. Since the holes made with the #2 blade are smaller and spaced closer it can be used with smaller hooks and finer baby weight yarns and cotton crochet thread.
I just spoke with Joyce Middlebrooks in Georgia who designed these blades and manufactures them with the help of her husband. Joyce said she designed these blades especially for the purpose of adding the crochet edging to fleece more efficiently when she was making blankets for Project Linus. She works closely with Project Linus and said you can order the blades through http://www.projectlinus.org or her website http://www.skipstitch.com She is going to send me some samples so we can try them out! I can’t wait to try them. Thank you so much to Joyce for offering to send those.
Here is a link for adding fine crochet cotton edging to lighter fabrics. This website has instructions for a nice scalloped edge that would also work with yarn for the fleece blankets. Here are more ideas and instructions from the skipstitch.com website where the rotary blades can be bought.
Keep checking back to this post as I will post more edging patterns as I find them.
Well, I am excited to try something new. Good luck to you in your blanket making.
~Donna
Filed under: Patterns and Ideas Tagged: | blanket, crochet, crochet-edge fleece blanket, fleece, Project Linus, rotary cutter, skip stitch blade, youtube
