Blanket

Materials:
flannel, about a yard for each blanket
cotton yarn in a weight of your choice
crochet needle in a size that corresponds to your yarn weight
needle and thread

1. First excuse my non-official crocheting instructions. I hope it will make sense to you despite that.

2. Wash and dry the flannel to pre-shrink it. Make sure your flannel has no uneven edges (you want each edge to be a straight line). The selvege edges will be square. You can fold your fabric and use the selvege edge as a guide for squaring your other edges, or you can rip a strip from the cut edge to make it straight. I don't worry so much if the entire piece is a square, just that the edges are even.

3. Turn under your edges all the way around 1/4". Then turn all those edges under 1/4" and sew them down. You can do this with pins and a sewing machine, or you can turn as you work and handsew the edges down. I use the stitch I would use to hem pants--hem stitch, perhaps?

4. My grandmother used a fine crochet thread for the edging. I use something a little heftier and I like the nubbier edge it creates. To start the crocheted edge, make one chain stitch. Hold your yarn behind the fabric. Then poke (although the word poke seems too delicate, it's really more of a shove) your needle through the flannel just under your sewn edge where there is only one layer of fabric. Yarn over and pull the loop through your poked hole. Yarn over and pull that loop through the other two on your needle. Now do that twice more in the same hole. Chain once, and start a new hole about 1/4" from your first hole. Keep doing this. When you hit a corner make your hole right in the "armpit" of the corner. Do your crochet in the hole bit. Then chain twice to go around the corner, and do another trio of crochets in the same corner hole.

5. When you meet yourself, bind off and weave ends into your work to hide them.

6. Now you're done!