Summer if fast approaching, you guys! And what says summer more than a fun picnic blanket? Nothin', I tell ya!

This easy afghan is made of Lion Brand's new 24/7 Cotton yarn (scroll to the bottom of this post for a giveaway ending 5/8/16). It is much more durable for outdoor play at the park, beach, or anywhere! I loved working with this yarn, it has wonderful rich color and is probably the softest cotton I've worked with yet. I think you'll be seeing more of this yarn on the blog!



In order to achieve the gingham look I worked lots of small squares using the C2C or corner to corner crochet method, then sewed them together. It was a bit time consuming, but so well worth the end result - I know my family will enjoy lunching on this baby for years to come!

My blanket measures about 45" wide by about 30" long, so I'm calling this a baby or kids size. Using this same method you could make a blanket as big or small as you like!


Below I have a quick technique tutorial video on the C2C method of crochet if you are unfamiliar - watch this first if you've never tried this method of stitching! It's so so fun and works up so fast (teaser: I'll be releasing a big summer project using this method, so learn it now!)



PATTERN:
Materials:
-Lion brand 24/7 Cotton yarn (3 skeins each of Denim, Navy, Sky and 4 skeins of White)
-Size H 5mm crochet hook
-Tapestry needle

The Squares:
Using the C2C crochet method, create squares that are 6 blocks by 6 blocks of C2C stitches. If you are used to following graphs with this method, the graph for our gingham squares would look like this:



Go ahead and make 20 each of these 6x6 squares in sky, denim, navy, and white. You should have 80 individual squares total at this point.

{I'll wait while you go crochet your little heart out - Be sure to bookmark or pin to your favorite board on pinterest now so that you don't lose it!}

Assembly:
After you have all those squares done, it is time to lay out your gingham pattern. Each row will have 10 squares.

• Rows 1, 3, 5, and 7 will be made up of alternating Navy and Denim squares (5 of each, for a 10 square row)
• Rows 2, 4, 6, and 8 will be made up of alternating Sky and White squares (5 of each, for a 10 square row)