Crochet sampler blankets are all the rage. Many crochet alongs (including my own!) advertise themselves as sampler blankets or sampler projects as one of their biggest selling points as to why you should join in. But what are crochet sampler blankets and what makes them so fun to make?

A Bit Of Everything

A sampler is where you try a bit of everything, so a crochet sampler blanket is a blanket that uses many different crochet stitches. Sampler blankets can have as few as 9 stitches or dozens of stitches. It all depends on the design. But as long as the pattern uses several different crochet stitches it can be called a sampler blanket.

The idea behind a sampler is that you get to practice something new. The patterns for these blankets will usually have very detailed instructions on how to make each stitch often with lots of pictures and even videos to help you make these new stitches. Sampler blankets allow you to try out stitches over a small square or a row or 2 so you can see if you enjoy making them without having to commit to a large project with that single stitch alone.

Sampler blankets let you decide what stitches you do and don’t like making and if you feel you have the ability to make so that you can choose future patterns knowing what stitches you want to use.

Squares Or Rows?

Crochet sampler blankets can be made up in rows so that the different stitches stack on top of each other or be made up of individual squares of different crochet stitches that are joined together later.

If the project is made up of individual squares, the squares are then joined together afterwards and then a border is added around all of the squares. How many squares are used depends on the project. I’ve seen crochet sampler blankets made up of 9 squares, and then there’s my own crochet along – The 50 Stitches that has 49 squares plus a rectangular panel. So sampler blankets can have a huge variety of crochet stitches in them.

If the sampler blanket is made up in rows then how many stitches are involved depends on how many repeats of each stitch the designer has decided to use. A stitch could be repeated several times in the same blanket, or you might only have each stitch used once in the whole project.

Colour Crazy

Crochet sampler blankets tend to be very colourful, especially when made in rows. The use of lots of colour helps to make each different stitch stand out against the others so you can tell on sight when one stitch stopped and you started on another. This also means that sampler blankets make great scrap projects. Scrap projects are where you can use up left over yarn from previous projects that you might not have enough left to make anything else.

As long as you have enough scraps of the same yarn weight, then you can use your yarn scarps to make your sampler blankets. These scrap projects are also known as yarn stash busting patterns, which is what I designed my FrankenScrap crochet along to be. It got it’s name FrankenScrap because of how many different types of yarn I used. All the yarn was DK / Light Worsted weight but there was a whole range of different brands and colours of yarn in there.

In total there was 48 pieces in the FrankenScrap crochet along, each and every one made with a different crochet stitch making it an amazing sampler blanket project.

Beautifully Designed

Crochet sampler blankets don’t have to be chaotic or scrappy though. They can be well designed and well thought out so that they look stunning to display. I have 2 crochet alongs that fit this bill, but I have to admit that the Ray Of Hope blanket is my absolute favourite of my patterns so far. The Ray Of Hope contained over 45 different crochet stitches and used 18 different colours of DK / Light Worsted yarn. It was designed to look like a stained glass window – a bright and bold project that brightens your day whenever you see it.

My other blanket that has more design to it than rows or squares is my Country Garden crochet along. This one was designed to look like a Country Garden with its central lawn surrounded by flower beds, trellises with a butterfly filled blue sky surrounding it. All of this gave me plenty of opportunity to pack lots of different crochet stitches and motifs into the design.

Crochet Sampler Blanket Pitfalls

The biggest problem with using lots of different crochet stitches in a single blanket is tension. We tend to naturally make small stitches like single crochet quite tight but loosen up when we’re making longer stitches like treble crochets. Then there are stitches that are really thick like puff stitches and clusters.

Thick stitches and differing tension means that sampler blankets can come out looking a little wonky unless you keep switching up your hook size or are really careful about keeping your tension consistent across the different stitches.

In the 50 Stitches blanket I kept switching up the hook size between squares to deal with it, but in my other sampler blankets I relied on consistent tension. It ended up being easier to talk about the tension than to keep switching up hook sizes for every square, but it’s going to be up to you – the person actually making up the blanket to decide whether you need to change hook sizes to keep your blanket looking even as you work through the different stitches.

This does involve trial and error which can make crochet sampler blankets a little frustrating, but ultimately these projects can be incredibly rewarding as you get to try out stitches that maybe you thought were too hard or that you wanted to try but didn’t want to use them for an entire project. These blankets are often made with an entire community of other crocheters too so that you have support and the advice of others if you have some difficulty making the stitches.

Keeping Things Interesting

Crochet Sampler blankets are fun projects to make as they are not repetitive so keep things interesting while having a large project to sink your hooks into. You get to explore the amazing variety of crochet stitches and end up with a blanket that is truly unique and will get admiring looks every time it is seen. If you worry about getting bored when making a large project with a single or only a couple of different crochet stitches in it, then a sampler project is perfect for you. There is plenty of variety to keep you interested and you get to try a new stitch frequently.

There are so many crochet sampler blanket patterns to choose from that you are sure to find one that catches your interest. Check out Ravelry for the biggest variety of crochet sampler blanket patterns around and you won’t be disapointed in the choices that await you.

Check out Froggity Frogs sampler blankets here and don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know about new stitch guides and new crochet pattern releases. You can sign up here and be the first to see what I’ve got cooking behind the scenes here at Froggity Frog.