Essentials Co-op Blanket (paid pattern)

I’ve been on a very specific design kick recently–very specific because the blankets I’ve been designing will not have a large following. But I don’t care. These blankets are for me and the other people who both crochet and school their children using Classical Conversations–in particular the Essentials program. (You can see my Foundations blanket here.)

Picture a hardcore grammar class where students are asked to parse (identify the part of speech for each word in a sentence) and diagram it. That’s what our students are learning. Essentials is a writing and grammar intensive with fun math games. I’ve tried to encapsulate the class in this blanket–complete with diagramming (sentence patterns s-vi and s-vt-do).

Anyone who has done this program will appreciate the mustache in the corner, which represents the creator of the IEW (Institutes for Excellence in Writing) portion of the class.

I’ve called the pattern the Essentials Co-op Blanket. Utilizing the corner-to-corner (C2C) method, you can whip this blanket up in no time (or a couple of weeks). My pattern includes graphs for each panel and a brief C2C primer. Also included is a Connected Lettering tutorial to help keep the letters connected and not looking too blocky.

I tried a new yarn for this pattern: Lion Brand Basic Stitch Anti-Pilling in Beige Heather, Purple, Deep Denim Heather, Baby Blue, and Pine Heather. You can choose to follow my color scheme or use one of your own. This yarn has a great drape and weight, but you’ll need 18 skeins total. That being said, you can substitute and worsted (4) weight yarn you choose.

While I was trying new things, I also tried the Zipper Join for the first time. I found this video to learn the join. It can be a little labor intensive, but the end result is well worth it. The slip stitch seam is flat and does not add any bulk to the blanket. I will definitely use this one again in the future.

Finally, I finished the blanket with a simple crochet border to mimic the beige join.

If you’re interested in making this blanket, you can purchase the pattern for $3.99 here. I’d love to see your finished project. Share a copy to my Facebook page or tag @thehazelnutskein on Instagram.