Use the crochet planned pooling technique in a unique way with this granny stitch planned pooling blanket. Use a long striping yarn by Red Heart yarns and a special crochet planned pooling technique that uses granny clusters, you can create this large crochet blanket.

Personal note from Marly: I have had a lot of people contact me over the last couple of years in tears that they just can’t get the planned pooling technique to work for them…even though they have been crocheting for YEARS! ????I will often tell them that it quite possibly is that they are so good that this technique will be hard for them. See, this technique is very ‘artsy fartsy’ and requires a willingness on the crocheter to adjust the way he or she crochets to get the desired effect.

Crochet Planned Pooling is not traditional in that you simply keep perfect tension and perfect pattern stitch and everything will come out perfectly…it wont. Why? Because there is a third factor…the yarn! ????And if the yarn is not dyed absolutely perfect with all the yarn lengths of the same color exactly the same then there will need to be adjustments made.

Traditionally, when a variegated or striped yarn is dyed it is not specifically done so to be the exact lengths of color for each section of that color. There is always a slight variation in length. Because of this, the way to achieve this crochet technique you must adjust YOUR tension or YOUR stitches sometimes.

The good news is that most crocheters have found that using the granny stitch planned pooling technique vs the moss stitch planned pooling technique is easier for them and requires little adjusting. ????

Be sure to favorite and queue this project on Ravelry!

MATERIALS

YARN: Red Heart Soft Essentials Stripes: Pixie Stripe 21 balls (color A). Red Heart Soft Essentials: Peony, 4 balls (color B); Greyhound, 3 balls (color C); Cream, 1 ball (color D).

HOOK: J [6mm] or size to obtain correct stitch technique.

PLANNED POOLING TIP: your hook size and amount of clusters per color that you get may vary from person to person or may be different due to yarn dye lot.

SPECIAL STITCHES

• chain (ch)
• double crochet (dc)
• beginning granny cluster: Chain 2, 2 dc in space between the last dc and the first cluster of previous row
• granny cluster: 3 dc in same space

Pattern

FINISHED SAMPLE SIZE: 63 x 66 inches.

⭐️You must work through these bullet points to figure out how many chains you need for your granny stitch planned pooling blanket.⭐️

The yarn used in the blanket, Pixie Stripe, has 4 colors in one sequence (dark pink, light pink, cream, grey). Think of each color in the sequence as being the exact same length. To make this blanket, you will work through half of a color sequence (2 out of the 4 colors). Figure out how many colors are in the yarn you are using.

• Use a separate alternative color of yarn for the starting chain. It is best to think ahead to which border color you will want and use that color for the starting chain. Sample used Greyhound colorway.
• Determine how many granny clusters you will have by making a large swatch. Working through one color. You may need to change your hook size or adjust your tension to get the same amount of granny clusters for each color. Using an J hook (6 mm) yielded me 24 granny clusters per color.
• Worked through a half sequence (2 colors) and 21 clusters per color which gave me a total of 42 granny clusters in my first row. Estimate 3 chains per cluster plus an additional 3 chains for the extra dc at the end of the row. 42×3=126  126+3=129 chains.

With the border color, Chain 129 (or your established number) and leave a tail. Fasten off border color.

Row 1: With color A and at the start a new color, join to the first chain of the starting chain with a slip stitch, ch 2 (counts as a dc), *skip 2 chains, granny cluster (see special stitches) in the next chain; repeat from * across the row to last 3 chains [maintain the number of granny clusters per color as established in your swatch, for this example it is 21 per color], skip 2 chains, dc in last ch [this should dc should be the next color]. Turn — (42 clusters + ch 2 (counts as dc) and 1 dc at each end).

Row 2: Beginning granny cluster (see special stitches). Continue working granny clusters across row 2 in the space between the clusters of previous row, maintaining 21 [or the your established number] granny clusters in each color. Turn.

Note: The last cluster on Row 2 will be the first color in the next color sequence (the color you started with on Row 1). Also, The yarn pools into a diagonal pattern because of the extra granny cluster on the even numbered rows.

Odd Rows (1, 3, 5, 7…) will begin and end with dc and have 42 [or your established number] granny clusters across

Even Rows (2, 4, 6, 8…) will begin with a beginning granny cluster and have 43 [or your established number] granny clusters across

Row 3: Chain 2 (counts as dc), granny cluster in the next space between clusters; repeat from * to end of row, dc in last stitch of row. Turn.

You will now start to see the diagonal pooling on row 3! Keep the same amount of clusters per color and there will be a shift of one cluster from 2 rows below.

Continue with the granny stitch pattern, repeating Rows 2 and 3 and maintaining the same amount of granny clusters per color until you reach your desired size. End after a row 3. Fasten off.

NOTE: when you need to add new yarn, match up the color sequence so you can maintain the pattern. This will mean that sometimes when adding new skeins you sometimes have to “waste” what seems to be a huge amount of yarn. I kept these sections and used as filler between skein changes to conserve yarn.

If you would like a photo tutorial for the pattern above, please check out the wonderful one done for us by Rockin Lola! You can find it here!

BORDER

Granny Border

With color C, join with a slip stitch to any corner space, work beginning granny cluster, then working around the blanket, granny cluster in the space between each granny cluster and to make sure the corners lay flat, (granny cluster, ch 1, granny cluster) in each corner.

Work in this color sequence:

When working rounds of color you can change color in last stitch of round on final pull through. Here is a video to help if you need it: https://youtu.be/klBMm9gCqig

• 2 rounds Greyhound,
• 3 rounds Peony,
• 1 round Cream,
• 3 Rounds Peony,
• 2 Rounds Greyhound, and final round of SC in each stitch. Fasten off.

FINISHING

Weave in all ends. I highly recommend the bury in ends method by Anne Berk aka Annetarsia!

This free pattern was part of the Hygge Home CAL with Marie Segaras of the Underground Crafter. Learn more here!

Marly Bird’s Planned Pooling Posts:

Thanks so much to Rocky for sharing with us her method of Granny Stitch Planned Pooling Crochet. If you want to learn more about Crochet Planned Pooling you can view my other posts on how to use the moss stitch.

• The Best Crochet Planned Pooling Argyle Tutorial
• 10 Secrets to Perfect Planned Pooling in Crochet
• Planned Pooling-Finished Starting Chains
• How to create Crochet Planned Pooling Argyle Charts

You can also head to my YouTube Channel to see all of the tutorial videos I have for Crochet Planed Pooling Argyle.

Be sure to join us later this week for another special Guest Post with more information on Crochet Planned Pooling.

Yarn Pooling Made Easy by Marly Bird:

Did you know that Marly has published a book on Planned Pooling Crochet? In this book, published by Leisure Arts, you will find 10 beautiful designed patterns that you can create using Red Heart yarns.