How to Crochet a French Ticking Inspired Baby Blanket
I had a number of friends have babies this past spring and summer. Four, to be exact and as luck would have it, it was divided evenly – 2 boys and 2 girls. I needed some baby gifts and so this is how to crochet a French ticking inspired baby blanket.
For the first 2, a boy and a girl, I designed the Kerrisdale Baby Blanket which has proved to be quite popular. Find the free pattern here.
For the next 2 babies that were born, also a boy and a girl, I wanted to design another crocheted baby blanket that would work for both genders.
This time, I wanted to do stripes. But not just any stripes. It’s easy to do equal width blocks of colours – but I wanted to do something a little more complex and a little more refined. For inspiration, I looked at French ticking fabric.
French ticking is a true classic. It is found in home decor, linens and fabrics. It is typically blue and white, but there are other colours as well – even 3 colours. French ticking is characterized by a series of various width stripes.
In order to understand and recreate the stripe pattern in French ticking, it was necessary to analyze it. Like many things in life, it is math – a series of ratios. Some stripes are thick, while others are thin – but all together it is pleasing to the eye and is classic looking, yet still fresh.
I found 2 French ticking fabric samples that I liked the look of. One consisted of two colours and the other consisted of three colours. Once I analyzed the stripe pattern, I was able to translate it into a crochet baby blanket pattern.
In order to highlight the stripe pattern, I decided to use the woven stitch. I’m not sure why, but this particular crochet stitch goes by 4 different names: woven, moss, granite, linen. I have no idea why it has so many names. But this is an easy stitch – consisting only of a SC and a chain. It is somewhat dense and has coverage so that the stripes stand out. It’s also easy and quick to do. I could have done all SC but that would take much longer to do – it would also use more yarn.
Two Colour French Ticking Inspired Baby Blanket
The two-coloured pattern was transformed into a blue and white baby blanket for a friend. One of my go-to yarns for baby blankets is Caron Simply Soft. For this blanket, I used soft blue and off-white.
I mirrored the stripe pattern so that the blanket was symmetrical. Here is a PDF document that has the stripe pattern – I’ve written out the number of rows for each colour.
Two Colour French Ticking Stripe Pattern
To make this blanket, I used 2 skeins of each colour (light blue and off white). I also used a 5mm crochet hook.
To start, chain 120.
Row 1 – sc into the second chain from the hook, ch, sk 1, sc into the next chain, ch, sk 1 – continue to the end. At the end of the row you will sc in the last 2 stitches. Ch 1, turn.
Row 2 – sc, ch 1, sk 1, sc, ch 1, sk 1. Continue doing this pattern across. You will sc in the last 2 stitches.
Continue along until you have completed the stripe pattern.
For the border, I did 2 rounds of sc in blue and then a third round of hdc in the off-white.
My finished blanket size was 32 x 36. You can easily make this bigger by increasing the number of starting ch stitches and by repeating the stripe pattern again.
I love the look of this blanket. It’s striped – but not basic, boring stripes. They’re interesting stripes. It’s interesting, in a classic and fresh kind of way.
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Three Colour French Ticking Inspired Blanket
I also had a co-worker who had a baby girl and so I wanted to continue with the French Ticking idea but I wanted to try it with 3 colours.
For this blanket, I used Red Heart Soft – another one of my go-to baby blanket yarns. For this blanket, I used 2.5 skeins of grey, 2 skeins of off-white/cream and 1 skein of pink. You could easily swap/interchange the colours. I wanted pink in it, but not too much pink. If you want it to be pinker, swap the pink and the grey. I also used a 5mm crochet hook for this project.
Again, I used the woven stitch to highlight the stripes.
Start with ch 136 and continue with the woven stitch as described above.
Here is a PDF of the stripe pattern for the 3 colour French Ticking baby blanket:
Three Colour French Ticking Stripe Pattern
For the border, I did a round of sc in pink, a round of sc in cream and then a scalloped edge using 5 dc’s.
My finished size was 33 x 36. As mentioned above, you can easily increase the size by increasing the number of starting ch stitches and by repeating the pattern in order to achieve the length you want.
TIP – you will notice that each stripe grouping is an even number. This will result in your colour changes all happening on the same side. I didn’t cut my yarn for each colour change – I simply carried it up the side (be careful that it is not too tight). When it came to doing the border, I simply crocheted over it. This way I had hardly any ends to weave in – just at the beginning and just at the end.
I really love how these blankets turned out. I love the varying stripe widths and how they all coordinate together. These can be done in any colour and it is quite easy to make them larger, into an afghan or throw.
This pattern is an original pattern by West Coast Mom, of Too Much Love. Please do not claim this pattern as your own. If you wish to share this pattern, you may link to this pattern but please do not reprint it on your site. You may keep a copy for your own personal use but please DO NOT sell the pattern or distribute it.
You may sell products made from this pattern but please clearly credit the design to me, West Coast Mom, of Too Much Love, and provide a link to my blog www.toomuchlove.ca Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding.
