2022 Valentine’s Bundle of One Blanket and Two Large Squares

I was never one of those teenage girls who had perfect handwriting or dotted their i‘s with little hearts. My hand could never move as fast as my thoughts and I just wanted to get the words on paper as quickly as possible.

That translated to some messy handwriting… but some carefree art!

This little bundle of patterns feels like the swirly doodles of grade school where crushes and who-likes-who are a major distraction from math and science. I like the carefree fun in these lines.

There are two large squares (chart size 81 x 81; 40 windows to start with when using interlocking) and one blanket (chart size 161 x 161; 80 windows in the foundation for interlocking) in this set. You can join all three together or use the squares as pillows or join the squares to other squares for a blanket of your own.

The name for the baby blanket, “My Heart is Full of Love“, comes from the cliche saying that I said repeatedly every time I had a new baby. Your arms get full, but your heart gets fuller! **I added “of love” to the title on Ravelry because I didn’t realize another designer already used that title.**

Interlocking crochet by cyncitycrochets
Mosaic crochet by Angela Kermack

You’ll notice that the mosaic sample (pink and white in the images above) has the interlocking mesh dots as part of its chart. Lately I’ve been adjusting my mosaic pieces to be more solid but this set has not been adjusted.

The square titled “Flying Hearts” looks like wings to me. And “Swirly Hearts” is just the description of what I see as well. Both of the samples below were crocheted by Angela Kermack using the mosaic technique.

Flying Hearts
Swirly Hearts

This eBook is on both Ravelry and Etsy. Each piece in this bundle is available separately on Ravelry as well.

For the blanket (My Heart is Full of Love):

  • Chart is 161 x 161
  • Finished measurements approximately 40” x 40” / 101cm x 101cm
  • 4.5 mm hook (US7)
  • Gauge: 16 DC x 8 rows = 4”
  • Worsted weight yarn
  • Interlocking yardage: (1820-1870 yards total)
    • Main color (MC) – 910 yards plus 50 for optional border
    • Accent color (AC) – 910 yards
  • Overlay Mosaic Yardage (1975 – 2475 yards)
    • Main color – 925 yards
    • Contrasting color – 1050 yards
    • Plus, optional envelope border: 500 yards

For the large squares (Flying Hearts & Swirly Hearts):

  • Chart is 81 x 81
  • Finished measurements approximately 20” x 20” / 51cm x 51cm
  • 4.5 mm hook (US7)
  • Gauge: 16 DC x 8 rows = 4”
  • Worsted Weight Yarn
  • Interlocking yardage: (460 – 485 yards total)
    • Main color (MC) – 230 yards plus 25 for optional border
    • Accent color (AC) – 230 yards
  • Overlay Mosaic Yardage (530 yards)
    • Main color – 265 yards
    • Contrasting color – 265 yards

Get the Patterns

Take 20% off your ENTIRE CART when you purchase this eBook; use code “20HEARTS” on Etsy and Ravelry until February 20, 2022.

“2022 Valentine’s Bundle” eBook of 3 patterns on Ravelry
“2022 Valentine’s Bundle” eBook of 3 patterns on Etsy
“My Heart is Full of Love” blanket pattern on Ravelry
“Flying Hearts 40” on Ravelry
“Swirly Hearts 40” on Ravelry

ashleebrotzell

Seahorse Dance

I used to think seahorses were mythical creatures like unicorns. They amaze me! They are so tiny and delicate looking. These seahorses are dancing a love-dance. Maybe the father will carry some babies soon (see, another reason they sound like mythical creatures!).

I often wished I could make my husband do the pregnant part of having our children. I love my babies but I hated pregnancy. I started feeling sick before I knew I was pregnant and it only ended when the baby came out.

My first baby come a month early. I couldn’t sleep one night and suddenly my water broke. It’s common in movies because it’s exciting and dramatic but in real life less than 10% of births begin with the Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM). Preterm PROM (when your waters break before 37 weeks) is even rarer and most statistics say it occurs in 1-2% of births. I was definitely not ready for my baby at 36 weeks but that’s life.

I wrote a bit more about Alice in a post last year:

Preemie Love Blanket

When I was nearing the end of my 2nd pregnancy I truly had no idea when I would go into labor since I had been so blindsided the first time. I was thankful when I made it past the mark of having an early baby and he came at exactly 39 weeks. Remington was a nice, healthy baby boy: 9 lbs, 3 oz / 4167.38 g.

My third child delayed her entrance. Eleven days after her due date I was induced with Melody. She was inside me for almost 6 weeks longer Alice had been and she had the weight to prove it! Alice was born 6 lbs 13 oz / 3090 g and Melody was 9 lbs 11 oz / 4394.18 g when she was born.

Here’s a way-too-personal photo of my giant pregnant self. I was ready, but Melody wasn’t born for another full month after this photo!

My 3rd pregnancy – Melody stayed in there for another month after this picture!

Anyway, back to the crochet…

I originally drew this pattern to be included in my eBook, “More in the Ocean” but when I was finished I realized I had started with the wrong chart size! All the patterns in that eBook have a chart size of 121 x 121 and this pattern is 161 x 161.

I still wanted six patterns in that eBook so I was forced to try again on the merman pattern. I had pretty much given up on getting him right and was going to put seahorses in the eBook instead. This mistake redeemed itself and now we have “Trident” in the eBook AND this larger baby blanket pattern with seahorses!

Some people have different ideas on what size a baby blanket is anyway. So they may be more pleased with this larger size. Other people are joining the squares together to create an adult-sized blanket and may find it difficult to add this pattern into the mix.

I can’t wait to see your beautiful creations with yarn. My tester, cyncitycrochets, used some pretty neat ombre yarn in this sample. White is used as the Main Color (you can tell because those outside border lines are white). The Wrong Side (WS) looks pretty awesome when you use the interlocking technique – if you use the overlay mosaic technique the WS will be striped.

  • Interlocking. Right Side, White as MC.
  • Interlocking, Wrong Side

This pattern, like all of my patterns, comes complete with written instructions and a chart for two techniques: interlocking crochet and overlay mosaic crochet. Choose your favorite technique or challenge yourself and learn a new one! I have a few tutorials on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/c/AshleeBrotzellDesigns

The chart that comes with the mosaic method has X’s to show where the dropped double crochets go.

I hope you enjoyed my little stories and I hope you really love this new pattern! The links to Etsy and Ravelry are both here; if you don’t have a preference I think Ravelry is better (less fees for me, easier to update patterns when needed, nice library to keep things organized, photos of everyone’s projects) but I offer both platforms so you can make your own choice!

Get the Pattern

“Seahorse Dance” on Ravelry
“Seahorse Dance” on Etsy

Chart size 161 x 161

When you meet gauge, this finishes to 40″ x 40″.

Use code “DANCE” to get 30% off this pattern until October 21, 2021. Valid on Etsy and Ravelry.

ashleebrotzell

Electric Shock

You may recognize this as the image I used for the background of the eBook cover page. It was probably the easiest pattern to draw in this set. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t still awesome!

I created this design as the background for my Trident square. And then I liked how it looked on its own as well. Happy accidents, right!?

  • Mosaic Crochet by Angela Kermack
  • Interlocking Crochet

Whether you use the mosaic technique or the interlocking technique, the Right Side looks the same.

Angela Kermack used white as the Main Color in her overlay mosaic sample.

I used white as the second color (accent color, contrasting color) in my interlocking crochet sample. I love how the Wrong Side is a different image when you use the interlocking technique.

This pattern works up quickly because the repeating section is easy to memorize. I use my phone to read the patterns when I am crocheting and my screen always dims before I get to the end of the row. With this pattern that didn’t interrupt my crocheting, I was able to just keep going because I knew that it just kept repeating.

However, the “easy” level of this pattern actually caused me to feel bored many times. I prefer something that requires more focus and attention otherwise my mind wanders.

Do you like the repetitive patterns?

Get the Pattern

“Electric Shock” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“Electric Shock” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

ashleebrotzell

All the Waves

This pattern, like all the patterns in this eBook, has a chart size of 121 x 121. This works up to 30″ square when you meet gauge so I call it a baby blanket but you can also think of it as an extra-large panel in a blanket. If you join 4 or 6 of these together you will get a full-size blanket.

If you like these waves you can also get a different size! I use a very small section of wave in my tutorial on YouTube: Wave 10, Locked Filet Mesh Crochet-A-Long Tutorial. You can crochet the small 5″ square with me using the interlocking crochet method (also called Locked Filet Mesh or LFM).

You can also download the PDF of the tiny wave square for FREE on Ravelry! Wave 10 on Ravelry

Interlocking Wave 10 crocheted for YouTube tutorial

The same pattern is used in my video tutorial on how to Read Mosaic Crochet Chart Without X’s. This is a very handy skill to have but if you are used to having X’s on the chart, have no fear: my patterns are all being updated to include a chart with X’s now. It is taking me awhile because I have so many patterns, but I am nearly finished getting them all updated!

I also used these waves in a scarf which was part of my 2020 Father’s Day CAL: Waves Scarf on Ravelry

Waves Scarf crocheted by Claudia

And I made this design available as a shawl as well; you can begin with the long edge or short end to get a different effect with your self-striping yarn! Waves Shawl on Ravelry

Waves Shawl crocheted by Dawn Haynes

My “Into The Ocean” blanket pattern uses these waves as a border around some swirling waves.

Crocheted by Christine Schneider

So, I guess it’s fair to say I like water-themed patterns!

Get the Pattern

“All the Waves” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“All the Waves” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

Mosaic Crochet, by Angela Kermack

ashleebrotzell

Four Lobsters

My mom grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. The east coast of Canada does a lot of fishing and trapping of lobsters and crabs.

She had a tiny wooden (pretend) lobster trap that my sister and I liked to play with. We grew up in Saskatchewan which is all prairie, so there were no local lobster traps.

I always thought the nets looked cool and the traps were very clever – the lobsters can get in but they can’t get out.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old-fashioned_lobster_trap,_Fishermen’s_Museum_at_Pemaquid,_Bristol,_Maine_-_20130917.JPG

Surprisingly, I was quite old before I finally learned that lobsters are generally black in the ocean and not bright red like cartoons would have me believe.

My son’s t-shirt; a smiling, red lobster, with the quote “feelin’ snappy”

This pattern, “Four Lobsters”, was originally going to be part of my Baby Ocean & Others eBook. But I knew some of you wouldn’t like the design as a “baby” blanket because it isn’t that “cute”. But I also know that some of you are not a fan of the “cutesy, cartoon” designs so I created a new eBook instead!

My tester has been waiting a few months for me to finally publish this! Nessa Miller used red as the Main Color and white as the Accent Color.

If you use the interlocking crochet technique then the Wrong Side is an inverted opposite type image (but not exactly opposite). If you use the overlay mosaic technique it will just be striped.

Get the Pattern

“Four Lobsters” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“Four Lobsters” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

ashleebrotzell

Trident

I almost didn’t publish this pattern. My first few drafts were just dreadful. And then when I thought I managed to get it right I’d show someone and they would point out this or that and no matter how kind they were it was starting to really wear me down.

I have other drafts of patterns that have discouraged me and will never see the light of day. I am glad I decided to free this guy. My husband said the merman’s face reminds him of a Lego figurine.

I don’t know a lot about mythology but this guy was definitely based on King Triton from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. This king has a big shaggy beard, sexy biceps, and a lightning stick (a trident).

  • By cyncitycrochets
  • Wrong side, interlocking crochet

My tester, cyncitycrochets picked the perfect colors, in my opinion! If you use the interlocking crochet technique then the Wrong Side is an inverted opposite type image (but not exactly opposite). If you use the overlay mosaic technique it will just be striped.

Get the Pattern

“Trident” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“Trident” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

ashleebrotzell

To Sail Away

I don’t do a lot of boating here in Saskatchewan. We mostly have wheat fields. There are a few bodies of water that people use for recreation but it has never been a top interest of mine.

I don’t think this sailboat is going very fast because the water looks quite calm.

  • Wrong Side, Interlocking
  • By Angela Kermack

This black and blue interlocking crochet sample by cyncitycrochets shows the Wrong Side in the image above (the Right Side can be seen at the top of this post or scroll down to see her instagram post). I like how she equated it to the night sky in her instagram post. If you use the mosaic technique like Angela Kermack did then the back will just be striped.

Get the Pattern

“To Sail Away” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“To Sail Away” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

ashleebrotzell

One Octopus

Yesterday I published a new eBook: More in the Ocean. This pattern, One Octopus, is probably my favorite one of the bunch!

I drew this while I was working on my previous eBook, Baby Ocean & Others. But this octopus doesn’t have the right cartoon quality to be considered a “baby” design, in my opinion.

After I double-checked that my octopus had eight legs I asked my 4-year-old son what he thought of my picture. He is our resident creature expert, especially ocean creatures, so I thought he would like my octopus drawing. He looked at it, seemed impressed, stated it’s a “colossal squid”, and walked away! So, I guess you can interpret it as a squid if you like.

  • By Angela Kermac
  • By Nessa Miller
  • Wrong Side

My testers did a great job: Angela Kermack did the mosaic sample and Nessa Miller did the interlocking one. I love the red and cream one because it looks like what I was imagining in my head. For the interlocking crochet blanket Nessa used light blue as the Main Color for her piece. You can see on the wrong side that the bubbles become plus signs and the colors are mostly inverted.

Get the Pattern

“One Octopus” on Ravelry
More in the Ocean eBook on Ravelry
“One Octopus” on Etsy
More in the Ocean eBook on Etsy

The eBook contains 6 patterns and saves you more than 30% compared to buying them individually.

  • One Octopus
  • To Sail Away
  • Trident
  • Four Lobsters
  • All the Waves
  • Electric Shock

These baby blankets are all 30″ square when you meet gauge. Each pattern has a chart size of 121 x 121 and you begin with 60 windows when you do the interlocking crochet technique.

ashleebrotzell

More in the Ocean eBook

A few weeks ago I published an eBook called Baby Ocean & Others to Ravelry and Etsy. I really enjoyed drawing those ocean-themed baby blanket patterns. In fact, I couldn’t stop at just six so I’ve created another eBook called More in the Ocean!

This new eBook contains 6 more ocean-themed designs. I am calling it More in the Ocean! It is available on Ravelry and Etsy. You can easily mix and match the patterns from both eBooks because they are all the same chart size 121 x 121). I think these new patterns have a more grown-up feel than the previous eBook. Which one is your favorite?

I am very thankful to my group of testers for this bundle: Angela Kermack, cyncitycrochets, & Nessa Miller!

To refresh your memory, the Baby Ocean & Others eBook can be found on Ravelry and Etsy and it contains these patterns: Baby Ocean, Baby Dolphin, Baby Crab, Baby Sea Turtle, Baby Whale, Baby Fish.

Each pattern is listed individually on Ravelry and Esty as well as being contained in the eBook on both platforms. You can also search by “category: baby” on Etsy and you will see these in my Ravelry bundle: Baby Blankets.

More In The Ocean eBook

This full eBook is available on Etsy or Ravelry now. The individual patterns contained within are published separately as well. In the next few days you will see a new blog post to go along with each of the individual patterns.

More in the Ocean eBook contains these six patterns:

“more in the Ocean” on Ravelry
“More in the Ocean” on Etsy

The eBook is a 30% savings compared to buying each pattern individually.

Each pattern is also listed individually on Etsy and Ravelry!

Ravelry

Etsy

ashleebrotzell

Many Hearts Baby Throw Blanket

Before I jump into the details on my newest pattern (which is really a remake of an old pattern), let me tell you that I am having a FALL SALE on everything in my Ravelry Store and Etsy Shop until the end of September! Get 25% off, no Codes needed! Offer expired.

Many moons ago (that’s a funny saying, isn’t it?) I came out with an eBook called “Hearts, Hearts, Hearts” and I put an assortment of squares of different sizes and designs in it. The largest pattern in the eBook was my “Many Hearts Throw“.

Anonymous crocheted this sweet blue and white version of the large throw blanket.

By request, I have now created a baby-blanket-size version of this throw. The original throw is 70″ square and the new baby blanket is 38″ square. You can see that the corners are the same but the repeated hearts section inside is smaller.

I used the interlocking crochet technique for my sample because I like the way the back looks (mosaic crochet produces stripes on the wrong side but interlocking crochet shows these hearts pointing the other direction). This lavender purple is being used as my main color (MC) in the pattern. Most of my patterns use the darker color as the first color used, or the Main Color in the pattern.

I also made a super fun little video clip because Etsy tells me people like to see videos and Instagram’s algorithms are really pushing for us to use videos instead of photos, so here’s my attempt at fitting in. It was actually an accident that I started recording a video. I meant to press the button to capture a photo and somehow I bumped the thing that changed it to a video instead and that’s when I remembered that I need to try using videos anyway. This is not the kind of video I consider to be award-winning. It’s just to meet algorithm madness and try to get better organic reach. I don’t pay for ads or subscribers, I prefer to keep my followers as a list of people who actually want to see my stuff.

Video of a blanket hanging on a fence near a tree

I spent a lot of time debating internally whether this pattern deserved its own Ravelry listing or if it should just be added to the Many Hearts Throw as a size difference. I ultimately decided that since the various sizes of “Many Hearts” all have their own listings then this blanket can have its own as well.

I have turned on a permanent promotion that allows you to get this baby blanket free if you’ve purchased the larger throw blanket on Ravelry. And, of course, I have added it as a late addition to the “Hearts, Hearts, Hearts” eBook so if you already have that eBook then you will now have this new baby blanket as well. I didn’t have all of these patterns listed on Etsy previously so that’s a new thing here too.

“Many Hearts Baby Throw” on Ravelry
“Hearts, Hearts, Hearts” eBook on Ravelry
“Many Hearts Baby Throw” on Etsy
“Hearts, Hearts, Hearts” eBook on Etsy

This eBook has also *finally* been updated to include the x-marked charts for mosaic crochet. There are 15 patterns in this set and while I’ve been busy updating all my patterns I did leave the “hard” tasks for last. The eBooks just feel like so much more work than the individual patterns. I still need to update the Alphabet eBooks and the Holiday eBook.

I hope to create a YouTube tutorial on using these charts marked with X’s, but for now I only have written instructions.

Tutorial on reading X-marked Charts for Mosaic Crochet

Also, a side note: the smallest square, “Tutorial Hearts“, is the one I used in my videos to teach the interlocking crochet method (Locked Filet Mesh / LFM) and overlay mosaic crochet method.

I also made this neat photo signature business card thing. At one point I had planned on going to graphic design school and I love how I get to build some of those skills while I turn my crochet hobby into a business! So many avenues to explore!

ashleebrotzell