Crochet baby blanket- Safari themed with 9 crochet jungle animal appliques

The newest free pattern on our blog: Crochet Safari blanket with 9 jungle animal appliques such as – lion, elephant, hippo, rhino, panda bear, crocodile, sloth, koala, parrot. Here you will find how we get inspired, our design process and how we choose the perfect yarn for this project…

The inspiration:

If you follow us for quite some time, you know that I am a fan of appliques and love making them. I noticed that my crochet Jungle friends themed blanket vol.1(You can check the free pattern here) is most liked and preferred by you – our readers. So I wanted to give you a few more options to mix and match both blankets and appliques.

I love to crochet accurate blankets, and when I say jungle blanket – all the animals should live in that area. You can use these blankets in playtime, and you can play, have fun and learn with your children. And so the ” Crochet Safari jungle blanket ” was born.

We will share each applique separately to be easier for you to get the pattern because this one is long.  We have nine crochet appliques – Koala applique, Lion applique, Panda applique, Hippo, Rhino, Elephant, Parrot applique, Sloth applique, and Crocodile applique. 

As you know, we have so many applique-themed blankets, and we appreciate your positive feedback on all of them. If this is your first visit here, I am sure you will like our Jungle friends appliques baby blanket / Undersea Sweetness appliques blanket or / Forest friends appliques blanket 

I used not to crochet swatches, but now I know that it is essential, so I made a few ones. It took me a few days, and  I have tried at least 3 or 4 stitches. Either one of them was too textured or too lacy. When I opened my crochet stitch books, I found the “Floret stitch. “

It is easy, textured, and works up fast. When I design my applique blankets, I want them to be easy to crochet as the appliques are detailed, and if I use a very textured stitch, the blanket can look messy and overcrowded. I aim to share with you designs in which you will enjoy each step of the making process, without the pattern being sent in the WIPs (Work in progress) pile.

The Yarn:

In my previous crochet designs, I have always worked with DK (double knit) weight yarn, a medium three weight yarn. But a few months ago, I purchased worsted weight yarn and found that it is pretty easy to work with, and If you work one stitch pattern that doesn’t require ”too many stitches in pattern,” the final result is pretty beautiful.

When I start a project almost all the time, I want to finish it in 1-3 days as I am eager to see the final piece. I had quite a big stash of Lionbrand pound of love series, which is worsted weight yarn, and decided to give it a go. I was not surprised that this yarn is comfortable to work with. It is soft and squishy, and definitely, I will crochet a few more blankets with it.

The main point for me to use Lionbrand Pound of love yarn was to make a fast and easy blanket. Of course, quality, price, and yarn weight were crucial as well. The stitch definition is excellent, especially in this stitch I have used. The bump, which is made with dc stitch, is more visible with thicker yarn than the DK or thinner yarn. But you can still use thinner yarn for this Safari blanket.

Pattern:

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Materials:

• Crochet Hook size 6 mm / US- J size
• Scissors
• Yarn Needle
• Worsted weight yarn for the blanket itself. You can use whatever worsted weight yarn you have in your stash- I used Lionbrand Pound of love -454g/1020yds/932m 100% Premium Acrylic yarn in these colors:
  • Pastel green
  • Pastel pink
  • Yellow- Honey bee
  • Peach color- Creamsicle
  • Antique white color for joining and border

Notes :

Crochet Safari blanket is worked with squares. For the blanket, I made 9 squares which I joined together later, and put the appliques onto each square. Measurements of the full blanket are 32 inches in width/ 37 inches in height. Measurements of 1 square: width 11 inches-28cm / height 12,5 inches-32 cm.

The blanket is made with 9 textured squares. I made mine in different colors as follows: 3 squares in peach color, 1 square in yellow color, 3 squares in turquoise color, 2 squares in pale pink color.

It was a big dillema before I decide the layout as I have made 6 different variations. But this ones is bright, eye cathcing and I managed to add all the 9 appliqies on it. If you wish you can add a few aplliques and leave some squares empty or put all 9 as I did. It is all up to you and your imagination. You can join our Facebook page to see all the different layouts here.

In this post, I will share with you how to crochet the blanket itself. The squares, joining of squares and border. You can find all of the crochet appliques here:

• Crochet Hippo appliques here.
• Crochet Rhino applique here.
• Crochet Parrot applique here.
• Crochet Lion applique here.
• Crochet Panda applique here.
• Crochet Koala applique here.
• Crochet Sloth applique here.
• Crochet Elephant applique here.
• Crochet Crocodile applique here.

SAFARI BLANKET SQUARE PATTERN:

Row 1: Ch 33 plus 4, dc in 4th ch from hook, dc in rem chs, ch 1(count as sl.st), turn

Row 2: skip 1st st, * dc in next st, sl.st in next st * rep from * to * till the last 2 sts, dc in next st, sl.st in 3rd ch of trng ch-3, ch 3(count as dc), turn

Row 3: dc in next 33 sts, dc in 1st ch of initial ch -1, ch 1, turn ( See pictures 1 and 2 ) Repeat row 2 and 3 alternating them 13 times You should have 14 rows of sl.st and dc in total.

Switch to your basic color that you will use for joining the squares. I used cream color yarn. We will work around the square. When we work on left bottom and right side we will work around the posts of the first and last stitches of square rows. See pics.

Ch 1,(sc 1, ch 2, sc all in 1st st- 1st corner), *2 sc in next st, sc in next st* rep from * to * 14 times, 2 sc in next st, (sc 1, ch 2, sc 1 in 1st st base of row 1- 2nd corner), sc in next 33 sts, (sc 1, ch 2, sc 1 in next st-3rd corner), *2 sc in next st, sc in next st* rep from * to * 14 times, 2 sc in next st, (sc 1, ch 2, sc 1 in 1st st base of row 1- 2nd corner), sc in next 33 sts, join with sl.st on top of 1st st. FO. ( See picture 3, 4,5 and 6)

JOINING SQUARES TOGETHER:

First we will join the squares vertically and then horizontally. Join 1 and 2, then join 4 with 5, and now 7 with 8 vertically. Join 2 with 3, 5 with 6 and finally 8 with 9 vertically again. Now join the squares horizontally. Join 1 with 4, 2 with 5, 3 with 6. Now join 4 with 7, 5 with 8 and finally 6 with 9.

We will use sl.st in both back loops method to join the squares. Take 2 squares and put them right side facing each other. Insert your hook in the same corner of both squares and ch 1, Then make sl.st in every stitch working on both squares together. Work the slip stitch in back loops only. When you join the squares vertically and start joining them horizontally you will reach a point where both lines cross, make ch 1 and continue on joining next square.

BORDER:

Rnd 1: Insert your hook in any corner and pull a loop, ch 1, (hdc 1, ch 2, hdc 1 in corner ch-sp), hdc in each st around, repeat the same for all corners, join with sl.st on top of 1st st.

Rnd 2: make hdc in each st around, corner- make hdc 1, ch 2, hdc 1 in each corner ch space