I love to crochet blankets. They're pretty, practical, and there are tons of gorgeous free patterns for them on the internet. I usually do a throw size, but I plan to make a couple of bed-size blankets this year. What I look for is a pattern I can adapt to working with many different colors (thrifting yarn usually means you generally don't have many multiples) and that has a repeating row or rows that are easy to crochet.
This is one I made from Anastacia Zittel's Ocean Tranquility pattern (free to download and print out here.) The pattern is a little more challenging than most of the ones I make, but I love the way it turns out. The color combination may seem odd, but I wanted a look of sitting on beach sand and watching the tide roll in.
This throw was the favorite one I made from last year; it's made based on the Worth Street pattern from Mary Maxim (free to download and printout here) with a bit of tweaking on my part. Another name for this one-row repeating stitch is drunken granny. Someone called it a "sushi" throw and that's absolutely the perfect name for it.
After completing an unfinished granny stitch ripple baby blanket that I thrifted, I found a pattern for making one of my own at Yarnspirations (free to download and print out here.) This throw was a pleasure to make, although I did struggle with tension a bit because of the jogs in the repeating rows that formed the ripples.
Yarnspirations and Mary Maxim are great places to find free patterns. Ravelry requires you to create an account to access their website, but there's no charge, and they offer a lot of free perks along with their free patterns.
Another place to find free patterns is in crochet books at your local library. When I was young and poor everything I made was from library books. If you sign up for their newsletter, you can get download the library of free crochet e-books at allfreecrochet.com. There are a lot of other crochet sites that will do the same; just do a search for free crochet e-books and you'll get quite a list.
If you like to crochet along with a maker on a project, then your best bet is to follow the free pattern tutorials or recommendation videos on Youtube. I have some links over there on the sidebar to two of the best (Jayda InStitches and Elise Rose Crochet) but there are many, many more.
Finally, consider designing and sharing your own blanket pattern. This is more for experienced makers, but it's fun to try coming up with your own patterns. I might do that this year if I have some extra time on my hands, and if I do I'll pass along my pattern for free here on the blog.
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