Tunisian Crochet Rainbow Blanket Pattern

Looking for a throw to brighten things up a bit? If so, the Tunisian Crochet Rainbow Blanket Pattern might be the perfect project for you!

Continuing with my never-ending love of designing patterns with self-striping yarn, I am so excited to share this free rainbow crochet blanket pattern with you today.

Purchase a printable version of this pattern on my shop here or Etsy here.

Tunisian Crochet Rainbow Blanket Pattern

The Stitches

Have you tried the Tunisian Crochet Chevron stitch yet? It’s become one of my favorites.

I used it for the Aloha blanket I whipped up while living in Hawaii. It was the perfect addition to our lanai. And yep, I used self-striping yarn for it…of course.

But for the rainbow blanket, I did something a little different by bringing in a neutral color yarn + self-striping yarn.

Those colors combined with the chevron pattern really make this blanket pop.

For the Tunisian chevron stitch, all you need to know is how to do the Tunisian simple stitch, the Tunisian simple stitch 3 together and how to yarn over.

I do have a video for this stitch, but I’m embarrassed to say it’s pretty terrible. I haven’t had a chance to reshoot it yet but it you’d like to squint your eyes and try to get past the blurriness of it, you can watch it here.

But for those of you who are good to go with photo tutorials, here you go!

Tunisian Crochet Chevron Stitch How-To

Yarn A: Cream Color

Yarn B: Mandala

Stitch steps:

1. Yarn over (this creates your first increase) insert hook into next vertical bar, and pull up a loop

2. Pull up a loop in each of the next 4 vertical bars

3. Insert hook under next 3 vertical bars and pull up a loop (this is called a Tunisian Simple Stitch three together, TSS3tog is the abbreviation)

4. Pull up a loop in each of the next 5 vertical bars

5. Yarn over (this is your second increase) and pull up a loop in the next vertical bar

Continue steps 1 – 5 until you reach the end of the row, which is the edge stitch.

6. Yarn over, work the last st as for Lts, RetP

The Yarn

As mentioned, I combined two different types of yarn for this pattern, which has been pretty common for me when it comes to designing a pattern with self-striping yarn.

I’ve linked to quite a few of the patterns in this self-striping yarn round-up post.

When Lion Brand released this line of limited edition premium yarns and put it on sale, I grabbed a ton of neutrals. You can still snatch some up or if you’d like a substitute for it, their Pound of Love yarn would be perfect.

Basically, you need a weight 4 yarn. You can check out www.yarnsub.com if you need more recommendations.

Since I was going for the rainbow effect, I chose Mandala yarn in Chimera, which you can check out here.

I do think any of the Mandala yarn colorways would look fantastic. I’m actually in the process of making one of these blankets with Warlock; one of my favorite Manadala colors.

I’ll share a picture on our Facebook and Instagram when I’m done.

A Note About Deconstructing Self-Striping Yarn

In this post, I talk about how to have more control over the color changes when it comes to using self-striping yarn. Some makers don’t like using this yarn because they want to be able to control the stripes a little better.

I totally get that.

For this pattern, since I wanted the rainbow colors to flow more evenly, I did a little reconstructing.

What does this mean?

It means you cut out part of the yarn in order to get to the color you want.

So, if the next Mandala cake didn’t start with the right color, I cut out part of the yarn until I reached the color I wanted. Then, I attached the color(s) I cut out to the end of that cake.

Ok, enough chit-chat. Are you ready for the pattern?

The Pattern

Purchase a printable version of this pattern on my shop here or Etsy here.

Description:

The Rainbow blanket is made with the Tunisian Chevron Stitch and two different kinds of yarn. By using self-striping yarn, the ease of color changes is done for you. Once you get the hang of the stitch, this makes for one meditative and relaxing crochet project.

Notes:

• Finished size measures 42 1/2″ wide x 57 1/2″ long
• Change yarn when you have two loops left on your hook at the end of the Return Pass
• You are crocheting one row with the cream yarn (Yarn A) and 2 rows with the Mandala (Yarn B); when switching colors, you do not fasten off, and instead, carry up the yarn
• To change size of blanket lengthwise, add more rows
• To change width of blanket, chain a multiple of 14 + 1
• In order for the rainbow colors to flow, I ended up deconstructing the Mandala yarn; to learn what that means, read the section in this post titled “How to Have More Control of the Color Changes”

Materials:

HOOK(S)

6.5 mm Tunisian crochet hook with 32″ cable (like this one)

6.0 mm regular crochet hook (for border)

YARN

Weight 4 • approx. 930 yds

Lion Brand Limited Edition Premium, 5 skeins

Color: Neutrals

Purchase HERE

Weight 3 • approx. 1,770 yds

Lion Brand Mandala, 3 cakes

Color: Chimera

Purchase HERE

NOTIONS

Scissors

Tapestry needle

GAUGE

2 pattern repeats wide = 5 1/2″; 4″ = 10 rows long

Abbreviations:

ch chain

rep repeat

FwP forward pass

RetP return pass

Lts last Tunisian stitch

Tss Tunisian simple stitch

Tss3tog Tunisian simple stitch three together

yo yarn over

sc single crochet

slst slip stitch

st(s) stitch(es)

Special Stitches:

Tss3tog

Insert hook under next 3 vertical bars, yo and draw up loop through all 3 loops. (Decreases by 2 sts)

Lts

insert hook under both vertical bars of the last stitch and complete as for Tunisian simple stitch

RetP

ch 1, (yo, pull through the next 2 loops) until only one loop remains on the hook

The Pattern:

Yarn A: Cream Yarn

Yarn B: Mandala

Foundation row With Yarn A, Ch 197

Row 1 (yarn A)

Pull up a loop in the back bump of the 2nd ch from hook and each remaining ch, RetP. (197 loops on hook)

Switch to yarn B when you have two loops left on hook on RetP

Row 2 (yarn B)

1. Yarn over (this creates your first increase) insert hook into next vertical bar, and pull up a loop

2. Pull up a loop in each of the next 4 vertical bars

3. Insert hook under next 3 vertical bars and pull up a loop (this is called a Tunisian Simple Stitch three together, TSS3tog is the abbreviation)

4. Pull up a loop in each of the next 5 vertical bars

5. Yarn over (this is your second increase) and pull up a loop in the next vertical bar

Continue steps 1 – 5 until you reach the end of the row, which is the edge stitch.

6. Yarn over, work the last st as for Lts, RetP

Row 3 (yarn B)

Repeat steps from Row 2

Switch to yarn A when you have two loops left on hook on RetP

Row 4 (yarn A)

Repeat steps from Row 2

Rows 5 – 154

Repeat Rows 2 – 4; making sure to end on a yarn A row

Last row (yarn A)

sl st in each vertical bar across row to bind off, inserting hook as for Lts on the last st.

Fasten off. Weave in all ends.

Continue to border instructions

For Border (See Picture tutorial below)

The border is only stitched on the sides of the blanket and not the ends.

On one side of the blanket, you’ll notice the yarn that has been carried up when switching colors; be sure to grab this when you are crocheting the border (see picture example on the next page).

Switching to 6 mm regular crochet hook, attach yarn A to corner, ch 1, sc in next st (making sure you grab the cream-colored yarn that has been carried up), sc in each st to end, sl st in last st

Fasten off, weave in ends

For the other side, attach yarn to corner, ch 1, sc in next st, sc in each st along edge to end, sl st in last st

Fasten off, weave in ends

Block blanket if desired

Congrats! You’re finished. 🙂

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