Learn to make the Color Swirl Blanket, a adventure of color and half double crochet stitches, from a free crochet graph by Divine Debris

Happy April friends! It feels like forever since I made a blog post but I’ve been working away here at my house trying to make some fun and exciting designs for y’all. And this week, I’ve got a goodie for you (IMO) and it’s a great pattern for those of us who are still experiencing some chilly temps – the Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern.

I think as a lot of my wall hangings show, I love to explore the movement of color in the form of yarn. And over the years I’ve had so much fun making wavy colors in single crochet but I wanted to try something else – using hdc, which is a different animal altogether. Hdc is a slightly taller stitch so the design works up a bit different and then the finished pattern just had a bit of a stretched look. Maybe next time I’ll use dc 🙂 How fun would that be.

Using Stitch Fiddle I designed this blanket just like I would a wall hanging and it’s worked basically the same way – from the bottom up in rows. Each row is hdc across, with a “ch 1, turn” at the beginning of the row. I’ve found that as long as you make that “ch 1” approximately the same height as your usual hdc, you don’t need a “ch 2” or a replacement stitch, you can just work the hdc as your first st. And then it makes your edges of your blanket really tidy.

I designed this blanket to be worked one color at a time, so you are basically doing intarsia or the “bobbin method” of crochet all the way across. I have a photo below showing how I just kept the skeins of yarn attached to the blanket as I worked the rows back and forth. As I note, be sure to turn your wip “right, left, right” across – this, I’ve found, helps to keep the yarn from getting too twisted. And be sure to drop the yarn (after you change colors on the final pull through of the hdc) down the WS no matter which side if facing you, it keeps the RS looking clean and tidy IMO. I hope this helps 😀

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you like this blanket. It makes me smile and as always, the fringe is optional but you can add it if you’re like me and like to add 300+ pieces of yarn while watching tv 😀 And don’t forget to like this pattern on Ravelry, it helps my pattern get seen by others.

Please note: I was provided the yarn for this pattern by Lion Brand Yarn for the purposes of designing a kit and used it for the Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern, with compensation. I wasn’t provided the yarn with the expectations of positive or negative reviews but been using Pound of Love Yarn for as long as I’ve been crocheting, it’s one of my favorite worsted with yarns for blankets. And I was commissioned to make this pattern and you can buy a kit for this pattern on Lion Brand’s Website. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase yarn through any of the links in this post, I may be compensated. And do not make videos using my patterns.

Copyright @ Divine Debris 2025. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author. Sales of finished products are permitted, but the designer requests that you link back to the pattern and credit Divine Debris with the original design under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please contact info@divinedebris.com.

(this post contains affiliate links)

If you appreciate my patterns I hope you’d consider purchasing an ad-free pdf of this pattern in my Ravelry shop and Lovecrafts shop (coming soon)!

Where to purchase the Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern

Level

Intermediate (need to know how to read a graph and do intarsia/”bobbin” method)

Materials

US H (5.00 mm) crochet hook
Worsted weight/ size #4 yarn
- 4 colors
  - A (dark grey): 31.5 oz/ 2008 yds
  - B (teal): 9.8 oz/ 625 yds
  - C (light grey): 8.14 oz/ 519 yds
  - D (pink): 8.7 oz/ 555 yds
  - I used Pound of Love by Lion Brand Yarn
  - Check out the kit here
Notions: scissors, measuring tape, yarn needle

Gauge

14 hdc x 10 rows = 4” (blocked)

Terms/ Stitches used

St: Stitch
Ch: Chain
RS: Right Side
Hdc: Half double crochet

Notes

As is industry standard, this pattern is just a free graph and not written instructions but you can purchase the pattern for a fee in my Ravelry shop.
This pattern is worked in one piece from the bottom up in rows of hdc.
The pattern begins with a Chain 196 in color A, you skip 2 chs and hdc into the 3rd ch from the hook (skipped sts count as a hdc) and then continue as the graph indicates.
From Row 2 on, each row begins with a “ch 1, turn,” and the ch 1 does not count as a stitch.
This pattern doesn’t require you to carry the yarn. To keep the RS tidy, I suggest keeping the yarn attached to the skein as much as you can, dropping the unused color down the WS, and change colors on the last pull through of the hdc.
The odd-numbered rows are the Right Side.
In the photos Pound of Love by Lion Brand Yarn was used: Color A is dark grey (charcoal, color B is teal (Fern, color C is light grey (Elephant Grey), and color D is pink (Heather Rose). Check out the kit from Lion Brand Yarn here.

Blocked Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern Finished Product Details (approx)

Height	Width
72″	56”

Notes on bobbins of color for the Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern

[Image description] An unfinished Color Swirl Blanket lays flat on a wood grain floor with skeins of yarn along the top of the photo to illustrate how the yarn was still attached to the blanket while it was being made.

As the photo above demonstrates, separate balls of yarn (or just the skeins themselves) were used for the separate sections of color. This helps to keep both sides of blanket tidy, keeps the image on the front readable, and conserves yarn.
With colors B – D, you will only need one skein of yarn, but for color A (the dark grey) you will need it at the beginning and the end of the row for much of the blanket. I suggest using 2 separate skeins or bobbins of color A for this, with the left side (with the RS facing up) needing more yarn than the right.
Feel free to adjust as you’d like to make balls of yarn for this pattern.

And a note on preventing tangles – if you turn your project back and forth (right, left, right) instead of just one direction (right, right, right) it can help keep the working yarn from getting tangled.

[Image description] The Color Swirl Blanket laying across a grey couch.

Color Swirl Blanket Crochet Graph

Graph Key: Color A is dark grey, color B is teal, color C is light grey, and color D is pink. If you’re looking for written instructions, they’re available on Ravelry here.

Graph for the Color Swirl Blanket crochet pattern by Divine Debris

Fringe (optional)

To add fringe so it matches the sample, cut 10” pieces of yarn in the following amounts:
122 pieces of color A, 69 of color B, 88 of color C, and 111 of color D. Once you have your
fringe cut, loop them through
the matching stitches along the other side of Row 1 and Row 180. Feel free to block the
fringe if it’s crinkly.