C2C Crochet Calculator: Tiles, Finished Size, Yardage & Total Stitches

What is C2C crochet?

C2C (corner-to-corner) crochet is a technique where you work diagonally from one corner of a rectangular project to the opposite corner. Each row is made of tiles — small square blocks consisting of 3 dc and a chain-3. The blanket grows in a triangle shape until you reach the widest row, then decreases to the final corner.

Because the work is pixel-like, C2C is the standard technique for graphghans — picture afghans made by colour-changing tiles according to a chart. Any image can be made by mapping each pixel to one tile.

How to use this calculator

1. Make a 5×5 tile swatch in your chosen yarn and hook. Block it.
2. Measure the swatch. Divide the measurement by 5 to get your tile size.
3. Frog one tile from the swatch. Measure the yarn used. This is yards per tile.
4. Enter desired blanket dimensions. The calculator returns total tiles and total yardage.
5. For multi-colour graphghans: count tiles per colour in your chart, multiply each by yards-per-tile.

How the C2C math works

The work grows tile by tile. Total tiles for a W × H blanket = W × H. Total diagonal rows = W + H − 1. About half are the increasing phase; the rest are the stable/decreasing phase.

C2C tile size by yarn weight

How to start a C2C blanket

1. Row 1: Chain 6. Double crochet in the 4th chain from hook and the next 2 chains (1 tile made).
2. Row 2: Chain 6, turn. Dc in 4th chain from hook and next 2 chains (1 new tile). Slip stitch into the chain-3 space of the previous row. Chain 3, then 3 dc in that same space (2nd tile).
3. Row 3+: Always start with chain 6 to add a new tile at the increasing edge.
4. At the widest row: Start decreasing on one side for rectangular blankets.
5. Final corner: Slip stitch across the last tile to close.

Graphghan planning

For picture blankets:

1. Pick a high-contrast image. Crisp images work best.
2. Pixelate to your target tile count. Tools: StitchFiddle, Photoshop pixelate filter.
3. Reduce colours to 4-12 colours for beginner-friendly graphghans.
4. Calculate per-colour yardage: count tiles of each colour, multiply by yards-per-tile, add 15% buffer per colour.

Pro tips for C2C blankets

• Always swatch in the actual stitch pattern. Standard C2C uses 3 dc + chain-3; mini-C2C uses 1 dc + chain-1.
• Block individual tile swatches before measuring. Blocking shifts tile size, by an amount that depends on your fibre and method — block a sample tile and measure it rather than allowing for a fixed percentage.
• Buy 15-20% extra yarn for graphghans. Colour transitions consume more yarn.
• Use bobbins for small colour sections. Cut yarn for sections under 5 tiles.
• Track your row with a stitch marker. Mark the first tile of every 10th row.

Worked examples

Throw blanket (50×60 in worsted, 0.75 in tiles): 67 tiles wide × 80 tiles tall = 5,360 tiles. At 0.21 yards per tile that is 1,126 yards, or about 1,295 yards with a 15% buffer — 6 skeins of 220-yard worsted in a single colour.

Baby graphghan (30×40 in DK, 0.5 in tiles): 60 × 80 = 4,800 tiles at 0.12 yards per tile = 576 yards, or about 662 yards with a 15% buffer. For a six-colour design, split that total by how many tiles each colour occupies on the graph rather than dividing it equally.

Queen blanket (90×100 in bulky, 1.05 in tiles): 86 × 95 = 8,170 tiles at 0.30 yards per tile = 2,451 yards, or about 2,819 yards with a 15% buffer — roughly 19 skeins of 150-yard bulky of bulky — a major year-long project.

View full size

Every number here depends on one measurement: the size of a single tile in your hands. Work a small swatch of five tiles by five, block it, then divide to get one tile. Measuring gauge properly matters more in C2C than in rows, because a tile error is multiplied twice — once across the width and once down the height.

Common mistakes when working corner to corner

These are the errors that most often send a calculated result off course. Each one changes the number the calculator gives you.

1. Confusing tiles with stitches.

   C2C is counted in tiles, not stitches. Each tile is a small block of chains and double crochets, so tile count and stitch count are different numbers and are not interchangeable.

2. Assuming tiles are square.

   A standard C2C tile is usually slightly wider than it is tall. If you want a square blanket, the tile grid is not square — check both dimensions against a worked sample.

3. Forgetting where the increase turns into a decrease.

   C2C grows on the diagonal to the halfway point and then shrinks. Planning only the increase half leaves you with a triangle.

Want to know how chart cells map to C2C tiles? The C2C chart and tile guide covers reading a chart, measuring a block properly, and why a square grid rarely gives a square blanket.

Sources & further reading

• Crochet Blanket Size Guide — the finished sizes and yardage totals these tile counts are checked against.
• Craft Yarn Council — Standard Yarn Weight System — the weight categories that set typical tile size.

Tile count is arithmetic and exact; everything downstream of it is not. Tile size varies with your tension and stitch height, and it is the one figure worth measuring from a blocked swatch rather than accepting a default — a tile that is 0.05 in off changes a 60-inch blanket by four inches.

Crochet.com — official C2C tutorial