What free actually costs
A pattern being free does not make the blanket cheap. A standard fifty by sixty inch throw in worsted weight takes roughly 1,600 yards of yarn, which is around eight skeins at 200 yards each. That is the real price of the project, and it is why we put the yardage before the photograph rather than after it. Knowing the number before you fall in love with a picture saves both money and disappointment.
We link, we never republish
Independent designers write most of the good free patterns in the world. We link to the designer's own page and we do not reproduce anyone's written instructions, because those instructions are their work and their livelihood. What we add is the layer most roundups skip. When one blanket is worked in worsted and the next in bulky, comparing them by photograph tells you nothing. Comparing them by yardage and finished size tells you everything.
Read the multiple before you chain
Most stitch patterns repeat over a fixed multiple. If a pattern repeats over a multiple of three plus two, a foundation chain of one hundred will fail at the end of the first row, and you will not discover it until you have worked all one hundred stitches. Where a repeat exists we state the multiple, so you can check your chain before you commit an evening to it.
Stitch names, both conventions
Crochet uses two naming conventions and they clash: what one calls a double crochet, the other calls a treble. They are the same stitch under different names, and mixing them up changes the fabric completely. Wherever the difference matters we give both names, so nothing is ambiguous no matter which convention your pattern was written in.