If I had any free knitting/crocheting time, I would definitely be making myself a new blanket this time of year!  I love the gorgeous eye candy of these handmade blankets... Starting with the crochet designs - Sarah London made this beautiful Wool-eater blanket and shows us how to make the pieces:

You can make blankets from any kind of crocheted granny squares, so I won't get into many of those, with their endless possibilities, but I will show you this great Hexagon blanket how-to by Attic24:



I love this Circles to Squares Afghan, from Lion Brand:



The Ripple Afghan is a classic crochet blanket design - you can find the pattern by SusanB, and I love micheline's version on ravelry (michelinemus on flickr):



Another classic - Bella Dia has a how-to for this Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket:



Now on to the knit patterns - Loop Knits has the pattern for this pretty Wave Blanket:



Lion Brand gives the free pattern for this super simple Diagonal Comfort Blanket, which would look great with stripes:



Classic Elite Yarns offers the free downloadable pattern for this Lacy Chunky Throw, designed by Wenlan Chia:



BrooklynTweed shares the pattern/chart for this gorgeous Hemlock Ring Blanket:



Knitty.com has several great blanket patterns, like Lizard Ridge by Laura Aylor:



I love this simple but super cool looking OpArt blanket by Melissa Dominguez:



And Totally Autumn by Anne Hanson is a nice, lacy design:



Fibercrack'd offers a download of this Serenity blanket pattern, also available on ravelry:



Also available on ravelry is Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket - I love this scrap-busting version by shine:



For a simple, cabled design, Lion Brand gives us this Cable Comfort Throw:



Also on Lion Brand, this Tree of Life Afghan is much more complex but beautiful:



A couple more for download through ravelry - Alexis Layton designed this pretty Radiating Star Blanket:



And you can download a pdf of this Moderne Log Cabin Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting - this one was made by mookyelk:



Hope this helps you keep warm through the winter!  As always, if you have a favorite knit or crochet blanket pattern, share it in the comments!