Three-Color Afghan Q&A

So one of the main projects I’ve been working on in December was a gift, so I never showed it that much, however now that the holiday is over I’ll reveal it.  It’s an afghan that I made for my grandparents, now about five feet long and about 4.5 feet wide.  It’s very dense and yet stretchy.  Working on it with it on my lap kept me very warm!

Yarn:  It has three colors - off white, chocolate brown and dusty blue.  The worsted-weight yarn is Vanna’s Choice from Lion Brand (oh how my husband laughed when I brought home Vanna White yarn!).  It’s an acrylic yarn, and I thought it a bit squeaky to work with.  But on the whole it’s pretty soft, easy to care for, and fairly priced for a project as big as this.  I believe it took 5-6 balls of each, something like that.  It was made by holding three strands of yarn together as you go, so it took lots of yarn.

Hook Size:  Speed Hook Size Q .  This was my first foray into “speed hooking” and I am torn about the method.  I mean, the loose gauge is great for this sort of project, but it’s not quite so fun to work with.  Kind of hurt my fingers.

Pattern:  Lion Brand’s free pattern the “5 1/2 Hour Throw”.  I modified this pattern quite a bit althought the basic “V stitch” (as I call it) is the same.  I used a smaller hook (calls for size S) which of course decreased the gauge a lot.  I still thought it was loose, so to keep this from feeling “too floppy” I used pretty tight tension.  Despite the gauge decrease, I did increase the size overall significantly by adding additional stitches (the original is about the size of the striped without the border).  I also removed the fringe it called for and instead added a two-row deep half double crochet “binding” border to tighten the edges because I was still unsure how the floppiness and stretchiness of the stitches around the edges would work out over time and with repeated washing.  (Note: Normally I would give you the link to the pattern, but Lion Brand’s site is apparently in the midst of renovation and is totally borked.  So here’s the pattern from Michael’s.)

Color Pattern:  The pattern is a single color thing, but I made a pattern of solid stripes surrounded by a three-tone border.   This matches my grandparents’ sofa (they call the sofa a “davenport” which I’ve never heard outside that area of Iowa).  In my next post, which I shall title “Made of Fail” I’ll tell you how I ended up making this particular color pattern, and give you some insight into how spectacularly the phrase “I am not perfect” fits me and why that doesn’t matter.  The crap I had to go through to get this project to completion was astounding, and as usual, it was all my fault because I made it harder than it needed to be.  Typical.  Well, hope y’all like it

My brother Jeremy gracefully agreed to “model” the blanket to show approximate size.  Pretty big for a lap throw, yes?

Afghan Detail of border and brown stripe: