Do Your Own Thing Afghans - Crochet

Good morning,

Regular readers know I generally publish the patterns for knit or crochet items that I feature.  This time, though, I have two afghans that I will describe in terms of technique, not pattern.

My honey sat in the same room with me as I worked on these every evening.  "He has spoken" that we will keep these afghans and not give them as gifts.  I love that guy.  He truly does understand and appreciate the work that goes into projects such as these.

Do you have favorite crochet stitches that you've used to make a sweater, hat, scarf, tablecloth...?  And pattern stitches you have designed yourself?   I certainly do and every time I use one of them I think it would make a great afghan, but I can't bring myself to make the whole afghan with just one stitch.  I would get way too bored.

So, here is what happened when I grouped white, cranberry and wine yarn.

I made the center section first, the long way.  Then I changed color and pattern stitch and worked the same number of matching rows on each side of it.  I repeated this over and over until I had the width I wanted, then added a border all the way around. 

The first afghan, pictured above, is worked from the center out all in one piece.  The next afghan is worked very differently.

This afghan is made by first making seven strips:  one for the center, then two each of three more pattern stitches.  There is an outline border added top stitched to each strip before joining.  The top stitching in the image above is leaning a little from side to side because the afghan has been folded for awhile.  I should have smoothed it out with my hand before taking the picture. 

Then the white joining rounds are added and each strip is crocheted to the next strip.  This joining is done in a similar manner as I join squares for my Flower Garden Granny Square Afghan. 

There is no sewing.

After all the strips are crocheted together, a border is added, then repeat top stitching is crocheted all the way around.

The image above is a wrong side view of the corner.

To make all of this work for the second afghan, group pleasing yarn colors together, select several pattern stitches you enjoy making, compute the size of afghan you want to make, determine how many repeats of your pattern stitches you need for each pattern to be sure that you make strips the same length.  Once you've done all the math, you're on a roll.

If you have questions, please ask.

Best,
Lois

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 Bernat Worsted Big Ball Yarn: Solids, Fern

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