Plaid Afghan, Finished and Fabulous

[velvetpage]

Five years ago, I was experimenting with different crochet techniques and stitches. One of my projects was to create the woven look achieved in a real plaid, where there are two background colours in alternating and interwoven squares. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a close look at the next real plaid blanket you see. It will have, for example, one solid-green square, followed by a green-and-blue one, followed by a blue one, followed by a blue-and-green (the difference there lies in the direction of the different coloured threads; one will be horizontal, the other vertical, and on the next mixed-colour square, they'll switch.) Well, I spent quite a bit of time fiddling with double-ended afghan hooks and yarns of four colours before, through trial and a whole lot of error, I came up with this afghan. When sassy_fae was over on Friday, I dug it up to show her and decided to finally finish it. Here, then is my longest-running project ever to come to completion (drum roll, please!):



The only problem now is that it doesn't match anything else in my house. However, it's very warm, it's got a great ribbed texture to it, and except for a few specks of yellow or red coming through where they shouldn't, it achieved the effect I wanted on a slightly larger scale.

My next afghan-hook project will be a baby blanket, in four large squares, designed to be reversible. I'll use four different colours in different combinations, and it will be a gift this summer for my sister's friend's baby. (My sister is adopting this friend and her baby as a pet project and has asked me to do the same. The poor girl has little in the way of family support, but she's smart, hardworking and has already beat her family's odds by getting out of her teens before getting pregnant, not to mention holding down a decent job ever since high school. This baby will get all the attention I would normally save for babies within my own family, because D's a sweetheart and she needs it.)

Until I can afford the yarn for that, it's back to lace for the. . . um. . . wedding gift for sassy_fae. (I nearly gave something away there!! Whew!)

Comments

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Ha! You did that on purpose! :D

It looks great. What did Elizabeth think of strips that don't pull apart anymore? :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I don't think she noticed, actually. :)

And of course I did it on purpose. Toying with people's minds is one of my favourite passtimes. *maniacal grin*

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Yes, it looks warm and snuggly...

[kitestream.livejournal.com]

1) That rocks!

2) Afghans don't have to match anything. It's almost the point that they don't.

3) When your kids get older, they will appreciate that Mom made it, no matter what colour. Some of my favourite memories are of snuggling up in Mom's afghans (some basic granny squared, some in a weird wave-pattern, to this day, I couldn't tell you whether the wave pattern is sophisticated or not - I've made granny square stuff, so I know that's easy - but that's not the point, Mom made it) when sick, or on cold snowy days doing family movie afternoon (that was when I was in high school and I developed a crush on Bernardo from West Side Story, in case you think it's for little kids only).

4) Even if they don't exactly appreciate it, they're incredibly useful. We used to tie my little sister up in afghans frequently. The little darlings can't suffocate, but it's difficult to get out of. Perfect for the torture of siblings.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Well, with a little sibling planned for next year sometime, planning for Elizabeth's care of that sibling is of primary importance. :)

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Nifty! I'm a big fan of all things tartan, as you can imagine. Did you do it all of a piece, or in squares? (I don't know how to do afghan stitch, but I've done a few otherwise-crocheted afghans in my time... :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

It was done in squares. Afghan stitch is a long crochet hook, in this case with a hook on each end. You pull up loops and keep them all on the hook, then work back along the row (or, in this afghan, work from the same row backwards) to take the stitches off the hook. It's not hard; I'll show you the next time you're over. The hardest part was the vertical stripe, because it required switching colours in the middle of each row twice, once to cast on the stitches and once to cast off. Figuring out how to carry the colours took some experimenting, too.