Monday, March 30, 2009

T.G.I.F(inished)



Oh, praises be, she is done.

This is the blanket I have been working on since January 2008, got terribly behind on, and spent the first part of 2009 dreading. I finally buckled down and worked through it, and it's done. D.O.N.E.

And yes, it was exactly as much of a pain in the butt to join as I was dreading it would be. Many, many hours of joining.
If you are considering doing a similar CAL or KAL or some such, here is a piece of advice I wish I had been given: the number of stitches along a side is WAY more important than the rough size of the square. Meaning, for every month I made squares and was careful to add or subtract rows so that they would be about 12" across. And then when I got to the joining, I ran into this nightmare: one square would be 47 stitches across, and the one I was joining it to would be 36. And the next one would be 42. And so on. So it wasn't even mindless crocheting, because I had to count each time and do careful math so that I would space out the joining stitches evenly, in order to avoid wonky seaming. It was quite the headache.
Also, squares in this gauge are pliable and will stretch a little to fit into the right size. So really, if you are making an afghan with different types of squares, please heed my warning and try to make the stitches the same, and worry less about the exact size.

This is just a simple sc join, first joining the squares width-wise and then going back length-wise, if that makes sense. It was the fastest method I could think of (hah) and also used the least amount of yarn, considering I was very much running out of the white. There's a simple sc edging around. I was thinking about adding more edging, in another color, to give it a bolder border, at which point my harried boyfriend gestured wildly and said STOP and so I did.

It's done it's done it's done!!
Now I have a beeeeautiful and warm and heavy and huge afghan, and I can make other projects with no UFO guilt!
Oh I can't wait to have my first house guest. I'm going to insist they sleep under this blanket, no matter how warm it might be.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is amazing!!! Well done!

sukigirl said...

I saw this on flikr...it's a really pretty blanket...I think only crocheters can truly understand how much work went into your blanket!
Beautiful!

Lupie said...

It may have been a pain to mke but look what you have now. Just beautiful!

Julianne Smith said...

good lord! i had NO IDEA you were making this! (i've added you to my google reader so we won't have this problem again!) it is soooo beautiful. yet another reason why crochet patterns are better...

Joanie said...

Love the afghan! Did you make up the square patterns yourself?

Alichka said...

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments!

Jo-
I'm not creative enough to have come up with all of those squares, it was through a year-long CAL run jointly on Ravelry and Craftster; the moderator selected a square pattern for each month.
If you're interested in any of them I can track down the link for you!