I have a smallish Tiffany blue velvet love seat in my living room. A love seat needs an afghan. I decided on gray on gray. But I still wish I had used lime. I first made a baby blanket with this design. I call it Pear Creamsicle. <333 (it's for sale....)
Materials
Measureing Tape
K hook
Darting Needle
Worsted Weight yarn
- 2 skeins of color 1 (Hobby Lobby's I love this Yarn in Graphite)
- 1 skein of color 2 ( Hobby Lobby's I love this Yarn in Lt. Gray)
Let me explain this huge hook. This stitch is very simple and creates a beautiful texture. You can use a smaller hook, very easily, but I like to use the bigger one to make it less heavy and more soft. It's like there is more air in the stitch. Cause, well, there is.
Stitches
hdc - Half Doublt Crochet
dc - Double Crochet
ch- Chain
sk ch - skip one chain stitch
ch sp - chain space
( ) - this means to do all the stitches into one space or stitch
Techniques
changing colors
Firstly, I decided how big I want this blanket. The baby one above is 35"x35". The small afghan below is 50"x50". You will need to figure out how big you want the inner square. It's simple math really and then paying some attention as you go. (I do see that this doesn't match up to 50. It's really just an about 13 and about 22 and even about 50. Because the hook is so big it will stretch.)
I choose this odd size because I love anything square and it's the right size for my Tiffany Blue Velvet love seat in our sitting room.
The stitch is called a Rope Stitch. I'm sure you would be able to find it online. I've seen it in a few different places. If you happen to have the Crochet Stitch Bible it's page 74. :)
Begin by chaining multiples of 3 until you have reached the desired length. The following pattern is what I did to make my "Gray Squared Lover's" afghan. (I like to name things.)
Row 1 - Ch 135 + 3 for turning chain.
Row 2 - dc into the 4th ch from the hook. *ch1, dc in next ch, sk ch, dc in next ch* Rep*to * until the last ch sp and dc into that last ch sp. Turn your work.
Row 3 - Ch3, *(dc,ch1,dc) into the ch-1 sp* Rep* to * until all spaces are completes. dc into the ch-3 space of the turning chain. Turn your work.
FYI - This is called a "rope stitch".
Row 4 to 18 - Repeat Row 3
Row 19 - Ch3, *(dc,ch1,dc) in the ch-1 sp* for the next 11 ch-1 spaces. Change from color 1 to 2 between the 11th and 12th spaces. Continue. Change from color 2 to 1 between the 32nd and 33rd space. Continue until the end. dc into ch-3 space. Turn.
*Tip* I used two skeins for two colors. You can use three is it makes it easier, and it might. I didn't cut the middle color at all, but carried it up. The outside color needs to be cut so that you can connect it to the other end. Leave at least 4 inches so you can sew it in really tight, if one of these comes loose its going to be a pain to fix.
In theory you can carry the dark color over the light color but you are going to waste a lot of yarn and it makes it hard to hold onto cause it bunches all up.
This is a little odd at first but you will get used to have two skeins going at once. When I cut I didn't crochet on top of the cut yarn because I knew I was going to be sewing it in later anyway, so I didn't bother, plus this way I can pull it a bit tighter to make sure that the stitch matches well.
Row 20 to 36 - Repeat row 10.
Row 37 to 55 - Repeat row 3.
Finish off after Row 55.
Your blanket is complete. :)
The last thing you will do is tie in the million little
Border: (if you so choose to do a border)
It's just half double crochet all the way around.
Start in the center of the last row, attach and chain 2, half double crochet twice in each space until the corner. 4 hdc in the corner. Continue with three hdcs in each space for the sides. 4 hdc in the corner. Continue around, join and finish off.
This blanket has become our favorite morning cartoon snuggle blanket. Its soft, comfy and not too warm.
If you use it, here is the pattern on Ravelry and Pinterest.
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