Friday, August 9, 2013

Patchwork Afghan

As I write this, it is 10:00 pm and over 100 degrees out. Still, I find myself imagining how cozy it would be to curl up under this handmade afghan with a book and a cup of coffee.


I started this patchwork afghan over 2 years ago with 7 blocks -- 6 knitted and 1 crocheted -- quickly got tired of it and shoved it in a bag. Then about a month ago, I found it again, started pulling all of my bits and pieces of leftover yarn off the shelves, picked up a crochet hook and can finally call it done. From this ...


to this ...


Just laid out without blocking, it measures about 50" wide by 61" long. Each individual square took between 1-1/2 to 2 hours to make and there are 49 total. Made of worsted weight acrylic yarn, most squares are done in half double crochet with an H/8 crochet hook. I single crocheted each row together, then each column. Last, I went around the whole thing 3 times, in single crochet, then half double crochet and, finally, in double crochet. The outer black border is an inch wide and really brings the whole thing together. I love the way the black yarn borders make it look like stained glass.

I have to say, it has been a wonderful, satisfying project to work on. Making the squares was just plain fun, switching colors with each new block, and destashing my yarn-filled shelves. This afghan took me over 120 hours to complete, but every stitch was joyful and I would highly recommend making one if you have your own destashing to do.

Just for fun, I took pictures of my progress along the way and made a slide show so in 34 seconds, here is How to Build a Patchwork Afghan ...



I used the free ProShow app on my iPhone to create the slide show.

So many projects, never enough time ...

2 comments:

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