Diagonal Granny Stripe Afghan

I received an email from a reader who asked if I would write a tutorial for a Diagonal Granny Stripe afghan.  (Note:   I couldn't email you back because you are set as a no-reply blogger.)  I had never tried that pattern before, so I pulled out some scrap yarn and gave it a try.  Here are two samples that I tried.  The one on the left follows the pattern.  The one on the right leaves out the chain 1 that goes in between the crochet clusters.  I think the one on the left is the one I will follow.  

Here is a close up of the square.  The chains that are along the edges are pretty loopy looking, so this will probably require a border of some sort.  I think I will try another sample reducing the number on those outside rows to see how it looks.  I don't have the tutorial written yet, but I'll get busy on that in the next few days or so.  I can see this in a 3 color stripe or even just a random stripe using scrap yarn.  I'll have to check my stash and decide on what colors to use.  

Here is my progress so far on my crocheted Christmas Granny Stripe afghan.  You can find my tutorial for this afghan here.  

I hope you are finding some time to take a few stitches today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

Granny Stripe Afghan Finish

I just finished my granny stripe afghan today.  Here it is on our king sized bed.  It is just a bit short of covering the whole bed, but it is really heavy and will sure be warm.




Here is a photo of it taken sideways on the bed.  I think maybe it would be better used this way on a smaller bed.  Or I could always fold this one down and leave it at the end of the bed.

 

I first did a single crochet border doing two rows of each color, but it ended up being too tight and started curling.

I ripped out all of the single crochet borders and did one row of half double crochet in each color.

I love this afghan and hope to finish more of my UFOs in the New Year.

 

You can find my Granny Stripe Afghan tutorial in my blog post here.

Hope you are finding time to take a few stitches every day.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Crochet Granny Stripe Afghan Tutorial Rewrite

I've received a lot of questions about my Crochet Granny Stripe Afghan Tutorial so I've decided to rewrite the pattern and try and take some better photos.  In my other tutorial I started the first row differently than this one, and I think this one looks better.

The granny stripe afghan beginning chain should be a multiple of 3 plus 2.  For a test piece I've chained 32 (3 X 10 + 2).  Turn and single crochet in second chain from hook where you see the arrow and in each chain.  You will have 31 stitches.



Chain 3 and turn.

Double crochet in the same stitch as the chain 3.

Skip two stitches then do 3 double crochets in the next stitch.

Continue across row skipping 2 stitches between each double crochet cluster (3 double crochets).

Your row will end with two double crochets in the last stitch (because you started with 2 DC).

Chain 3 and turn.

Do a double crochet cluster (3 double crochets) in each gap from the row below.  Continue across the row ending with 1 double crochet in the top of the last double crochet from the previous row.

If you start your row with two double crochets, you will end with two double crochets.  If you start with one double crochet, you will end with one.  Each row alternates.  The next row will start with two double crochets.

That's it.  Those rows repeat over and over.   You can change colors after the first two rows, after one row, or the entire afghan can be made from all one color.  I have changed colors every two rows.

This is how I change colors.  I know that most people say to leave two loops of the old color of your double crochet on your hook and attach your new color by pulling through the two loops on the hook.  But I have had too many ends of blankets come undone by doing that.  So I knot off the old color and tie the new color on with a knot.

Pull a loop through the gap.



Chain 3.



Do a double crochet in the same gap.



Do 3 double crochets in each gap across the row.



End this row with 2 double crochets in the last gap (because you started the row with 2 DCs).



Chain 3 and turn.



Continue with 3 DCs in each gap across the row.



End the row with 1 DC in the top of the stitch below.  Turn your work and tie on the next color and repeat.





How many to put in the beginning chain?

How many you chain to start depends a lot on what weight yarn you are using, size of hook, how tight or loose you crochet.  I mostly use worsted weight yarn and an I hook.  You can make a test chain and measure it to see how many stitches you have per inch and then figure out how many to chain to start your blanket.  This is just a guess as to how many to chain for different bed sizes.  The bed measurements in the chart below are conventional mattress sizes and are
TOP OF MATTRESS ONLY.

 BED SIZE          BED MEASUREMENT           APPROXIMATE NUMBER TO CHAIN      

Crib                      28"  X  52"                                      92

Twin                     39"  X  75"                                     125

Full                       54"  X  75"                                     170

Queen                    60"  X  80"                                    188

King                       76"  X  80"                                   233


After you do a few rows on your test piece, you will see that it is the same two rows over and over.  I hope these photos help to better explain the math and how to begin your own Crochet Granny Stripe Afghan.  If you have any questions, please write me at lakrug@comcast.net.

Hope you are finding some time to do some stitching today!

Squeaky

Our cat Squeaky died on Friday morning while we were on our way back from vacation.  She had
a runny nose before we left and was on an antibiotic.  She had almost stopped eating so my son took her to the vet on Thursday per our request to stay and be treated until we got back home.  She seemed to be doing okay, and then Friday morning the vet called to say she had stopped breathing on her own.

Squeaky was a little over 8 years old, and had spent 7 of those years here with us.  When our daughter moved to Huntsville, Alabama, for a job, she took Squeaky to live with her and then kept her in Lafayette, IN, for two years while she did Master's work at Purdue.  The two of them were best buddies.  Squeaky always came along on Kim's visits here, and she was a big part of our family.  The two of them have lived here since last December.





The house is so quiet.  She was always in someone's lap or watching the squirrels or birds or the leaves blowing outside.  Squeaky seemed better on Sunday morning when we left.  I can hardly believe that we came home to an empty house and that she won't be coming back.




Squeaky, we will always love you and miss you.


 

I try to keep my blog to happy subject matter...quilts, yarn projects, holidays, etc., but today my heart just aches.

Sorry to double post.  This post is also over on my Loose Threads blog.  I know I have had a couple of questions from readers about my Granny Stripe Afghan pattern, and I will get busy on a new sample and more photos in the next day or so.

Thanks for visiting.  

Granny Stripe Afghan Progress

I love hearing from my blog readers, and a couple of days ago I was asked a question about my granny stripe afghan tutorial.  The reader wanted to know how many chains to make to start a king-sized granny stripe afghan.  I counted mine and there are 225.  I purposely didn't make this one wide enough to hang down on the sides but to just cover the top of the bed.


 I have had this one in the works for quite a long time, and my last skein of yarn is the green one you see in the photo.  I was about to sew in the ends and stop, but after seeing how close I am to having an afghan large enough to cover the top of our king sized bed, I think I'm going to get some more of the yarn and keep going.  Right now it is wider than it is long, and I was just going to use it with the stripes running vertically.

The tutorial for my Granny Stripe Afghan is listed on my sidebar, or it can be found here.

 

  Hope you can relax and crochet today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Granny Stripe Afghan

It's been ages since I've posted here, and I'm not sure why because I always have a crochet or knit project of some kind in the works. 

Here is a crochet UFO that I am working on again.  This is the Granny Stripe pattern that I have the link to over on my side bar. 



I think that I only have enough yarn left to do one more repeat of each of the colors. 

In the next few days I'll try to catch you up on the different projects that I've been working on and what I've finished.

Thanks for visiting!  

Crocheted Granny Stripe Afghan

This is the Granny Stripe Afghan that I'm working on as part of the Granny Gone Wild Crochet Along.  Is anyone crocheting along with me???

There is a link to my tutorial for this afghan over on my sidebar.  For this afghan my beginning chain is 237.  The beginning chain needs to be a multiple of 3.  It will go across my king sized bed with a bit of hang on each side.

I am using 18 different colors of yarn (so far), and I've started to repeat them.   I'm not sure how long the afghan will finish.  I love scrap afghans and quilts, but it's hard to gauge the finished size.  So I may have to raid my stash for a few more balls of yarn.

Here is a close up of the colors.  I really love this pattern and how this is looking. 

If you are crocheting along with our Granny Gone Wild crochet along, I hope you will post your photos on the Flickr group here. 

Happy Crocheting! 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! 

Finishing the Giant Crocheted Granny Afghan

My giant granny square afghan from Sucrette's Giant Granny Crochet Along has 55 rounds on it.  I started the blanket with 25 different skeins of yarn, and so far I have used each skein twice.   When I did round number 55 I finished with about 6 inches of yarn to spare.  That was cutting it just a little too close for comfort.  What to do?

I came up with the idea to get out my postage scale and weigh each ball of yarn that is left.  That's what all of the pink post it notes are on the yarn in the photo below.  My thinking was that if I knew the weight of the skein and there was enough yardage to go around the blanket once, then I could weigh what was left and make an educated guess as to how much it would take for the next round. 

After I had all of the leftovers weighed and labeled, I went upstairs to bring down another skein of the brown yarn I had used.  It was left from another project so I knew there was more of that color.  I also found a bag with extra skeins for this project that I had forgotten.  So now I have plenty of yarn to do several more rounds on the blanket.  I think in the CAL we were trying to get somewhere between 75 and 100 rounds. 

Stay tuned to see how many rounds I end up with. 

Hope you are doing some crocheting or knitting today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Granny Stripe and Shell Afghan Finish

I've been doing quite a bit of crocheting.  I've finished the brown and pink granny stripe afghan.

I really like the pink and brown variegated yarn that I used in this afghan, and all of the yarn came from my stash.

It was a lot of work to unwind the yarn from the wider afghan and to start the whole project over again from scratch, but I am happy with the finished afghan.

I also finished this crocheted shell look baby blanket from yarn that I had in my stash.

Relax, pick up your crochet hook or knitting needles, and spend some time with some pretty yarn today.

Thanks for visiting today! 

Pink and Brown Granny Stripe Afghan

I should have been all finished with the pink and brown variegated granny stripe afghan that I showed in an earlier post, but.......

This is what I did:

No, I'm not making a second afghan.  Here is a closer look:

See that the yarn is attached to the longer piece....and goes over to the shorter piece?  I had a lot more done on it than you see in the photo, but as I used the yarn I could see that the afghan was going to turn out way too wide and wouldn't be nearly long enough.   So I started over and chained less stitches.  You can see the piece on the right is the new afghan.  I know that this crochet project is just a way to use up some of my yarn, but I figured I might as well be happy with the finished project.  I'll post another photo soon, but I have worked almost all of the yarn from the longer piece onto the afghan.  Hopefully I will have a finish soon. 

Hope you are doing some stitching today! 

Pink and Brown Progress

I've been working on my pink and brown afghan for the last couple of days.  I'm using the Granny Stripe Afghan Pattern. 

The original pattern calls for the afghan to be a lot wider, but I made the beginning chain shorter because I don't have a lot of yarn.  The beginning chain needs to be a multiple of 3 so I chained 198 for this afghan.  What you see in the photo has used about half of my yarn, so I should have made my base chain a lot less.  But, right now I'm just trying to work up some of my yarn stash, so I'll use this with the stripes going vertically either as a throw or on the end of a bed.  I really like this yarn together.

For awhile now, I've been thinking about a pink and brown bedroom maybe for a guest room in winter time.  I have this wall hanging made in pink and brown except for the quilting so now all I need is to finish this afghan and make a pink and brown bed quilt.

  Crochet (or knit), relax and smile.  Repeat! 

Thanks for visiting. 

Granny Stripe Blanket

This is a new project that I started a couple of days ago.  It is called Granny Stripe Blanket, and I can't take credit for this pattern.  It is over on Lucy's blog, Attic 24.  This pattern is easy and you can find the link to it over on the left side of her blog.  Once you get your base chain done and the first couple of rows, it is easy sailing.  I think a repetitive pattern like this is relaxing to do. 

I'm using Cascade Superwash yarn, and these are the colors that I plan to use.   

Then this hexagon is a pattern that I found through Ravelry.  I think this would be a good use for the "leftovers".  I found a couple of mistakes in the pattern for this the way it was written, and I need to make a couple more of these so I can write instructions on how to join them together.  So I'll post that pattern here....and I promise I won't wait another 2 months before I post again. 

Hope you are finding some time to crochet or knit today.