"The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give it away." David Viscott

Friday, March 8, 2013

Celebrate Crochet!


Welcome to Day 9 of the Tour through Crochet Country!  Happy Crochet Month!



I have a lot of things going on, so let’s get started!  As a new crochet technical editor, I am accepting designs at a reduced rate to celebrate crochet month.  Not a designer?  How about an idea for what to do with scrap yarn to support the charity of the month, Project Night-Night?

Scrap Yarn to Afghan Donation

Start by going through your stash.  Pull out all the partial skeins, balls, partial cakes, etc. of the same yarn weight.  If any require hand washing, throw those back into your stash. 

Now sort those scraps by color.  Place them on a table, from left to right, in order of the rainbow:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Sort them again by dark to light within the same color group.

Working with 2 strands of yarn, starting with the reds, and a large hook (K/6.00mm or greater) make a 36” chain.  Verify the number of stitches can be divided evenly by 3.  Double crochet (dc) in 5th chain from hook, chain 1, dc in the same stitch (V-stitch made), skip 1 chain,* (dc, ch 1, dc) in next stitch, skip 1 chain* across, dc in last chain.

All following rows:  Chain 3, turn, V-stitch in chain-1 space of previous row across, dc in top of turning chain.

When you run out of one strand of yarn, replace it with the next one in your color line up.  This will create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind rainbow afghan as the colors meld into one another.

The border can be done in your choice of grey, white, or black – whatever you have.  Sc evenly around, working 3 sc in each corner, and you’re done!

The Travel Afghan


As I do not have a picture of the scrap afghan described above (I donate them once they are complete), I thought I would share with you another afghan – one that my great-grandmother gave to me when I was a child in the 70’s.  She called it a travel afghan, as it was made while she was on the road touring the country back in the 1940’s.  When they came to a new town, she would pick up a single skein of yarn in whatever color caught her eye at the local 5 and dime, and work on the afghan while her husband drove.  This was the result:

The CGOA

While you are on your tour of crochet country, why not take a moment and check out the Crochet Guild of America?  They are an excellent resource for anything to do with crochet, for beginners and professionals alike!

A Crocheter’s Guide to Spring Cleaning

  1. Announce to all occupants of the house that you are cleaning and not to be disturbed.
  2. Gather together all of those unfinished projects (UFO’s).  Go through each one and prioritize when each will be completed (this year, next year, whenever).  If one catches your eye, it’s time to finish it.  Pull that one out, put the rest of them away.
  3.  Gather together all of those crochet books and magazines.  Sit down and go through each one.  Bookmark those projects that will make perfect gifts, and also those that you just want to try. 
  4.  Go have lunch.
  5.  Look at your stash.  Feel the yarn.  Absorb the colors.  Organize it if you want.  Take note of what colors and fibers you are missing.  If you are lucky enough to find the perfect yarn in the right quantity for one of the projects you bookmarked in step 2, put the pattern with the yarn and go find a crochet hook.
  6.  Make sure you have all your tools (crochet hooks, stitch markers, scissors, tape measure, pencil) next to your favorite crochet chair.  Chase the cat out of the room if necessary.
  7.       Stash the stack of books and magazines at the bottom of the nearest bookshelf, put your stash back where it was, and sit in your favorite crochet chair.  Start on that pattern or UFO.  If anyone asks, you’re done with spring cleaning.  After all, anyone can do dishes.

More on the tour...

I hope you've had fun here at NEKCrochet!  Thank you for visiting! Don't forget to continue your tour - visit Angela Whisnant today.  Here is the rest of the tour schedule:


10 comments:

  1. Love the scrap afghan idea! I'm really bad about trying different colors together, so this would work well for me - just put them in rainbow order and go for it. :-)

    Thanks!

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  2. I'm loving the scrap idea, too. I have a couple of other little blankets in the hopper already, but I'm definitely going to make note of this one. Thank you!

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  3. Love that afghan...been wanting to start one!

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  4. Talk about perfect timing - I posted earlier that I loved the scrap afghan idea and today I was gifted a huge bag of yarn. All acrylic, lots of beautiful colors, partial skeins & balls. Absolutely PERFECT to make one (or more!) rainbow scrap afghans. I'm totally jazzed. :-)

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    Replies
    1. That's wonderful! Please share pics when you are done!

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  5. Dawn, thank you for participating in A Tour through Crochet Country. Your tips for a scrap afghan and crochet spring cleaning are very useful! Thank you for sharing them with us today.

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  6. i am trying to get the pattern for the travel afghan. i think it use to be called the paint brush afghan because of the stitch going down below. i believe you do a triple crochet around the post in the below row sticth. my sister in law asked me to finish her afghan which looks exactly like the travel afghan in picture no 4. can anyone help me?

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  7. Does anyone know what stitch is used in your Great-grandmother's travel blanket? Is it a front post treble?
    Thanks - Sue

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  8. For all of you who asked about my great-grandmother's afghan, it looks like the pattern is this:
    2 rows hdc
    next row: hdc in the next 4 hdc,(fptc in the stitch 2 rows below, hdc)3 times
    next row: hdc across
    next row: hdc in the next 9 hdc, *(fptc in the stitch 2 rows below, hdc) 3 times, hdc in the next 5 hdc, repeat from *
    next row: hdc across

    repeat the last 4 rows to the length desired. This afghan has 163 stitches across and fits a full size bed.

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  9. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the color changes every 2 rows.

    If any of you make one like this, I would love to see it!

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