Warms Up the Whole House

What do you get someone you’ve been friends with since the 6th grade for her new home? It has to be something special that allows you to be part of everything even though you’ve moved away and can’t frequent the house yourself. It has to be the kind of thing that is loved and useful, that can be used for year. And it has to be something that wouldn’t make sense coming from anyone else. Something like a blanket made with your own creativity, talent, and time; something only you can make. Hence my new project, a crochet zig-zag throw, which I hope will be much beloved when finished.

I picked a pattern from lion brand, but am ignoring their color scheme and creating my own. Instead of plotting out the colors, I am going to just see what happens as I go. I like that, with crochet, feel confident working blind and making things up as I go. Working without guidelines normally give me anxiety, but with crochet I prefer it The wonderful thing about crochet is you can add, change, subtract, re-do, test, and let it flow without worrying about it ruining the finished project. Unlike knitting, which needs a plan; and is painstakingly hard to correct, to me, crochet is a medium that wants to be discovered. You start with an idea and let it build with your mood, and adjust as that mood shifts to find something at the end which is completely unique (and absolutely cozy).

The plan for this blanket, right now, is to slowly build blue stripes into a green and beige pattern until it completely replaces the beige. Executed with various width stripes, the blanket should have a sense of movement and tension. Here’s what it looks like so far!

Mother's Day Blanket

This was a simple blanket that moved fairly quickly due to the loose lace like stitch. It is made using the “V Stitch” and for shades of a single color. I used varying blues; the brightest of which I used for the border.

The Lightest Color: B
The Medium Color: A
The Darkest Color: C
The Brightest Color: “Border”

Pattern:
Start off by crocheting 8 rows of “V-Stitch” in color A (V-Stitch requires a chain in a multiple of 3, plus 4)
Border: 1 row of single crochet
2 rows of V-Stitch in color B
Border
1 row of V-Stitch in color C
Border
8 rows of V-Stitch in color B
Border
2 rows of V-Stitch in color C
Border
1 row of V-Stitch in color A
Border
8 rows of V-Stitch in color C
Border
2 rows of V-Stitch in color A
Border
1 row of V-Stitch in color B
Border

Repeat Pattern until blanket is desired length then add a Border around the entire blanket in the border color, using a single crochet.

The Wedding Blanket

After a long spring semester a few years ago, I threw myself into my yarn craft. During the course of the summer I made a queen sized crochet blanket with a simple double crochet pattern of alternating color blocked stripes with a black border. The challenge was purely in the size of the project not the difficulty of the pattern of the stitches, so, before I had even finished it, I was looking for something more stimulating.

During my summer travels, including a trip to Indiana for the wedding, I began a throw blanket with a simple idea. I wanted something mostly off white with emerald green and gold highlights; the colors of mine, and the bride’s sorority. Above all, I wanted the throw to have texture.

Once you learn the basics of crochet, and are comfortable switching colors and turning corners the options become endless. For my project, I started with a thick fluffy neutral yarn, which was going to be the base color for the blanket. I alternated rows of single, double, and even triple crochet to add a subtle gradation.

One of the many differences between crochet and knitting is that with crochet, it is easy to take out a few rows without ruining the project. This makes experimenting a much less daunting prospect. When you knit, back tracking is a process and a risk, but with crochet it is much simpler. So, try a new stitch! See how something looks! Worst case, you might screw up and need to try a stitch again (and maybe even again), or you might decide you don’t like what you’ve done and you can try a different direction. The only thing you can lose is time. If your goal is learning, or making something unique, then there’s new excuse for not charging your own path.

With my blanket, switching to the green yarn was a bit complicated because the weight of the yarn was so different from my neutral color. In this case, it involved reworking the number of stitches per row. This blanket was all about try and retry, until it felt right. Eventually, I came up with the right number of green stitches per neutral stitch.

In the green rows, I also used the Puff Stitch; just to add another layer of texture. I remember coming home from a very satisfying trip to NYC, still recovering from the night before, but quite content. With two books and one hook I just decided to go for it. You can only read so much about a stitch before you have to try it.

The trick for inserting the gold strands, which add just a touch of glamour, was figuring out a wrong side and a write side for the blanket. Each time, the gold was only introduced for one row, so the stitch looked different from the front and back. I had to manipulate my pattern to account for that. Lastly, I added the border. What’s nice about a border is that it can hide a plethora of mistakes and inconsistencies. Because I used so many stitches and types of yarn the edges weren’t even. However, adding a trim brought a sense of continuity to the blanket. It made it seem finished, even before I had sewed in the ends.

The wedding blanket was about experimenting and learning; building confidence through trying something new and adapting when it didn’t work or it wasn’t perfect. The result was always supposed to be something you can wrap yourself up in and feel at home.