I’ve been working on two afghans that I began well before Christmas.  I would have had them done a lot sooner, but I had to take long breaks while my shoulder healed.

5-Panel Throw

The first one is called the “5-Panel Throw” (you have to log in to access the pattern).  It’s from Lion Brand’s extensive catalog of free patterns (Pattern 50324).  I decided to use a different color scheme (colorway? – not sure how to use that term) for this one.  The yarn is Lion Brand Homespun, a great afghan yarn.

Because there aren’t any stores here on O’ahu with a large selection of Homespun, I had to buy the yarn online.  I made all of the color selections, using the photos at the Knitting-Warehouse where I purchased the yarn (great prices, reasonable shipping).  Thankfully, each yarn is described in detail, including all the colors that are included in each yarn.

I chose a variegated yarn for the solid panels and then chose colors for the granny squares from the colors in the variegated yarn.  I was trying to choose “masculine” colors because the afghan was a Christmas present for Billy, one of my daughter’s housemates.  I wasn’t sure how these colors were going to work together, even while I was working on it.  But I think it turned out well, and Billy loves it.

“City Stripes” Crocheted Afghan

The other afghan is called “City Stripes,” and it’s from Interweave’s Fall 2006 issue.  I didn’t have that issue, so was lucky to find it as a stand-alone pattern at Interweave’s Pattern Store.  I really liked the colorway (Merriam’s defines colorway it as “a selection of colors” so I guess I’m using it right) and because the only stitch is single crochet, I thought it would be easy to do while my shoulder was healing (Not!  I could only work on a row or two at a time).

I used a substitute yarn for this pattern, my trusty Red Heart Super Saver, which I can easily find here.  I also used some Classic, but I think I’ll not mix the two yarns in the future because the fibers aren’t identical.  I matched the colors pretty well, simply by using the photo on the pattern and the names of the colors as a guide.  There are some really nice examples of this throw on Ravelry (log in to view).

The difficulty comes in reading the pattern because of all the color changes.  So I thought I was being smart and created a schematic that included all the color changes on it.  I figured I could refer to it instead of trying to read the directions which are somewhat hard to follow.  But I made a mistake on the schematic – left out a solid panel.  There should be a “B” between the “G” and “F” at the bottom of the afghan.

So I crocheted a separate panel and sewed it onto the chocolate panel at the bottom of the afghan (it’s the baby blue one), using a mattress stitch which you can barely see.  I decided to attach the panel this way because I didn’t want to crochet it on and have the rows running in the opposite direction.

One other problem I had with this one is that two of the directions for two of the striped panels didn’t match the photo, something I didn’t realize until I was well into the afghan and didn’t feel like frogging it to correct the mistake in the pattern.

Oh well … I think it turned out pretty nicely despite the problems I had making it.