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Okay, so I have this blanket that I’m working on….. since November 2009! It’s coming up for its third Winter as a WIP. That’s just wrong man! The blanket is meant for a our double bed. Double Bed. No baby blanket or even single bed blanket for me to try as a first crochet blanket. Nope, I go big! Double bed big!
The blanket has gone through some life changing events in its lifetime. I started off using Lion Brand Yarn’s Spicy Delights Afghan pattern (you will have log into their website to find the pattern) and I used Biscuit & Jam’s Random Stripe Generator for the colour sequence. The pattern is very easy to do – just shells of 5 dc, with no chain in between the shells. Later I realised that the omission of the chain between shells sort of pulls down the rows into each other so it doesn’t grow as quickly as you would expect. If you look at the slideslow below (a.k.a. timeline of the life of the Identity Crisis blanket) you’ll see what I mean.
I did 72 rows of the blanket in its first Winter and gave up. I was hooking and hooking and hooking but it just looked like a very big scarf. So I packed it up and started again in May 2010.
This time I planned on doing a granny square version of the Babette blanket in the middle. I made up loads of 2 round, 4 round and 6 round grannies. I attached a row of 4 round grannies to kick off the Babette and then I packed it all up. Again.
Last week – year no. 3 – I got the blanket out again and decided that I actually like the look of 4 rounds grannies neatly arranged in a row. By this stage the poor blanket started off as a proper Spicy Delights Afghan, had a brief spell as a granny square Babette, and now it’s actually going to end up as 97% Spicy Delights blanket and 3% granny squares. Can you see where I got the name “Identity Crisis blanket” from?
So here is what I will be doing. No really. This is it:
72 rows of Spicy Delights pattern, a row of 4 round grannies, 20 rows of the Spicy Delights pattern, a row of 4 round grannies (that’s where I’m up to now), 20 rows of the Spicy Delights pattern, another row of 4 round grannies and then end off with 72 rows of the Spicy Delights pattern.
Then I have to weave in all the ends.
And add a border.
This may take a while….
crochetime 
Funny post!! 🙂 Sounds like a great plan – something you meant for all along, right? 🙂 I can’t wait to see the finished product – keep working!
I like the way you think Bonnie! Yes, I had a plan all along 😉
Sjoe Natasha, dis nog BAAAAAIE werk wat voorlê, maar jy sal dit kan doen.
Ek is verstom! Dis pragtig en baie innoverend. Hoop dit groei vinnig. (Wat van ‘n pienk wolletjie so hier en daar – net om te kyk of manlief dit raaksien ;-)) )
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I am going to begin this blanket on New Year’s Day and I’m wondering if your starting chain was 94 like it says to do in the Lion Brand pattern? Or if you chained more for a double bed-sized blanket?
Hi Juliet. I can’t remember how many I did for the starting chain so I counted for you how many shells in my first row of shells: 67. The pattern says you have to leave 4 chains between each shell, so that means I chained 268 or very close to that. My blanket hangs waaaay over the edges of my double bed so you could do less than what I did and the blanket will still look great. When I did the chain I measured it agains the width of my bed, but I didn’t pull it tight so when the blanket started to grow, I realised that it was much wider than it needed to be due to the stitches adding more width to my foundation chain. My tip to you would therefor be to make a chain and stretch it out a bit before measuring it against your bed or sofa or whatever you want to use the afghan for.
Thank you so much for the help! I can’t wait to get started now. 🙂
Hi, I too love your blanket. I will start one soon. I love Stylecraft yarn but a project this big with DK yarn and a 4mm hook will take me years to finish. I’ll use medium weight yarn instead. My question is this. Did you block the afghan after completing it or each granny square individually? My bed is queen sized, so any ideas on how long the starting chain should be? Even number I suppose?
Hi Carmen. I wish I had your foresight for choice of yarn weight when I started my blanket. If I had known it would take so long I would also have used an Aran or Chunky. Very clever of you! As for blocking, no I didn’t block the blanket or the squares. The weight of it pulled everything nice and square & straight so there was no need. To get the starting chain number, I would recommend crocheting a gauge swatch in your chosen yarn and DC (American) / TRB (UK) stitches. Count how many stitches you have in 10cm (eg. 18). Measure the width of your bed (including any overhang you want) eg. 140cm. Divide the width by 10cm = 14 Then multiply the amount of stitches you made in 10cm (eg. 18) by the width divided by 10 (eg. 14) = 252. That would be your chain. Now plus 3 stitches (for the turning chain of the DC / TRB) and that’s how many chains you make 🙂 I hope this helps.
Oh thank you soooo much for your quick reply. Here’s another thought I have. How can I be sure that my stripe row is equal in stitches to my grannies? I’ve done something similar and always have either too many stitches at the end or too few stitches on my stripe row to attach my grannies to? I usually attach my grannies as I go meaning I make the final round attaching them as I go. I hope I’m not losing you, I just want to be sure before I make a loooong chain and the count is off. Thanks a million for all your help.
Oh, Carmen I really can’t remember how I managed to make my grannies fit into the length of the stripes. I think it was pure luck! I guess the easiest would be to crochet a granny square of how ever many rounds you intend on making, measuring it, and then comparing that with your measurements for the starting chain. Let the size of the grannies be your guide, as opposed to the stripe row. You can always make your blanket a cm or two smaller in order to make the grannies fit – much easier than trying to make a granny fit when there is only room for half of one!
Great idea. Did you whip stitch the grannies to the stripe rows? Top and bottom? They look soooo neat and perfectly attached. I hope mine looks just as beautiful as yours.
Hi Carmen. Thanks for your kind words. No, I didn’t whip stitch them onto the stripes, I crocheted them on with slip stitches through the back loops of the square and of the row of shells. But whip stitching them on will work just as well.