Daffodil Blanket

Several years ago I purchased a large quantity of hot yellow yarn on clearance.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it was I Love this Yarn, so I knew I'd eventually use it.  A couple of blankets later (Zipper Blanket and the Blended Arrows Blanket), I still had some left, and I wanted to use it up.  This color is almost painfully bright, so finding colors to go with it was a challenge.  Then it occurred to me: if you're going to make a yellow blanket, you'll need some real variation in the type of yellow.  So I grabbed the leftover Buttercup yarn from the Speedy Afghan, and the leftover (I still have a ton) Banana yarn from the Easter Egg Blanket, and started looking through patterns.

I wanted the colors to really blend together instead of being obvious stripes.  Stitch 25 does that.  I've used this stitch before to make the Star Spangled Afghan, but for that I used a different color pattern, where 2 of the 3 strands were the same.  This time there were three distinct colors.  I love the way this turned out: it reminds me of daffodils.  This is a great way to make a single colored blanket look interesting: pick three shades of blue for example, and make your blue afghan.

Color Pattern: (1 row of buttercup, 1 row of hot yellow, 1 row of banana) repeated, ending with hot yellow.

Chain 182, then work stitch 25 until work reaches desired length.  Add the standard border to complete:
Add this border in Banana and you're done:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I used I Love this Yarn in Banana, Hot Yellow, and Buttercup with a J hook to make this.

Another Aggie Afghan

When I bugged my buddy about what colors he and his fiance liked, he wasn't very helpful.  All I got was essentially, well, we're Aggies, so maroon and white are good.  I say that isn't very helpful because all of my buddies, the people I actually make blankets for, are Aggies.  I don't want to make 14 maroon and white afghans.  That gets boring and challenging to make something unique.  But this was the first request for maroon and white, so I went with it. 

I actually had some trouble coming up with a design for this afghan.  I had already made one Aggie blanket, the 12th Man Blanket and I saw no way to improve upon it.  So, I decided to just go for simple, classic crochet.  Basically I did wide (8 rows of dc) panels of maroon separated by 3 rows of hdc in white, maroon, white.

Here's how I made it:
Chain 180
Row 1: dc in 4th ch from hook, dc across (maroon)
Rows 2-8: ch 3, turn, dc across (maroon)
Row 9: ch 2, turn, hdc across  (white)
Row 10: ch 2, turn, hdc across (maroon)
Row 11: ch 2, turn, hdc across (white)
Rows 12-19: ch 3, turn, dc across (maroon)
Row 20: ch 2, turn, hdc across  (white)
Row 21: ch 2, turn, hdc across (maroon)
Row 22: ch 2, turn, hdc across (white)

Repeat Rows 12-22, ending with row 19.  This border completes it.
Round 1: hdc around (3 hdc in corner) white
Round 2: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon
Round 3: dc around (5 dc in corner) maroon
Round 4: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon
Round 5: dc around (5 dc in corner) maroon
Round 6: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Aubergine and White with a J hook.

Smores Blanket

This is another story of impulsive buying of clearance yarn.  I found it for only $1 a skein, and bought all of it they had, about 20 skeins.  Then it sat in my stash, and continued to sit.  Finally I decided I needed to use it and started a blanket, my favorite way to crochet down my stash.  When I was finished with what I normally do, I still had a couple of skeins left.  So I decided why not make the border just a little bit wider?  It's annoying to have left over yarn because then you have to figure out what to do with it or just let it sit, taking up space.  So, I added another couple of rounds to the border.

This was the first blanket I've made with self-striping yarn, and it was interesting.  The sections of one color don't even make it one whole row, but they're much longer than in variegated yarn.  I liked the striated look that it gave.  The colors reminded me of a combination of neapolitan ice cream and smores.  Basically, one section looks like toasted marshmallows, another looks like graham crackers, another kinda sorta like chocolate, and still another like strawberries.  So, it's smores with strawberries added to the mix.

Anyway, I had decided to give a blanket as a Christmas gift to a family at church, and knew basically the colors that I wanted, but I just couldn't come up with anything I wanted to make.  Then I happened to see this blanket that I had already finished, and realized it was exactly what I had been trying to design.  I couldn't come up with something I wanted to make because I'd already done it.  So I gave it to them, and they loved it, even remarking that I had gotten the colors right.

Chain 185, then work the spaced shell stitch until satisfied with length. 
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
 
I made this with Red Heart Stripes yarn in Latte Stripes with a J hook.

Shiny Mint Blanket

Undoubtedly, the biggest fan of my crocheting, and this blog, is my mom.  Whenever I talk to her she always asks when the next post is coming.  So, I decided it was past time for her to have her very own blanket.  Therefore this Christmas that was her present.  Having the blanket be for my mom, it was actually fairly easy to design because I know her and her house so well.

So, I had this general idea of a design in my head, but nothing specific.  Then I looked around and noticed a blanket I had started months earlier but hadn't finished.  It was perfect.  The color was right.  Also, I know that in Texas a really warm blanket is not desired.  So using Simply Soft instead of my usual I Love this Yarn brand would work great.  Simply Soft is soft and has somewhat metallic sheen to it. 

This blanket had started as a way to use up more clearance yarn that I had impulsively bought.  I had skeins and skeins of it, lots of skeins.  So, to use up more of it, I chose to make a queen sized blanket.  That was a good decision because my mom has a queen size bed, so it was perfect.  Also, I did use up all of the yarn I had and actually had to buy one more skein to finish it.

I decided to use stitch 23 for the blanket because I know that it works extremely well with solid colored yarn.  This isn't the first blanket I've made with it either.  I made a maroon blanket for myself, details are at the bottom of this post.  I'm happy with it, but it's hard to see the pattern because the yarn is so dark.  So this mint green color was perfect.

Chain 203, then work stitch until satisfied with length.  Add this border to finish:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner

I made this with Simply Soft in Woodland Heather and a J hook.

Sunny Shells Blanket

When I find I Love this Yarn on clearance, I buy it, especially when it's only $1.43 a skein instead of $3.99.  This particular time, there were probably 30 skeins of the same color, so I bought them all.  The only problem was that I didn't know what exactly I would do with them.  I figured I'd end up making blankets out of them, but what stitch, and should it be paired with something else?  Variegated yarn is tricky to combine with other yarn.

Anyway, last year I made the Sunshine Blanket with this yarn for a buddy of mine who was getting married.  When I was done I still had about 15 skeins left, about the right amount for a blanket since variegated skeins are smaller than solid skeins.  So, I was bored, needed a project to keep my hands busy, and this yarn had been sitting around for a year and it needed to go away, so I started this project.  I initially tried to match the pink in the yarn to put solid colored stripes into it, but I couldn't find the right color, so I just kept it simple.  I decided to use stitch 28 because it is awesome for variegated yarn, and practically mindless.

I had no person or purpose in mind while I was making it, but I took it with me to various functions where I knew I was going to be seated for a while and could pursue a mindless project.  When I crochet in public, I routinely get comments from people about what I'm working on.  People are curious what exactly I'm making, because sometimes it's entirely not obvious.

Anyway, a lady at Bible study basically gushed over how much she loved the colors in this yarn.  That got me thinking: she really loved the blanket, and I knew she crocheted, but she never kept anything for herself.  Also, she loved the colors, and I kinda didn't, and I knew she would appreciate it: so about halfway through it became her blanket in my head.

Chain 187, then work stitch 28 until work reaches desired length.  Add this border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 5: dc around, 5 dc in each corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Perpetual Sunshine and a J hook.

Charcoal Blanket

I like to give blankets as wedding presents, so it would make sense that my friend since kindergarten, who happens to be married, would have a blanket from me.  Well, she didn't because she got married over 8 years ago, when I didn't know how to crochet.  So I decided to give her one for Christmas this year. 

I don't know what she was thought about my weird text of 'What's your favorite color?', but she responded 'Gray'.  When I saw that, I went hmmmmmm.  What to do with that?  So I decided I'd make a solid, dark gray/charcoal blanket. 

The only problem?  I Love this Yarn, the yarn I use to make blankets, only had 3 colors of gray: Light Gray, Gray Mist, and Graybeard, and none of those are dark.  So, I thought I'd have to branch out into another brand of yarn, uggh.  Well, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy yarn for another blanket, and lo and behold, they had a new color: Graphite, which was exactly the color I wanted.  So, I scooped it up and got started.

I decided to use stitch 1 from the new book I'm reviewing because it's such a simple, quick stitch that looks great in a single color.

Chain 180, then work stitch until work reaches desired length.  Add a border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner 
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Graphite with a J hook.

Blue Stripes Blanket

Living far from family has its challenges, so I'm grateful to the people in my church who have helped me out and included me in their family events.  I decided to surprise three of these families with an afghan for Christmas.

For this blanket, I knew that I wanted to use navy because I knew that would go with their decor, but I had some trouble picking a second color.  I finally settled on using a lighter shade of blue.  When I went through the first book of 30 stitches, I had two favorite stitches: 1 and 13.  For this afghan I used stitch 13.  It's a very fast stitch that looks much more complicated than it really is.  The color pattern is basically a large block of navy, then three stripes of light blue repeated.

Color Pattern:
16 rows of navy, (2 rows light blue, 2 rows navy, 2 rows light blue, 2 rows navy, 2 rows light blue, 16 rows navy) repeated

Pattern:
Chain 182, then work stitch 13 following color pattern until satisfied with length.  For me this was four sets of stripes.  Then add this border:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner (navy)
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in corner (pale denim)

Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner (navy)
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)

I made this in I Love this Yarn in Navy and Pale Denim with a J hook.

A Journey through Sprials: Part Two

Last time, I went through my endeavors to make a round spiral blanket.  Well, what limits spirals to round or semi-round things.  This time I decided to make a rectangle.  Again, the issue is beginning.

Here are the design principles I used:
1. Corners need 3 sc or 5 dc to be square
2. It's easier to feel a chain 1 than to feel the middle stitch
3. Dc are twice as tall as they are wide

Here's what I came up with:

With Color A, chain a number of chains such that the length equals the difference you want in the length and width of the finished product.  For instance, if you want to make a twin-sized blanket, typically 75"x90", then the difference is 15".  Your chain should measure 15".  This is only an approximation because work does tend to stretch the starting chain, but it's a starting point.

Round 1: dc in 4th ch from hook and in each ch across with color A.  Attach Color B to back side of chain (at the beginning of the chain, where the little bit of string is hanging off, where you've just crocheted back to with Color A). Ch 3 and dc across.

To make a corner: (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in last ch

To make sides: dc in post of first dc of opposite color.  Make corner in top of first dc of opposite color.  These sides should be 5 dc in length (2 for each corner and 1 for the height of the initial dc)

Round 2: dc around with (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in the ch 1 of corners

Repeat Round 2 until work reaches desired size.

A Journey through Spirals: Part One

A while ago I decided I wanted to try doing spirals.  I of course went to ravelry to find out how to do it.

 The first pattern I found was for a hexagonal blanket.  I grabbed some I Love this Yarn from my stash and got busy.  The initial few rounds are a little awkward, as usual with spirals, but once the work is established it is very quick and particularly mindless.

 

I had decided that I wanted another round blanket for my bed, so I planned on making it fairly large.  I was a little worried about having enough yarn to finish the project when I started.  I only had 3 skeins of pink and 2 skeins of coffee.  However, this pattern does not eat yarn.  The finished blanket only took 1.5 skeins of each color, much less than I had expected.

One problem however, is that a hexagon is not really round.  It is in fact angular with 6 well-defined sides.  Also, I wanted to make the spirals wider.  So, I wasn't really satisfied with this pattern as a round spiral pattern.  I again went looking on ravelry.  This time I found a pattern for a 12-sided blanket using 4 skeins at a time.  This pattern delivered by smoothing out the edges and doubling the width of the spirals.  I used Bernat Baby Coordinates in White and Funny Print, where each color started 2 of the spirals.

However, this pattern is not mindless.  The beginning 9 rounds are all different, and care must be paid to ensure a good result.  Also, throughout the piece, there are 4 skeins of yarn attached at once.  Managing these skeins so that they don't end up a colossal mess of tangled yarn is a difficult, frustrating task.  The finished baby blanket is beautiful, but, at least to me, not worth the headache.

There had to be a way to make this simpler.  I went back to ravelry and found another pattern. This one also was for a 12 sided blanket, but it is much more consistent throughout and only uses 2 skeins at once.  The spirals are not as wide as the previous pattern, but it's not a headache either.  I studied this pattern, but did not decide to actually make it.  Instead, using the knowledge of spirals I had gained from my previous attempts, I came up with my own pattern.  The problem with spirals is the beginning.  Once you get started it is simple and mindless.  So, I redesigned the middle and grew the pattern the same way this pattern did.

Here are the principles I used:
1. To be flat, an initial circle needs 6 sc or 12 dc
2. To have a gradual transition from the first round to the second, the stitches need to get gradually taller in the first round.
3. There will be 12 sides, so there need to be 12 stitches initially.

Here's the result:
Round 1: Ch 2, sc, hdc x2, dc x3 in 2nd chain from hook with color A. Attach color B and sc, hdc x2, dc x3 in same space.
Round 2: (dc, ch 1) in each stitch
Round 3: (2 dc, ch 1) in each stitch
Round 4: dc in each stitch until last dc of the side, (2 dc, ch 1) in last dc of side
Repeat Round 4 for pattern until work reaches desired size.

 

This pattern makes sense to me, so I think it's easy.  Hopefully this makes sense to other people too.  I used Bernat Baby Coordinates in Tangerine Dream and Funny Prints to make this baby blanket.

Blended Arrows Blanket

My plans to make a blanket out of the Blended Arrows stitch were thwarted for a while because Hobby Lobby is reorganizing their yarn department.  The consequence was that I could not get any white yarn for about six weeks.  It was a glorious day when I discovered they had finally restocked and I could finally finish this blanket.

This blanket was by far the most time consuming project I've done yet, but it was worth it.  It is the thickest, warmest, most solid blanket I've made.  Have you ever heard knitters scornfully say that they don't like crochet because there are too many holes?  This is my answer to that complaint.  If you want a warm, solid fabric, and time isn't really an issue, this stitch is for you.

Here's how to make this:
Color Pattern:

5 rows of yellow, (6 rows each of blue, white, green, yellow) repeated, ending with 2 rows of green.  The border is done in blue.

Chain 201, then work the Blended Arrows stitch.
Border:
Round 1: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around; 3 sc in corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Hot Yellow, Peacock (blue), Limelight (green), and White with a J hook.

Sunshine Blanket

It's springtime again, and that means wedding time.  Another of my buddies just got married, so I crocheted a blanket for the happy couple.  The colors were yellow and coral, which actually don't go that well together as I discovered when I began planning this afghan.  The closest color to coral was a light peach color, which is actually rather hideous unless you're going for cream-sickle, and even then it's not that great.  Instead, I decided to use a variegated yarn that transitioned between different shades of yellow and pink.  Like the name of the color, Perpetual Sunshine, the combination is a happy one.  Hopefully the couple will like the blanket I crafted for them.

When I planned this blanket, I forgot one very important detail: stitch 2 doesn't expand like most stitches.  Consequently, I didn't chain enough at the beginning to make it an acceptable width.  To fix this, I simply made the border extra wide.  Despite this foible, I am happy with the result.

Here's what I did:
Chain 167, then work stitch 2 until work reaches desired length.  Add this border:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: (cluster, ch 3, sk 2) around, (cluster, ch 3, cluster, ch 3, cluster) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 8: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 9: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 10: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 11: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 12: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 13: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 14: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 15: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 16: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 17: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 18: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 19: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 20: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 21: (cluster, ch 3, sk 2) around, (cluster, ch 3, cluster, ch 3, cluster) in corner
Round 22: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 23: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 24: sc around, 3 sc in each corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Perpetual Sunshine and a J hook.

12th Man Blanket

Today is the last time this century that the date is repetitive.  12-12-12 has special meaning to Aggies because of the 12th Man.  At 12:12 central time, the War Hymn was broadcast on the radio and played everywhere. 

University of New Mexico game: September 5, 2009

In case you don't already know the history of the 12th Man here it goes:
On January 2, 1922, in Dallas, during the Dixie Classic, a forerunner of the Cotton Bowl, an Aggie, E. King Gill was called from the stands to suit up as a substitute.  Hence the phrase, 12th Man.

So basically, the Aggie football team was reduced down to 11 uninjured players.  There are 11 players on the field at any time, so if anyone else went down, there wouldn't have been anyone to replace them.  So, they called a student out of the stands to fill in as necessary.  No one else was injured, but he stood on the sideline the rest of the game, ready and willing to help his team.  Since then, the entire student section of Texas A&M stands for the whole game.  We are the home of the 12th Man.


On this most auspicious day for Aggieland and Aggies everywhere, I think it's an appropriate time to unveil my latest Aggie afghan.  I'm extremely happy with how it turned out, and I plan on keeping this one.

Here's the pattern:
Color pattern:
1 row white, (2 rows maroon, 2 rows of white) repeated, ending with 1 row of white.  The border is all maroon.

Chain 184, then work stitch 4 as written.
Border:
Round 1: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around; 3 sc in corner


I made this with I Love this Yarn in Aubergine and White with a J hook.

Browns Blanket

Well, I've done it again: I've made another blanket!  I was commissioned to make this one as a Christmas gift for a fan of the Cleveland Browns.  This absolutely gorgeous blanket reminded me why I like stitch 1 so much.  The final look of this stitch is still one of my favorites, but it's not as quick as I remembered.  Compared to some of the other stitches, that grow at the speed of dc, this is slow because it's only every other row that really adds to the height. 

The color pattern I used is 1 row of orange, 2 rows of brown, then (2 rows of orange, 2 rows of brown) repeated, ending with a single row of orange, and a brown border.

Here's the pattern:
Chain 154, then work stitch 1 until satisfied with the length. 
Add this border to complete it:

Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I made this from I Love this Yarn in Orange and Brown with a J hook.

Star Spangled Afghan

I'm heading to another one of my buddy's weddings this weekend, and that means another blanket.  Their wedding colors are navy and cream, so I pondered for a while what I would do with those colors.  Here's what I came up with: using stitch 25.  I like how this ended up, it looks kinda like the stars on the United States flag.  If I ever crocheted a flag, I'd use this stitch for the stars.  In any case, I'm very pleased with this afghan and hope the newlyweds will be as well.

Color Pattern:
1 row of navy, (1 row of cream, 2 rows of navy) repeated, ending with 1 row of navy and a navy border.  

Here's how to make it:

Chain 152, then work stitch 25 until work reaches desired length.
Add this border and you're done:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I used I Love this Yarn in Navy and Cream with a J hook to make this. 

It took 3 skeins of cream, and 8 skeins of navy to complete this.

Speedy Afghan

Have you ever looked at a ball of yarn and just seen what you should make?  That happened to me last week when I found some clearance yarn at Hobby Lobby.  I bought the yarn and planned out the afghan, which I was planning to keep for myself.  The next day I went to a friend's wedding and the colors I had bought were exactly the colors they had used.  The entire time I was working on this blanket I was thinking of them and I realized that this was really for them.  I would always think of them when I saw it, so when they get back from their honeymoon, I'll give it to them.

Anyway, I got carried away with this project and I completed the entire blanket in only 6 days!  I didn't think that was possible, but I had nothing planned for the weekend, and no other large projects I was committed to working on.  Additionally, the design of the blanket motivated me to do a little more than I normally would.  I did blocks of color that were 12 rows high.  Where normally I might have wanted to stop after doing 9 rows, I'd go ahead and finish all 12.  Also, since each of the color blocks is roughly 11" tall, I only needed to do 8 blocks.  So, I originally had planned to do a block a day and be done in 8 days, plus another day probably to add a border.  On the third day of this, I felt like doing more after I had finished my block.  That all contributed to this being done in record time.

So, here's the pattern:
Chain 182 in yellow, then work stitch 13 from the Triple Play Pattern Stitches book.


Color Pattern: 12 rows each of (yellow, white, gray, yellow, white, gray, yellow, white)

Then add this border in gray: (it's the same one I used for the Thin Mint Blanket, and the Oreo Blanket)
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Buttercup, Antique White, and Graybeard yarn with a J hook.

My First Custom Order

So, something super exciting is about to happen!  I've finished my first custom ordered afghan, and I'm going to be delivering it next week.  Custom orders are great because the client ends up with exactly what they want, and there is very little guesswork involved.  The client was great in that she knew what she wanted and communicated it well, and then let me figure the rest out to make it look good.  I'm excited to see her reaction to the finished product.  I hope it's everything that she wanted.  I chose to use the same wide border as I did for the Thin Mint Blanket.  I'm going to call this the Oreo Blanket.

Anyway, here's what I made:
Chain  242, then work Stitch 8 until work reaches the desired length.

Border: (brown)
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner
The color pattern was 1 row of gray, (2 rows of brown, 2 rows of gray) repeated, ending with 1 row of gray.

I made this with I Love this Yarn Coffee and Graybeard yarn with a J hook.

Celtic Star Blanket

So, when I originally worked out how to graphically work out the color patterns, I came up with the Featured Color pattern.  I decided to try it out in a full sized afghan with some yarn I wanted to clear out of my stash.  The colors in this blanket look Irish to me, probably because the featured color is Kelly Green, and since the accent row is made up of star stitches, I have dubbed this the Celtic Star Blanket.

So, I knew the yarn, the color pattern, featured color, but had to decide what stitch to use.  I finally decided to keep it fairly simple, and do mostly dc, with accent rows of Star Stitches.  My friend introduced me to this stitch and wrote up a picture tutorial on how to do this star stitch.  I have since labeled this the star lattice stitch pattern.  The star stitch uses more yarn per row than does dc, so you will need more yarn of that color than the other colors.

I really like the thin stripes this color pattern gives.  The star stitch as an accent row gives the blanket at least the look of some texture.  

Here's the color pattern:  (2 rows of gray, 1 row of green, 2 rows of white, 1 row of green) repeated, ending with 2 rows of gray.

Chain 149
Row 1: dc in 4th chain from hook, dc across (gray)
Row 2: ch 3, turn, dc across (gray)
Row 3: ch 3, turn, work star stitch across (green)
Rows 4-5: ch 3, turn dc across (white)
Row 6: ch 3, turn, work star stitch across (green)
Row 7: ch 3, turn dc across (gray)
Repeat Rows 2-7, (ending with row 2) until work reaches desired length.

Border:
Round 1: star stitch around, 5 dc and legs of 2 star stitches in each corner (do a star stitch in each row on the sides)
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 4: star stitch around, 5 dc and legs of 2 star stitches in each corner
Round 5: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 7: star stitch around, 5 dc and legs of 2 star stitches in each corner
Round 8: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 9: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 10: star stitch around, 5 dc and legs of 2 star stitches in each corner



I made this using Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn in Kelly Green, White, and Clay (gray) with a J hook.

Zipper Blanket

So, another of my buddies is getting married this summer.  I am therefore gifting the couple with one of my crocheted afghans.  This blanket essentially consists of panels of three alternating colors separated by a row of front and back post dc.  This row looks like a zipper to me, so I've thought of this blanket as my Zipper Blanket.  This blanket does not use any of the color patterns that prevent yarn cutting, so there are lots of strings on this blanket.  I would not make another one of these for that very reason. 

Here's how I made this:
Chain 209

Row 1: dc in 4th ch from hook, dc across (yellow)
Row 2-6: ch 3, turn, dc across (yellow)
Row 7: ch 2, turn, (fpdc, bpdc) across, hdc in last stitch (purple)
Row 8: ch 2, turn, (fpdc, bpdc) across, hdc in last stitch (brown)
Repeat rows 2-8 for the pattern, ending with a block of yellow, changing colors in this order (yellow, purple, brown)

Border:
Round 1: (fpdc, bpdc) around, 3 hdc in corner (purple)

I made this blanket with I Love this Yarn in Hot Yellow, Coffee, and Mixed Berry, with a J hook.

Thin Mint Blanket

I don't know about you, but I don't like shopping for gifts off of registries.  The concept is good, getting people what they want and not duplicating it, but in application it never works out quite like that.  People forget to use the registry and you end up with four crock pots.  Also, the gifts don't really show much thought or originality, not to mention that the stuff tends to be overpriced.  So, for baby showers I like to give baby blankets and for weddings full sized blankets.  When it is handmade, it will not be duplicated!

So, if there is a wedding of a close friend coming up, start crocheting, and you'll have a unique gift they will hopefully keep forever that will be memorable.  When I decide to make someone a blanket for their wedding, I first inquire as to their wedding colors.  If they picked them for the wedding they obviously like the colors.  Then I get creative and come up with something using those colors.  If you don't know where to start, look through some pattern books and see what you like: try to visualize the pattern in the color scheme.  Then get crocheting!

My buddy is getting married soon, so I made a blanket for them.  When I bothered him about the colors for the wedding he told me to 'think Thin Mints' as a description of the green and brown colors they had chosen.  So, I've thought of this blanket as my 'Thin Mint Blanket' even before I began it.

This blanket is an application of the Half and Half striping pattern.  The diamond portion of the blanket changes colors every two rows, so this color pattern applies so yarn cutting is not required.  I do however cut the brown yarn when each set of diamonds is complete.  It would be a little ridiculous to carry the brown color up through 13 rows of green.

Here's how to make it:
Chain 164
Row 1: sc in 2nd chain from hook, (ch 3, sk 2, dc, ch 3, sk 2, sc) across (green)
Row 2: ch 4, turn, dc in sc (sc in dc, [dc, ch 1, dc, ch1, dc] in sc) across, (dc, ch 1, dc) in last sc (brown)
Row 3: ch 6, turn, sc in sc (ch 3, dc in middle dc, ch 3, sc in sc) across, ch 3, dc in last dc (brown)
Row 4: ch 1, turn, (sc in dc, [dc, ch 1, dc, ch1, dc] in sc) across, sc in last dc (green)
Row 5: ch 1, turn, sc in sc (ch 3, dc in middle dc, ch 3, sc in sc) across (green)
Rows 6-13: repeat rows 2-5 twice
Row 14: repeat row 2
Row 15: repeat row 3
Row 16:  ch 1, turn, (sc in dc, [dc, ch 1, hdc, ch1, dc] in sc) across, sc in last dc (green)
Row 17: ch 3, turn, dc in every ch 1 space, hdc, dc, and sc across  (green)
Rows 18-27: ch 3, turn, dc across (green)
Row 28: ch 1, turn, sc, (ch 3, sk 2, dc, ch 3, sk 2, sc) across

Repeat Rows 2-28 5 times, ending with Row 16 (There will be six sets of diamonds)

Border: (brown)
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner

The final dimensions were 75" x 110", weighs 4.4 lbs, and took about 10 skeins to complete.

I made this using I Love this Yarn, Mid Green and Coffee with a J hook.

Easter Egg Blanket

Much to my mother's chagrin, when I went home last summer I went yarn shopping and brought home a truly ridiculous quantity of yarn.  In my defense, I liked the colors and it was on clearance.  Well, the result of all of this was, I started a blanket using three of the colors and managed to use up about fifteen skeins of yarn.  I think of this as my Easter egg blanket.  The stitch used to make this is exactly the same as for the rainbow shell blanket I posted earlier ( http://engineeredcrochet.blogspot.com/2012/03/rainbow-shell-baby-blanket.html), just on a larger scale.  As before, for a picture tutorial on this stitch see my friend Nettie's blog at: http://loveinthestitches.blogspot.com/2010/07/it-is-absolutely-unbelieveable-that-ive.html

The color pattern I used was (1 row of pink, 1 row of yellow, 1 row of blue) repeated, ending with a yellow row.  I did the border in blue.

Here's how to make it:
Chain 179
Row 1: sc in 2nd chain from hook, sk 2, (5 dc in next chain, sk 2, sc, sk 2) across, 3 dc in last ch
Row 2: ch 1, turn, sc in first dc, sk 2, (5 dc in sc, sk 2, sc in middle dc, sk 2) across, 3 dc in last sc
Repeat Row 2 until work reaches desired length.

Border:

Top Row: (counts as one side of Round 1) sc in first two dc, (3 hdc, 3 sc) across, ending with 2 hdc, (2 hdc, 1 sc) in corner.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 5: dc around, 5 dc in each corner


I made this using I Love this Yarn in Banana (yellow), sky blue (blue), and Pizzazz Pink (pink) yarn with a J hook.