Sunburst Granny Blanket: All Done!

I’m finally done. And it’s not even May yet, I might still have a chance to use it this year on a cold evening!

Sunburst Granny Blanket - previous posts

So, in conclusion:
1. I missed slightly on the amount of yarn I needed. I ran out of yarn before the last two circles and had to go get a refill on two colors, probably because I had two yellows and they weren’t distributed evenly across the other colors. I was left with some extra yellow and ran out of the other colors.

2. I missed not so slightly on the amount of white yarn I needed - I ended up using 2 entire extra balls of white yarn.

3. At the end, I decided to finish the blanket with 4 rows of 2 hdc, ch 1 (2 hdc, ch 2, 2 hdc in same space for the corners). I did 2 rows in white, 1 row in yellow, and 1 row in darker yellow. I think it really added a nice touch. But, I had to get two extra balls of yarn for the yellow finish (I didn’t have any left).

4. I didn’t weave in the ends as I went, and ended up working very hard to weave in the ends for 96 squares. If I ever make another granny blanket (I’m definitely taking a break for now), I will definitely weave in as I go. I recommend that strategy for everyone!

Sunburst Granny Blanket: Joining as I Go

Those are all 96 circles for my granny blanket, in their final arrangement.

I made 16 groups of 6, each group included all 6 variations of 3 colors. I arranged the first two rows to include one representative of each group, in an eye pleasing manner (making sure that adjacent circles didn’t have too many colors in common). Then, for the next two rows I chose circles where the outer color was the same as the second color in the first two rows, and for the third set of two rows I chose circles where the outer color was the same as the center color in the first two rows, while keeping the same order of groups. This made the color matching much easier (I only had to do it once for the first set of rows), while still keeping a lot of variation. For the last 6 rows, I simply copied the first 6 rows. I was afraid of how long this process might take, but I was done in no time, and am quite happy with the result.

Then I got a whole bunch of stickers, and marked each circle with its row number and position so I would know in which order to attach them.

I’ve already completed two entire rows, yey!

I couldn’t take a good panoramic shot, so you’ll have to suffer with my bad pictures. I have no idea how I’m going to take good pictures of it when it’s done…

365 Project: Day 243 + Granny Blanket Stuff

That is my bag of finished granny-circles-ready-to-become-squares, 14 sets out of 16 that I need. The system that I used was - take 3 colors and make all 6 variations of ordering those 3 colors, that way I hoped to keep the yarn usage even between the various balls of yarn. Well, it worked. Almost. I finished 5 circles from set number 15 (remember, I need 16! I’m so close!) and I ran out of light blue yarn at the very last final circle. Then I realized that the lighter shade of yellow wouldn’t carry me through set 16 either. So, I guess it’s back to the yarn store. Oh no… #not.

Here you can see my count-down to 16 sets, and the unfinished and very sad 15th set, with my fabulous cat sayings WIP drawstring bag.

Sunburst Granny Blanket: Some Progress

If I’m going to be sick at home, I might as well get some work done on my sunburst granny blanket. Right?

Sunburst Granny Blanket: Revised Pattern and Choosing Colors

After last time, I started to realize that this project was going to cost me a lot of money and time. I thought how I could save some of both, so I decided to revise the pattern slightly.

One square doesn’t really photograph well, but all in all, much better than the brown experiment, don’t you think?

Here’s my modified pattern:

Materials:

• Super bulky yarn, 3 colors + border color (I’m using white)
• 6.5mm crochet hook

Abbreviations & Notations

• ch – chain
• dc - double crochet
• hdc - half double crochet
• st – stitch
• yo - yarn over
• [ ... ] - repeat instructions in [ ] as many times as specified.  
• double cluster stitch - [yo, insert hook in indicated st and pull up a loop, yo and pull through 2 loops] twice, yo and pull through all 3 remaining loops on hook. For first st in round, the ch 3 replaces the first yo and pull through.
• triple cluster stitch - [yo, insert hook in indicated st and pull up a loop, yo and pull through 2 loops] 3 times, yo and pull through all 4 remaining loops on hook. For first st in round, the ch 3 replaces the first yo and pull through.

Notes:
I like to join as I go, which means that I stop after round 3. Then, when all the semi-finished squares are ready, I crochet the 4th row and join as I go. I will explain about this technique later in the series. If you’d rather complete the 4th row and then sew the squares together, that’s just as acceptable…

Instructions:

Round 1 (requires 3m of yarn): With 1st color, make magic loop, ch 3 (this counts as first dc). 15 dc. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.

Round 2 (requires 5m of yarn): Join 2nd color with sl st between any of the dc in the 1st round. ch 3, complete double cluster st, ch 1. [double cluster stitch between next dc, ch 1] around. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.

Round 3 (requires 8m of yarn, instead of 11m): Join 3rd color with sl st in any of the ch 1 spaces in the 2nd round. ch 3, complete triple cluster st, ch 2. [triple cluster stitch in next ch 1 space, ch 2] around. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.

Round 4 (requires 8.5m of yarn): Join 4th color with sl st in any of the ch 2 spaces from the 3rd round. ch 3, 2 dc in same space. [3 hdc in next ch 2 space, 3 times. 3dc, ch 2, 3dc in next ch 2 space]. When you reach the first ch 2 space, 3dc, ch 2, join with sl st to top of first ch 3 (to complete the corner).
This round turns the circle into a square.

I’ll spare you the calculations (you can to the first post in the series to see how I calculated the amount of yarn I would need of each color) and get to the final numbers: I would need 1536 meters of colored yarn (all colors) and 986m of white yarn. Originally, I was going to get 4 colors, but when I got to the store I decided that 8 colors would be much more fun!

Yes. That is a pile of 26 balls of yarn. Incredible. Each ball contains 110m of yarn, so I have plenty to spare (assuming I didn’t make any gross calculation mistakes).

8 colors can be combined in 324 different ways, but I only have 96 squares, so I guess I’ll have to come up with some method of making sure I keep the colors well balanced and the amount of yarn from each ball even so  I don’t run out of too many colors… I’ll share how I decide how to do this when I know myself…

Until next time, happy crochet!

Sunburst Granny Blanket: Getting Started

This may not look very exciting, but that’s because it’s just the first step in an enormous project to make a crochet granny square blanket. I used some left over (from various crochet teddy bears and dogs) brown yarn to make a test square. First, to get an idea of the size (this is a giant 15cm X 15cm square) and second, to estimate how much yarn I will need.

I was originally inspired by this hex-bag project from future girl. I even made my own version last year. But - it’s a cold winter, and unfortunately, I can’t cuddle inside the bag…