It's been six months in the making, but I am pleased to say that the sofa bed afghan is finally finished!
The actual crocheting part was done nearly two months ago; my Ravelry notes say I finished the border on the 29th September. It's taken me seven weeks to build up the enthusiasm to weave in all the ends I'd left untouched while joining!
Project: Sofa Bed Afghan
Pattern: Granny Square Afghan #LB20155 by Lion Brand (free from the Lion Brand website, but you have to register)
Yarn: Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool in Peat, Charcoal, Walnut and Blackberry
Hook: 6mm
Final Measurements: 160" x 88" (approx)
I supersized this blanket from the original design. The pattern as written gives you a blanket 39" x 52". This just wasn't going to be big enough for my sofa bed! Rather than making 6 large squares and 24 small squares, I did 15 large and 60 small. It was an epic challenge, but because it was done in small chunks, it didn't seem so bad. I also saved myself an enormous headache by leaving off the final round on every square, so I could use it to join-as-you-go, to avoid the nightmare that would have been sewing this blanket together. It also means the joins are far neater than I could have achieved otherwise, and far more secure.
Colour choice was in part decided by the room in which the blanket will live. The pattern suggests cream, grey, black and green as the contrast colour, but as the spare room is brown, I knew I had to incorporate brown to make it work. I drew inspiration from the sofa cushions I crocheted two years ago...
...and chose purple as my accent colour. I already had the charcoal in my stash left over from my hooded cowl, which led me to decide on using Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool for this blanket. It's much heavier than my rectangular granny blanket, which was crocheted from 100% acrylic DK weight yarn. I've recorded on Ravelry the amounts I used for this one, and adding it up there is just over 2kg of yarn in the sofa bed afghan!
The spur to finally finish it off and get those ends woven in came at the weekend. I had the house to myself on Saturday night and stayed up ridiculously late. Of course, the heating had gone off hours before so the bedroom was a little chilly. I couldn't be bothered to go back downstairs to get Darwin; instead I snuck across the landing and stole the blanket from the spare room. I was so warm and snuggly! I'm also quite pleased that (as you can see from the first photo) in my desire to make the blanket big enough for the double mattress in the spare room, it's also just about big enough for our king size bed!
I have a ton of leftover yarn which has been added to my Year of Projects stash; in fact, I've already finished three projects with it and am now casting about for a fourth. I've already shared Terry and Darwin, and will be showing off the third on Sunday.
Colour choice was in part decided by the room in which the blanket will live. The pattern suggests cream, grey, black and green as the contrast colour, but as the spare room is brown, I knew I had to incorporate brown to make it work. I drew inspiration from the sofa cushions I crocheted two years ago...
...and chose purple as my accent colour. I already had the charcoal in my stash left over from my hooded cowl, which led me to decide on using Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool for this blanket. It's much heavier than my rectangular granny blanket, which was crocheted from 100% acrylic DK weight yarn. I've recorded on Ravelry the amounts I used for this one, and adding it up there is just over 2kg of yarn in the sofa bed afghan!
The spur to finally finish it off and get those ends woven in came at the weekend. I had the house to myself on Saturday night and stayed up ridiculously late. Of course, the heating had gone off hours before so the bedroom was a little chilly. I couldn't be bothered to go back downstairs to get Darwin; instead I snuck across the landing and stole the blanket from the spare room. I was so warm and snuggly! I'm also quite pleased that (as you can see from the first photo) in my desire to make the blanket big enough for the double mattress in the spare room, it's also just about big enough for our king size bed!
I have a ton of leftover yarn which has been added to my Year of Projects stash; in fact, I've already finished three projects with it and am now casting about for a fourth. I've already shared Terry and Darwin, and will be showing off the third on Sunday.
You are a rockstar :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks fabulous :)
ReplyDeleteOMGosh, Tink! The afghan is absolutely awesome! So dynamic w/the different sized squares put together. I didn't realize you had some purple in there too. The cushions are wonderful.
ReplyDelete