Back in the spring (did we have a spring?), I saw a Facebook ad for an afghan of ducks, in a dark green and yellow stripes. I knew it would be perfect for my daughter who was moving into an apartment (house) with her boyfriend, 1500km away, where she'd been living for a year.
I looked on the website, and it was showing out of stock in the colourway that is seen in the ad. I looked at the two yarns individually, and they were both in stock. However, there was no way to buy the pattern. I put my name on the waitlist to be notified, and then sent a message asking why is the kit not available if the yarns are in stock. They just replied that they were getting the kits ready.
Finally, I got the notification it was in stock, and I hit "Buy". It did come pretty quickly. And I was quickly overwhelmed with the reality. The pattern booklet was huge!
I also quickly found out that it was the typical crochet from a chart with two colours. No, this was something I had never heard of before--Mosaic Crochet. You work each row from the right side, with only one colour, and cut the yarn at the end of the row. Whoa. What about all those ends? No problem, you just pick up and make a doubled border that encases all the ends.
I watched some videos, and tried a swatch from a video. Got it. Then I looked at the pattern and got overwhelmed again. I took the time to do a swatch, and luckily, the afghan pattern starts with a geometric design so it was easier to see how it builds.
I won't say it was easy though. I really struggled at times. You have to pay close attention to the chart, counting squares, lining them up, doing the double crochets correctly, or doing a single crochet if charted.
I realized quickly I needed a way to keep track of what row I was on. I grabbed some Post-it Notes, and blocked off the row above, and showed just 10 stitches at a time.
The Post-It Notes only last for so long and then lose their stickiness. I needed something more long lasting. I had this ruler I picked up in a mixed bag at a thrift store. I couldn't tell if the middle magnified it or not, but it was working well. For awhile.
The problem I developed was intense neck pain from looking down at the pattern and at the project. So intense, I had to start massage therapy again. Something had to change.
I got out my music stand, and put the pattern on it. Excellent! It really made a difference. However, I couldn't use the ruler on it. I had an old stand for typing--you put the item on it and it holds it up. Like a clipboard but with an arm on the back to stand it up. Instead of a clip, there was a clear bar that slides up and down over the paper to highlight what row you're on. Unfortunately, it's really old, and the bar is no longer perfectly straight.
I hadn't worked very much when I started getting these thick, fuzzy sections of the Bag-o-Day Tonal Hues yarn. I cut out some, and other times it was hidden behind the green. It was really frustrating, because this was not cheap, and the very first ball of this yarn was horrible.
See the thick stitch in the second row down from the top, in the centre? Why?!
Thankfully, this issue seemed to be limited to the first ball only.
I used safety pins and stitch markers to try to indicate the different sections. The pattern was broken up into four sections, going right to left, and four sections, going bottom to top. So for row 1, you'd work 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D. Once you've done the 49 (I think) rows of those 4 pages, you move to the next four pages, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D. After awhile, I didn't need the markers, but one of the safety pins had split the yarn in the coil and I had to get help to have it snipped and removed because the yarn was getting fuzzy.
There were a few times I made mistakes. When it was near the left edge, I could unravel each row as far back as needed, then re-work them one row at a time. I created a
YouTube Short about this.
The problems came when I went to do a row, and realized there was a mistake at the start of the row below. I was NOT undoing an entire row. I got brave, and unpicked the stitches from the right edge, and re-worked them. I think I did it two ways--once sewing in the join and the other time working the little section backwards. It really doesn't show in the bigger picture.
The slightly bent bar was annoying, and there was a scratch off lottery ticket on the table, so I grabbed it, slipped it under the bar and lined it up so it covered the row above. It worked really well, covering up the entire row!
I really wanted to get the blanket finished because I was ready to move on to other projects, and it was so hot on my lap. It had been a very long, cool spring, and then it went suddenly very hot for a short while. Even inside, this blanket was a lot to deal with on my lap. As well, we had nailed down the dates we would be visiting my daughter, and it was coming quickly. Finally, I had the blanket done and just needed to do the border. There wasn't specific instructions in the pattern for what stripes, or even stitch, to do the border in, so I winged it.
I did find out I had a few blips of the wrong colour showing on the border, but it ended up that it was on the inside of the doubled border.
Finished afghan! It weighs a ton! Actually, it only weighs 1298gr.
The backside is pretty cool, with the shadowing effect.
The little details are incredible! Look at those little flecks in the back of the duck!
Rob demanded to test it out. I think I might have crocheted a bit tight and it could have been a bit wider. I thought I would crochet the border until I ran out of yarn, but each round had to be done on the front border and the back border, and it took me about an hour to go around once! I have a full ball of the Tonal Hues (and a tiny ball), and less than a skein of the Premier Anti-Pilling. The blanket was too heavy and large for my kitchen scale, so I'm calculating the weight based on the yarn left over.
Megan was really excited by it. It doesn't match their couch (I never even thought to find that out, I just knew I didn't like the other colour options in the kit. I would have preferred shifting blues instead of yellow, although when we left Thunder Bay, the sky was those colours due to wildfires!).
9 skeins Premiere Anti-Pilling (sample in Fern - Color A); 5 skeins Bag-O-Day (sample in Live at
Wembley – Color B)
Yarn In: 1720gr + 1,650 gr = 3370gr
Yarn Out: 5099gr + 1298gr = 6397gr
Balance: 3027gr more OUT than in
Costs: $125.42 + $104.37 = $229.79
