Who says I am not a philanthropist? If I can give away a highly cherished and loved output of my 10 month’s hard work, that too to my MIL, then I don’t think I should settle on anything less then being called ‘Awesomely Great’ 😉
I started this crochet afghan in April of 2014 and finished it in Feb of 2015. It could have been completed couple of months early if I was not on traveling job half the time or could have somehow controlled on my ADD and focused on single project at once. But well, I guess that will be a unrealistic expectation from a person like me. The Afghan finally met its fate only because my husband had plans to visit India this Feb and I made it my target to send the afghan with him.
I have made (or better say started) many tablecloths, sarees, bedsheets with embroidery, bead work etc over the years. How many of them were completed? All. How many of them were completed by ME? None.
I am not proud to admit that my ADD has so far hindered the completion of any big project I overtook. The main reason is not getting bored, I just have too many projects in my mind and if one is taking any longer then couple of weeks, I am highly likely to give away on the temptation to start something new. Also, when I was back in India, I had my mother and sister who will ‘help’ even if I don’t ask them to. 🙂
This afghan is one of the biggest projects I have done so far and the only big project I completed all on my own. 🙂
I wanted to gift something handmade to my mother in law. I had this thought in my mind from long before my marriage. I discussed with my husband to decide on color combination, though he was not much help, but I bugged him every day with new suggestions until I convinced myself ;). After a lot of reading on types of yarn and compositions, I decided on Encore from Plymouth Yarn. With 75% Acrylic and 25% Wool, it is supposed to perform well even after regular use and machine wash.
I did not follow any pattern book or site for this afghan. I will try to explain the pattern best I could, assuming the reader has some experience with crochet and the stitches used.
Yarn – Plymouth encore – worsted weight
Colors Used
- Color 1 – Woodbine
- Color 2 – Christmas Green
- Color 3 – White
Stitches used
- Chain (ch)
- Half double Crochet (HDC)
- Fan Stitch (FS)
- Reverse Fan Stitch (RFS)
- Triple Crochet (TC)
- back stitch
Here is the high level description of how I made this
Fan Stitch Panel
- ch XXX – color 1 (Adjust according to your desired length)
- FS – color 1
- HDC – color 3
- RFS – color 2
- HDC – color 3
Central Panel
Above steps makes the beautiful wavy stripes on your afghan. In -between these stripes, I have used following to make the cental Panel .
(I have used one color for the panel, color 1, woodbine)
- Row 1 TC
- Row 2 TC with back stitch
- Row 3 TC
- Row 4 TC with back stitch
- Row 5 TC
- Row 6 TC with back stitch
- Row 7 TC
Repeat these steps multiple times until you reach your desired width. I have done 7 rows, doing back stitch 3 times. This gave my panel 3 vertical lines.
To start another fan stitch panel, do a HBD with Color 3 and then continue with fan stitch. Rest of the pattern will remain same as explained
Border
I have used white and woodbine to create the border. HDC is used for both rows of border.
Feel free to ask me any questions / doubts you might have regarding the pattern. I know I have done a terrible job explaining.
Hope you like my my MIL’s Afghan 🙂
Happy crocheting!
You are Awesomely Great! It’s hard to let go of a large project, especially after putting so much time into it 🙂
I love the texture of the fan stitch combined with the color changes!
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Thank you Jenn! I appreciate your kind words of praise 🙂
I am glad you liked the design.. I just came up with it somehow.
You have a very helpful site. I do not see the option to follow / subscribe.. you might want to look into it.
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Thanks for letting me know… There is an option for rss feed and email in the right sidebar (desktop), but I don’t know where it goes if you’re on mobile – so could that be the problem? Thought I fixed that part of it, but now I see it’s gone again 😦 Thanks again, I’ll try to get it fixed 🙂
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Beautiful work! I agree that you are nothing short of awesomely great for this one.
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Thanks Dear!
You have a very interesting blog… you just got another follower 🙂
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Thank you! You are very kind. 🙂
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It’s beautiful! I have a lot of projects in progress too. That’s such a lovely gift!
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Thanks Lisa! Hope my MIL feels the same 🙂
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Oh wow…this looks so pretty! How fun!
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
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I love this afghan! Great job on completing it! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 You are my favorite 🙂
Joanita @ Snickerdoodle Sunday
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very pretty!
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This is beautiful! I love the colors you used!
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Thank you Savana 🙂
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I think this came out just lovely! I love the mix of colors used and the textures you created with your stitches! I love crochet and big projects or small, I find joy in their completion, as relaxation in their creation! 🙂
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Half the fun is giving them away. This one is so beautiful I bet your MIL loves it! Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty
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It looks great! Thanks for sharing!
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