afghan

My 2016 Temperature Blanket is Complete!

January 26, 2017 By: Deena Price7 Comments

YAY!!! It’s done, a year-long project is complete and I am pleased with the results!

I started this project with a very different pattern in mind. If you look at my posts from January and February you can see that my first project was individual squares with the temperature in the middle circle and white surrounding the circle to create the square. I was also adding a square for the beginning of each month and for holidays.

I was enjoying the project but once I fell behind, it was taking too much time to catch up and I realized that because of all of the other projects I was working on that I didn’t have the time to commit to this pattern for a whole year.

At around the same time, I learned a new pattern called the C2C blanket. C2C stands for Corner to Corner. This pattern is worked from one corner of the blanket to the opposite corner. I love this pattern because it can be adjusted so easily to make any size of afghan that you want. You can make anything from a small square baby blanket to a nice lap size afghan to a king sized blanket for your bed! It is amazingly versatile and so easy to make!

The way I learned to make this blanket was by watching The Crochet Crowd’s YouTube video by Mikey – C2C Pattern

I really do love the way this blanket turned out. The colors make a nice rainbow effect!

It’s not the best picture of my blanket. The blanket is actually nice and straight but getting a good picture of my bigger projects can be difficult. For this one I had to climb up on a ladder and lean way out!

Don’t mind my leggings and messy bun! I took this picture on a stay at home kind of day!

Ok, so let’s review the details of this project –

I used The Crochet Crowd video to learn the pattern – C2C Pattern

I used Caron Simply Soft yarn and an H hook.

The following link will show you which colors I used and what temperatures they correspond to.

Temperature Blanket Template 2016

I tracked all of my temperatures in an Excel spreadsheet and checked them off as I completed them. I chose to record the temperature of wherever we were for the night so as we traveled through the summer I recorded our vacation temperatures. If you look closely enough, you can see some green and pink colors mixed in with my yellow and reds when we were camping some place cooler than our home.

I wanted a blanket that would be a nice lap blanket size. If you are concerned about what size your blanket will be then you need to do a test. The best way to figure out what size your blanket will be is to crochet a 10×10 block of square and measure them. Then you can calculate out what your finished size will be.

Here is how the math worked out for me. I wanted a blanket that was 4-5 feet wide by 6-7 feet long. By doing my test square and then playing with the math, I figured out that if I did 20 clusters of stitches per day then the numbers were close to working out. I made my blanket 72 clusters wide by 102 clusters long. This gives me a total of 7344 clusters. 2016 is a leap year so 366 days multiplied by 20 clusters per day equals 7320 clusters. That gave me 24 more clusters that I needed to incorporate. I decided to do this by “sneaking” them in! I added 1 extra cluster to each color change. For example, if I had 3 days in a row that were one color instead of 60 clusters, I would complete 61 clusters. Then if my next day was a different color I would crochet 21 clusters. I kept track of all of my extra stitches until I had completed the 24 extra stitches. My blanket ended up being 4 1/2 wide by 6 1/2 feet long. It is perfect!

Feel free to ask my any questions, I am happy to help!

Temperature Blanket – Almost There!

January 2, 2017 By: Deena Price4 Comments

Well, I’m almost there! My husband left on a business trip and my 6 month old is growing and took a 2 hour nap today so I had time to complete the whole month of November and weave in all the ends! My goal is to finish my 2016 temperature blanket before bed time tomorrow. I have so many new projects that I want to work on in 2017 but I have to finish this first!

You can see that my yarn is still attached in this picture. The color used for the last day in November and the first day in December is the same. It truly is interesting to see almost a years’ worth of temperatures depicted by colors and laid out in one place. You can see a few green patches mixed into the summer colors. I tracked the temperature based on where we were, so when we were camping on the coast and it was 70 degrees that is the color that I used instead of the 90 degree temperature at home.

Temperature Blanket – Catching Up!

January 1, 2017 By: Deena Price2 Comments

Well, I must admit that I got really behind on my 2016 temperature blanket! I decided to make all 12 of my kids a crocheted afghans for Christmas so I had to stop working on my temperature afghan at the end of August to focus on those afghans. I will post pictures and patterns for those afghans as soon as I’m caught up on this project!

The day after Christmas I picked it up again and got right back to work…I actually worked on it so much that I forgot to take a picture at the end of my September stitches and kept on crocheting right through the end of October! I am planning on finishing the whole afghan by the end of this coming week so be on the look-out for my November and December posts!

My 2016 temperature blanket only has two more months to go and I am staritng to see how its going to look in the end!

Corner to Corner – Have you seen the new craze!

September 18, 2016 By: Deena Price1 Comment

If you follow any crochet blogs or facebook posts then more than likely you have seen the C2C craze!

I taught myself this afghan pattern by watching this video tutorial – VIDEO

The C2C (or Corner to Corner) afghan is relatively simple to make and works up pretty quickly! It is such a fun way to make diagonal stripes and the pattern can easily be adjusted for a baby blanket up to a king size blanket.

The other new craze is a new yarn that only Michael’s Craft Stores carry. It is the new Caron Cake yarn! It was originally distrubuted for the 100th anniversary of Caron yarns and was only going to be sold for a month, but it became so popular that it sold out in most areas in a week! With the popularity of the yarn, they are putting it back in production full time and stocking it back on the shelves. It will be available again sometime between October – December. If you are lucky enough to still have some in your Michael’s store you may want to snatch it up! I purchased enough for 2 sets of blankets and a scarf and hat set.

Caron Cakes are 20% wool and 80% acrylic. 7.1 oz and 200 grams with approximately 383 yards. It is a medium (4) weight yarn and the recommended crochet hook size is H.

So, I combined both the C2C afghan with a few skeins of the Caron Cake yarn in Funfetti and made this adorable throw blanket for my 8 year old daughter for Christmas.

This pattern is quickly becoming my favorite for making a quick afghan that doesn’t have a lot of holes in it but has a nice texture and pattern! Happy hooking!!!

To make the border for this afghan I crocheted 3 rows of double crochet around and then added 1 row of scallops with 7 double crochets per scallop.

to make this throw sized blanket I used 5 Caron Cakes.

Large Granny Square

August 11, 2016 By: Deena Pricecomment

I bought the yellow and green variegated yarn at Hobby Lobby last week during a fun shopping excursion with some friends of ours for date night! My plan at the time was to make a lap sized blanket for my daughter Kiana for Christmas. The quilt on her bed is the same colors so I was going to make a lap afghan to match it…but plans changed! I found a pattern that I loved for her and I decided to make it in pink so I have 4 skeins of the yellow and green variegated yarn and I had to come up with a new plan.

I had not made a large granny square afghan in quite some time so I dug through my stash and found the yellow, green and white yarn that coordinated well with the variegated yarn. I used the granny square pattern found here. I used one row white yarn to separate each of the colors. I used 2 rows of white yarn at the end of the pattern (after the green) and again for the edging. I also added a basic shell stitch to the edge.

Temperature Blanket through July 31st!

August 4, 2016 By: Deena Price6 Comments

I am all caught up on my 2016 temperature blanket! It is so fun to see how all of these bright colors are playing out and how they work together. I am caught up through the end of July. I crochet the weeks colors every Sunday. It only takes me 30-45 minutes a week to stay caught up using this c2c pattern, it is such a fun pattern. I have 2 other afghans that I am currently working on in this same pattern!

I love seeing the bright oranges and reds working their way into the afghan! The afghan is as wide as it will be but I still have 9 more rows to add to the length before I turn the corner and start squaring it up!

Sparkly Baby Blanket!

July 25, 2016 By: Deena Pricecomment

I tend to work on 5-10 crochet projects at a time…sometimes that means that a project can get pushed to the side and not completed very quickly. This last weekend I decided to dig an old project out and complete it since I am caught up on my temperature blanket finally!

I went digging through my pile of UFO’s (Un-Finished Objects) and found this cute baby blanket that just needed an edging finished on it. The yarn is a beautiful shade of burgundy with a silver thread running through it. I found a white yarn with a silver thread running through it in my stash and decided it was perfect for the border!

Close up of blanket and stitches:

The pattern for this blanket is free and available at – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/clusters-and-crosses-blankets

I chose to do a simpler border because my thread already has a lot going on!

For the border:

Row 1 – With white yarn, SC around whole blanket, join with SS

Row 2 – Chain 2, 2DC in each SC around, join with SS

Row 3 – Chain 2, 1DC in same stitch, *1DC in next stitch, 2DC in next stitch around*, join with SS, Tie off white thread

Row 4 – Switch to burgundy yarn, Chain 1, SC in each DC around, join with SS and tie off.

Temperature Blanket through June 30th

July 20, 2016 By: Deena Price1 Comment

This blanket is working up so quickly I believe that I will be totally caught up before the end of the week! I am excited to be caught up on it because I really need to work on some other projects that I have already started! I have about 10 projects going right now and I need to finish some!

This afghan is turning out great. It will be 72 blocks by 102 blocks. Right now it is 72 blocks by 87 blocks and it is already 4 1/2 feet long!

I record the temperature for wherever we are for the night when we are out of town. We have done a lot of camping in June and most of the temperatures have been in the pink colors. But one day in mid-June at Wallowa Lake it was only 53 degrees for the high that day, so there is a lonely little 20 block stripe of pistachio! At this point, I am only 20 days behind…and since I only started this project (for the second time) 3 weeks ago, I am really excited!

Temperature Blanket While Camping! – Through May 31st

July 20, 2016 By: Deena Pricecomment

This last weekend was our family reunion on my husband’s side. We all went camping together and relaxed! It was such a fun weekend and I got a lot of crocheting done!

You can see that my picture of my temperature blanket through April 30th and May 31st were both taken outside. I was able to complete 2 1/2 months of this blanket it just one weekend! As you can see from the pinks and yellows our temperatures in April really started to warm up!

I took the picture of my temperature blanket through May 31st in direct sunlight so it is a better representation of the colors. My blanket really isn’t curling on the edges, the ground was just uneven. As you can see in the right hand corner of the picture, I reached the 72 blocks that I needed for my width of the blanket and I stopped increasing on that side of the blanket. In May we added lots of bright pink, orange and even some red!

Temperature Blanket Through March 31st

July 19, 2016 By: Deena Price1 Comment

I have been busily working on my temperature blanket. My goal is to be up to date and totally caught up before the end of July!

Except for the last 3 days of March, all of March temperatures were in the “green zone”! Which means that the high temperatures for March did not vary more than 15 degrees except for the last 3 days. Below I have listed all of the yarn names and what temperatures they correspond to.

All of the yarn that I used is Caron Simply Soft. It is a 100% acrylic yarn. I am using a size H hook. For the purple and blue colors that represent the cooler temperatures of the year, I placed the darker tones for the coldest temperatures. Starting with the pink colors and continuing with all the warm colors, I placed the darker tones with the warmer temperatures.

Purples:

15-20 Degrees – Purple, 21-25 Degrees – Iris, 26-30 Degrees – Grape, 31-35 Degrees Orchid, 36-40

Blues:

Pagoda, 41-45 Degrees – Blue Mint, 46-50 Degrees Robins Egg

Greens:

51-55 Degrees Pistachio, 56-60 Degrees Green, 61-65 Degrees Kelly Green

Pinks:

66-70 Degrees – Strawberry, 71-75 Degrees Watermellon, 76-80 Degrees Fuchsia

Yellows:

81-85 Degrees Super Duper Yellow, 86-90 Degrees Gold

Oranges:

91-95 Degrees Mango, 96-100 Degrees – Orange

Reds:

101-105 Degrees Harvest Red, 106-110 Degrees Autumn Red, 111-115 Degrees Burgundy