Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The blanket grows

It's probably 1/3 (or maybe not quite) as big as I want it to be.

vintage vertical stripe blanket, 2/6/12

It gets very heavy...crochet seems to be heavier than knitting is. (Well, it supposedly takes 1/3 more yarn). Eventually I want this to be big enough to cover my bed with a bit of overhang on each side. I expect it will be very warm, partly because of the weight, partly because of the "thermal blanket" effect of all those little gaps in the double crochets trapping air. (The whole point of stuff like Holofill, or its natural analog, an animal fluffing up its feathers or hair, is that trapping and holding air close to the body traps and holds body heat).

The fun part of this is choosing which color to use next. Every row is done separately, with a different yarn. I'm trying to keep a reasonable light-dark balance, and to repeat some of the "bright" colors (like that turquoise) more or less regularly so the blanket has some semblance of order to it. I think there is "random" and then there's "chaotic" and one of the challenges in doing something like this - or doing a scrap quilt with many different fabrics and many different colors - is to mix things up so that while it's not all regular and matchy-poo, neither is it clashing. I find that's one of the real challenges for me of things like this, because my natural tendency is to want to use fewer colors that match more perfectly. (And I've seen some frankly hideous quilt tops (mostly from eras like the 1970s, when there was less choice of fabric, and the colors were, how shall I say, less pleasing to the 2010s eye. I assume people LIKED the colors popular in the 70s then, but some of them seem very harsh to me - and conversely, others seem kind of drab and dingy.)

3 comments:

Lydia said...

There's something very comforting and warm about the combination of the stitch and the colors. It looks really nice.

purlewe said...

The one thing I can't do.. which saddens me, is crochet. I just never get it right. I make huge mistakes. And no one seems sure of what I am doing wrong. But I think that a crocheted afghan is the best thing for a cold nite on the couch. My great aunt made one for every member of the family and I love it.

Yours looks really nice. Enjoy it!

L.L. said...

Pretty!

I've made a few blankets using the double stitch and yes, they're quite warm and cozy.