Early American inspired afghan

Well it seems like a lifetime ago since I last wrote a blog post and I guess it was a different life and time..........

Crochet has certainly been keeping me busy when I have not been working at home doing my normal day job. It has also been a great help as I find crafts, whatever they might be, are so useful to protect your mental health and for being part of a mindfulness practice. Something that has certainly been needed in these particular times.

One of the things that I have been doing is to work on an afghan. The pattern is one I have done and completed twice before and I have another two on the go. This particular one is done in double knit yarn, black and teal. I love the combinations of the colour as I think the black really makes the teal “pop”.

The technique that I have been using is one called interlocking filet and the pattern is Early American inspired. It is such a great pattern to do. When I first started this style of crochet I must admit it took a little while to get my head around how it was just the same stitch repeated throughout the pattern. The way the pattern gets formed is by whether or not you complete the stitches to the front or the back. When reading the pattern you also have to get used to not seeing the name and number of stitches but rather you just see the number of stitches that go in either the front or the back. It’s all about the counting! I have had to frog my work on more than one occasion when I have got part way through a row and found that the pattern wasn’t looking quite right and had to go back and count the fronts and back stitches until I find whereabouts the mistake is.

Getting used to using two different colours in the way the pattern asks for was also a new way of working. Using when doing an afghan I am used to doing so many stitches in one colour, either a row or a round and then fastening off the yarn and joint in the next colour. With this technique however you still work in rows but you have both colours joined all the time. The colours are classed as either main colour or accent colour when reading the pattern. You complete a row going in my case as I am right handed from right to left in the main colour, you then complete the next row using the accent colour going from right to left without turning the work over as you normally would do. Only once both of these rows are completed you then turn your work over and complete the next pair of rows, one in main colour and one in accent.

There are 286 rows in this particular pattern and I now have only 33 rows left to complete. I love how there are eagles and that the wolves are facing each other. I also like the geometric patterns as well. There are five sections in total and each of these sections have a different name which relates to the title of early American inspired. Once I have finished the pattern I feel that I will add a border onto it. Although I do like it as it is on the first one that I ever did in this pattern I added a border and felt that it completed it. This is only my opinion and it does look lovely without. The finished article will then be handed over to a lovely lady that I know who wants to gift it to her granddaughter. I can’t wait to get it finished for them.




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