Turning Quilts into Crochet Afghans

Lately I have been inspired to take a quilt pattern and make it as blanket with crochet. My inspiration comes from some of the quilts I have seen and pinned on Pinterest. Ah yes, Pinterest - a time waster but very inspiring.

The first one I made introduced me to two colour traditional Granny Squares. You can find a great tutorial video on how to make these at the Crochet Crowd http://thecrochetcrowd.com/two-toned-granny-square/ 

The last row of the border I also found on Pinterest which linked me to a blog called Bunny Mummy. 

This is Bunny Mummy's Double V Edging. I think it gives a finish to the edge without being distracting from the border itself or just abrutly finishing on the last row of three clusters.

The next quilt idea I crocheted is this one. However, I chose to do just six hearts. Which turned out to be a nice size for a single bed. 

This blanket also turned out to be excellent for using up little bits of left over yarn.

Yellow...

Green...

Pink...

Red...

Purple...

and Blue.

I am now searching for more ideas to turn the good old Granny Square into interesting patterns and blankets from quilting, cross stitch and Hamma Bead patterns.

Finally Finished

Yes, the blanket from the last post in January (where has the time gone?) is finally finished. I had a chuckle to myself when I re-read what I had said about the size,  probably only lap size. Well, it grew into something much bigger. 61 1/2" or 156cm. Big enough to sit nicely on a queen size bed. 

Now you may be wondering why this project has taken so long to complete. That would be because I had it nearly finished and then I pulled most of it apart and re-did it. Yep, you could say I'm mad but I was not at all happy with it. It was all squewed and pulled in different directions that no amount of stretching was ever going to sort out so it all came undone, down to the big centre block of squares and I started again. Starting again also gave me a chance to rearrange the colour sequence of the rows around the centre and I'm much happier with how it goes now.

Take a look.

                                   

                                   

For now it has been folded and put away for someday but if anyone is interested in having this big snuggly blanket it is available for purchase.

Crochet Blanket

Here I am making a new crochet blanket. Not the one I had in mind when I posted last but one that was started late last year then I think Christmas present making got in the way and it got put to one side. I found the four squares I had made previously and decided to build on them. 

One problem though - I didn't jot down what size hook I used so the next square I made was bigger than the original. Well, I thought, I can go about this two ways. Rip down the square just made or forget these four and stick with the new size. Hmmmm, stick with the new size and put these aside. Lesson learned? Yes! Take note of hook size and other important information like pattern design and source when beginning a new project. A timely post by Wink http://winkieflash.nl/2013/12/31/2013-wish-list-results/ reminded me to make some project cards that I can record all the important details on. 

So as you can see I am using the Willow block from Jan Eaton's book, 200 Crochet Blocks. Fantastic book with lots of inspiration for blanket making.

Sharron at Annie's Place shows us how to square up the main part of the block so it becomes more solid and less holey, if you get what I mean http://hookandbake.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/solid-willow-crochet-block-how-to.html

Original holey block,

new solid block.

Anyway, I made 16 blocks and thought "do I really want to make lots and lots of the same block and then join them all? No!" So I made 16, 

joined them together, then a small row of white dividing the big square from the following rows of each colour combination, light then dark.

I'm loving the colours. They are so fresh and summery. I have been thinking it would have been nice made in cotton but it is difficult to get the colour range so in acrylic it will remain. I am so enjoying this blanket that even though there is a quilt or two sitting in my head I can't wait for the chores to be done each day so that I have spare time to sit and crochet. It's not finished yet and I have no idea how big it will turn out but probably only big enough for your lap. Check back again soon to see it finished.