Saturday, July 10, 2010

Double Cross Scrapghan

Fourth of July weekend at my mom's was the perfect time to start an afghan. I have my thermostat set above 80°F to save energy, so I'm always a bit cool at my mom's in the summertime.

Double Cross Scrapghan - In Progress

I'm using a bunch of scrap yarn I've had a while. Mostly, I'm changing colors whenever I finish off the one I'm using. There's enough of a couple of them to do a few rows, switch to something else and use the rest later. There's lots of browns, tans, and greys with enough other colors to liven it up.

I'm calling this a Double Cross Scrapghan. I started with a few rows of double crochet. Now I'm doing a 3 row pattern. I do a row of crossed double crochets, then 2 rows of plain double crochet. Maybe I'll write up a pattern sometime.

To work the crossed double crochets, I skip 1 double crochet and make a double crochet in the next stitch. Then, I reach behind the double crochet I just made and make a double crochet in the skipped stitch. The arrows point at the rows with the crossed double crochets.

Double Cross Scrapghan - In Progress Close Up

Everything is worsted weight yarn, but not all worsted weight is the same thickness. I'm using an I hook on the heavier yarns and a J hook on the not quite as thick ones.

Then there are the ones that are too thin for a J hook. I'm splitting the 2 strands of the Spinnerin Acrylic yarn that Audrey gave away at knitting club last month and combining one strand of that with the lightest weight yarns. If you look carefully at the cream/brown variegated yarn at the top of the photo, you can see it is one of the light worsted weight yarns I'm adding the Spinnerin to.


I apologize that it's been over a week since I've written on this blog. I've been rearranging my activities with goals of getting to bed earlier and being more productive. I'm creating new habits and blogging hasn't happened. I have finished a couple of things that had been stuck on my to do list for a while, so that's a plus.

6 comments:

  1. That pattern looks really cool. I have never heard of it before. How many stitches do you chain to start?

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    1. Basically just start with a chain that is as long as the width you want your afghan to be. Sorry, I don't remember if I used an even or odd number of stitches in each row. I think even, because you need 2 stitches for each crossed double crochet plus it looks like there is 1 (regular) double crochet at the beginning/end of each row of crossed double crochet.

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    2. I have been gifted a large amount of yarn. Most of it is half skeins & those kinds of amounts but there's a ton of cołors. I've been trying to decide what to do with it all. This Scrapghan may eat up a nice amount of it. Thank you.

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    3. Yes, this afghan is great at using small amounts of yarn. I started with a bunch of small left over balls (nothing as big a a half skein) and was using them so quickly, I had to set the project aside while I collect more small balls of yarn. The crossed double crochets make a heavier afghan and use more yarn than many patterns.

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  2. I'm not looking to blog. I was looking for a pattern.

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    1. Sorry. Maybe I will write up the pattern and put it on my website someday, but I haven't done any pattern writing for some time. Just haven't been inspired to do that.

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