Hello everyone!  It’s sad to say that this is my last instructional CAL post.  I sincerely hope that each and every one of you have enjoyed watching or participating in this project; I can tell you that every part of it has been a joy for me, from actually crocheting the blanket to taking over 100 pictures to writing it all up and to answering your questions and comments.

Today’s post is to give instructions on the way I made my border (in US terms), but feel free to make it your own way or leave it off entirely.  If you do make a different border, I would recommend that your first row around your blanket be a sc row because that will help give your edges some stability.  Here’s a picture of my completed border:

It’s a pretty simple (but sturdy) sc border with a cute picot edging.  Here’s how I did it:

border row 1

Connect your chosen border color to the bottom left corner of your blanket.  Make 1 sc in each chain loop:

When you reach your corner, make sure you add at least 1 sc so that the corner will turn properly:

When crocheting up/down the sides of your blanket, spacing the stitches can be difficult.  I recommend firstly that you crochet around the entire stitch at the end of each row; it’s much easier than trying to slip your hook into the middle of each and every stitch.  When you come across a row ending/beginning in a sc, make 1 border sc around it.  When it’s a hdc, make 2 border sc around that stitch.  When it’s a dc, also make 2.  When it’s a treble, make 3 stitches around the treble stitch.  Some people prefer to do just 1 stitch around the hdc stitches, but you can experiment and see what works best for you (some people find that just using 1 stitch can make the border too tight or that 2 can make it too loose, depending on the gauge etc.).  In the case of the star stitch, I placed 3 sc on top of it:

When you reach the beginning of your border, slip stitch to close the round, ch1, and begin row 2.

border row 2

Work sc stitches into every stitch of your first border row, remembering to put in extra at the corners.  Close the round and begin row 3 the same way.

border row 3

Work 6 sc stitches.  Here’s where we make the first picot.  Start by chaining 3:

Slip your hook into the first of the 3 chains:

Yarn over and pull through the 2 loops:

Without skipping any stitches, make 6 more sc stitches in the row below.  Make another picot.  Continue making picots every 6 stitches until you come to the end.  Tie off and weave in your ends, and you’re done:

blocking

If the edges of your blanket are too uneven for your taste, feel free to wash and block your blanket according to your particular yarn label.  I myself did not do this with my blanket.

At this point my blanket is so large that I couldn’t get a good photo square on, but you can see all of the rows there.

And folded up:

Well, that’s everything!  It’s been such a pleasure having you aboard and watching your blankets develop through your pictures on facebook.  Thank you so much for making this such a special experience!

the as-we-go stripey blanket CAL pattern

I will compile all the CAL posts into one long page and stick it permanently in the menu bar at the top of this blog so you can always find it.  Some of you have expressed a desire for a downloadable PDF pattern, as well.  I’m honestly not sure if that will happen — I’ve never made a PDF pattern before and am not exactly sure how to go about doing it properly (and without making it a zillion pages long).  I will give it a shot, though, and if it works out I will post the link to it and let you know.

 If you’d please read on, I have one last thing I want to mention.

a request

I would like to arrange a permanent page on this blog as a photo gallery with pictures of everyone’s finished blankets.  When you are completely finished, I’d be so grateful if you could take a lovely picture and e-mail it to me at the photo’s full size.  Also, in the email please let me know if you would like for your name to appear with your picture, and what name I should use.  Here is the email address you can use:  davish14 AT winthrop DOT edu

Again, thank you all so much for participating — it’s really been humbling and at the same time very exciting to see this pattern taking shape all across the world.  I hope you all enjoyed it and feel free to continue to leave questions and comments about the CAL.

Hello everyone!  Are you ready for week 17?  It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but it’s been long enough for my blanket to reach it’s intended size (actually it’s bigger than I’d intended).  It covers the top of a double bed and is completely square after finishing this week’s rows.  Definitely a large throw.  This means that I am finished with my blanket, excepting the border, which will have a post all it’s own very shortly for those who want instructions.  If your blanket is not the size you wish it to be at this point, by all means carry on.  At the end of this post there will be some suggestions for you that you can choose to follow if you like.

Well, let’s get started, remembering that we’re using US terms.  Last week we finished row 124:

row 125

With new color, hdc across.

row 126

With new color, dc across.

rows 127-129

With new colors, work the granny stripe pattern (original instructions here).

row 130

With new color, dc across.

row 131

With new color, hdc across.  Fasten off (if you are done with your blanket) and weave in your ends!

Ta-da!

notes for those who wish to continue with their blankets

1. This last installment has 7 rows instead of 8, so be conscious of your right and wrong sides as you continue.

2. The way I chose the order of the stitch patterns was pretty random except for the bobble rows.  I tried to evenly space the bobble rows from each other, hoping that evenly spaced big bands of color would tie the whole thing together nicely.

3. If you would like to follow a specific pattern, I’d recommend going back, working row 8, and continuing from there.  That would be the first Catharine wheel row.  That should keep the bobble rows evenly spaced and will also keep your right and wrong sides correct.

about the next CAL post

There will be one last post about the border in a few days.  You can choose not to do a border at all, you can follow the instructions that I will have available for you, or you can choose to do your border completely differently than mine.  In whatever case, there will be some recommendations for border construction and pictures of my own border in the upcoming post, as well as my thanks, some extra CAL tidbits, and a question I will have for all of you.

credit

Let’s take a look back at our inspiration.  The lovely blanket was made by Julie at Little Woolie, and I must say that I’m a bit embarrassed that my blanket came out so close to hers; despite some efforts I made at the beginning to make them different, they do look so alike, particularly at first glance.  I’m much relieved to say that she is OK with it all, because I did have some pangs of guilt there at the end.  However I’m very happy with my blanket and I really do mean this as a credit to Julie’s lovely work — she is an inspiration in many ways!  Please, however, if you pin that last picture to Pinterest be aware that it is not my blanket or picture and that credit should therefore not be given to me.  If you wish to pin her picture, please go here and do it from her page so that she can get the credit that she deserves.  I’ll appreciate it, and she will too!

Hello everyone!  This week we’re back to 8 rows — are you ready?  We’re using US terms, and last week we finished row 116:

row 117

With new color, hdc across.

row 118

With new color, dc across.

row 119

With new color, hdc across.

rows 120-122

With 2 colors, repeat the bobble rows (original instructions here).

row 123

With new color, hdc across.

row 124

With new color, dc across.  Here’s a picture of this week’s rows:

That’s all for this week.  Keep the pictures on facebook coming — it’s great to see what everyone is doing!

Alright everyone, let’s beast out week 14!  Using US terms, last week we ended on row 102:

row 103-104

With new color, work the star stitch pattern (instructions here).

row 105

With new color, hdc across.

row 106

With new color, dc across.

row 107-109

With new colors, work the granny stripe pattern (instructions here).

row 110

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows (sorry about the color/quality — I don’t know what happened this week!):

And this week I have a picture of the whole thing:

Hopefully everybody is still enjoying our crochet along!  I’m still enjoying everyone’s pictures on facebook and everything.  It’s really amazing to me that there are so many people participating!

That’s it for today, hope you enjoy!

Week 13 is already upon us!  Are you ready to dive in?  Let’s get started, and remember we’re using US terms!

Last week we finished with row 94:

row 95

With new color, hdc across.

rows 96-99

With 2 new colors, work the Catharine wheel pattern (click here for original instructions).  Here’s a picture so far:

row 100

With new color, dc across as instructed in the original Catharine wheel instructions.  You might want to count your stitches here, just to be safe.

row 101

With new color, hdc across.

row 102

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows all together:

Don’t forget to weave in those ends!  For me it really does help make the whole blanket more manageable when I don’t have ends getting tangled everywhere, which is becoming more important as our blankets grow in size.  This week I don’t have a picture of the whole blanket — again I forgot to stop crocheting in time and didn’t remember until I was a couple more rows in, and I can’t give that big of a spoiler away!  😉

Can you believe we’ve done over 100 rows now?  That’s a lot of stitches.  I know that a few of you aren’t too fond of working the Catharine wheels, but I hope that the other fun stitches compensate adequately!

That’s all for this week — thanks for stopping by!