Crochet Afghan
Zoodle re-creating her sleep with the Crochet Blanket
We here at Turtle And Zoodle Make Stuff are all about trying new things. As I’ve told you before, there are no experts here. This crochet afghan is living proof of that!
I’d always wanted to learn to crochet. It looked so intricate, so flexible, and so beautiful! Even better, crochet provided an opportunity to make a lot of blankets quickly, and my primary purpose for learning yarn arts was to make blankets.
I come from places where the weather is usually pretty cold. I have a thing about blankets. You could almost call it an obsession.
Anyway, when Zoodle and I started this website up I bit the bullet, got a Craftsy membership, and signed up for their beginning crochet classes. Zoodle didn’t find the classes as useful as I did. That’s okay, she doesn’t learn that way.
I ordered a kit online, so I would have a project to do that would force me to learn specific skills. I knew my first project would be… er, amateurish. I accepted that, and I dove in. I was ready to learn, and I was excited.
I can see every flaw in this blanket. I can see every loose thread. I can see where I dropped stitches. I can see where I added stitches. My afghan has an hourglass waist, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the design specs.
I was laughing at the afghan one evening, because it really was pretty bad, and the Zoodle heard me. She was incensed. She’d fallen in love with the soft yarn (Bernat Blanket) and insisted she wanted the finished product, flaws and all.
The night I finished, I crept into her room while she slept and put it
Grayscale afghan, folded
over her. She was delighted. She carries it around the house now, Linus-style. She’s not usually without it. I can still see every flaw in this blanket, and I have plenty more of that yarn so I can make another one and do it right this time.
But if you need encouragement after your first crochet project, there’s nothing quite like having your daughter wrap herself up in it and declare it her favorite thing in the whole wide world.
I got the pattern and yarn through Craftsy, but you can also find the original pattern here. You can also buy the yarn through the same site, or buy it at Michaels.
