Adventures In Blankie Bliss
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I both knit and crochet. Both crafts use yarn. Both produce cloth of some kind. But beyond that, they are very different. Knitting requires the use of two pointy sticks, with the stitches constantly being held on one or both of them as they are being worked. If any of the stitches is dropped, it can ladder down the knitted fabric like a run in pantyhose. (Pantyhose is also a knit fabric, in case you didn’t know.) Because of the way it is constructed, knit fabric is relatively thin and has a lot of drape, making it perfect for clothing, along with a ton of other applications. Crochet, by contrast, is worked with a single stick with a hook on the end. Each stitch is worked individually and completely, meaning that while crochet can be pulled out, it comes out one stitch at a time, rather than laddering down when a stitch is “dropped.” This also means that the crochet fabric tends to be twice as thick as knit fabric, making it mostly unsuitable for garments (too stiff) but extremely suitable for blankets, where the thickness of the fabric is a virtue. (I can’t find it anymore, but I once read a list of 10 things crocheters should never do; on the list was “Never engage a knitter in combat.” Made me laugh.)
Before I go on to more relevant information, I’d like to point out one more difference between knitting and crochet. Knitting while wearing my Apple Watch does not cause my step count to rise. But crochet does. I only mention this because for a time, in an effort to encourage me to do more walking, my mother had taken to issuing a gentle daily query about my step count. Several times, after I told her the daily total, I had to confess that “about half of those are ‘crochet steps’.” Okay, back to the fiber arts.
Now, you can knit blankets. And I have knit a total of three blankets in my lifetime. But I didn’t enjoy it. Knitting blankets takes forever. Crochet is much faster. On the down side, crochet takes 2-3 times as much yarn as knitting to produce a blanket roughly the same size. But again, that’s because crochet fabric is thicker, which is a good thing for a blanket. I’ve crocheted MANY blankets over the years, but one pattern I keep coming back to over and over again is something called Stitch #30 (I call it the honeycomb stitch) from 101 Stitches For Afghans by Jean Leinhauser. Her book is an excellent investment and the latest version of it includes crochet diagrams along with the written instructions, unlike my very old copy.
The pattern needs at least two colors of yarn to work, but I have often done it with multiple colors. It makes fantastic baby blankets. Below you will find a pastel cell version with white dividers I made for a baby shower and a color gradient cell version I did for myself as a bedspread, using black dividers; I’d hoped it would look a bit like stained glass and I think it does.
For Christmas this year, I drew my father’s name and decided to crochet him an afghan that would be big enough to lay across his queen-size bed, but also not too big for snuggling on the couch. I decided to make this honeycomb pattern for his afghan, but chose muted colors, since he’s a boy and all (no sexist stereotypes here). I ended up with KnitPicks’ Mighty Stitch yarn (an acrylic/wool blend which can happily endure both the washer and the dryer) in black for the divider and a heathered gray for the cells.
To give an overview of the pattern execution, I will tell you that you’ll do two rows in one color and then switch to the other. If you’re only using one color for the cells, then you’ll just continue like this. If you are using multiple colors for the cells (like the pastel blanket shown above), then you will need to cut the yarn every time you finish the second cell row, but you will run the divider color up the side of the work without cutting it. The rows go like this:
Cell row: one single crochet, one half double crochet, five double crochet, one half double crochet, one single crochet, chain one, and then skip a stitch before you work the sequence again. When you get to the end of the row, turn and work your way back using exactly the same sequence of stitches.
If the pictures don’t make sense, here’s a short video of how it looks:
Divider row: work nine single crochet, then one double crochet over the chain spaces and into the divider row below. Continue this across, and then turn and do a single crochet in every stitch on the way back across the row.
And again, here’s a short video to see this in motion:
My dad’s afghan is coming along nicely and will definitely be done in time for Christmas. In the past, I’ve done a single crochet border around the entire outer edge of the blanket, which makes it look finished and also encloses the visible yarn changes along the one edge. For this particular blanket, I think I’d like to try my applied i-cord edging as described in a previous post. I’ll do it in black, of course, and I think it will look polished and lovely.
Now, I wanted to describe one final technique. I cannot for the life of me remember where I read about this and I can’t find it discussed anywhere these days. I did not invent it, but I offer it here so that everyone can enjoy it. This is a method for crocheting in yarn tails securely and invisibly as you go. Since I’m carrying both colors of yarn up the side of this project, I’m only needing to use this technique when I run out of one skein of yarn and have to add in a new one. But it also worked very well for those projects where I used a different cell color on every row and so had to cut the cell yarns each time I changed. That made for a LOT of ends to weave in.
Essentially, you tie a regular old square knot to join in the new yarn and leave yourself some generous tails. Then once the knot is tied and you have crocheted a little past the knot, you go back, and loop your tail through the chain at the top of every stitch. Do this for 5-10 stitches, then leave it, and do the same with the other tail in the other direction. Leave the tails until you have crocheted over the top of where you wove them, and then you can cut off the excess ends. This is pretty much invisible, and VERY secure. Here’s a video of the process:
Okay, so that’s a recommendation for an excellent crochet book, a description of a fantastic and versatile stitch pattern, and a new-to-you (possibly) method for dealing with those pesky yarn ends. Pretty good for my 100th blog post! (Ow…I think I sprained my elbow while patting myself on the shoulder…)
