How I Made the Afghan I Posted About Yesterday

Thought I would share with you the how-to for the afghan I wrote about yesterday.

I wanted to make an afghan for my special granddaughter to take to school with her after her high school graduation. I have had a “thing” for making things out of granny squares lately so that’s the type of afghan I wanted but with a bit of a twist by using 2 different square types--solid and traditional. You may have noticed from granny square patterns that not all squares are created equally. Some traditional grannies have 1 chain in the corner and no chains between the sets of 3 double crochets. Some start off with chains of varying lengths.  I wanted the same number of stitches on each side of both types of squares to make it easier to join them.

The Graduation Afghan--

Materials: All yarn is Red Heart and the name in parentheses is the “proper name” on the label

lBlack yarn (black) 2 skeins

lPink yarn (I lost the wrapper so not sure of color, think it said rosa) 2 skeins

lPurple yarn (medium purple) 2 skeins

lBlue yarn (turqua) 2 skeins

lMulticolor yarn (neon stripes) 5 skeins

lHooks--G to make squares and H to crochet them together

lScissors

lLarge needle

Using the chart below, crochet the appropriate number of squares. Patterns follow the chart.

	type	number
multicolor	solid	24
pink	traditional	18
blue	traditional	16
purple	traditional	12

Traditional Granny

Using G Hook, Ch 4, join with sl st to first ch to form ring.

RND 1:  Ch3 (this is first dc), 2 dc in ring. Ch 2, *3dc in ring, ch3. Repeat from * 2 times more. Ch2, slst in top of ch3. (You will have 4 sets of 3dc with 2 chains inbetween each set)

RND 2:  Sl st in the first 2 dc's and over to the ch2 space. Ch3, 2 dc in ch 2 sp, ch2, work 3 dc in same sp. Work the following 3 times (Ch1, work 3 dc, ch2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space) Ch1, join with slst to top of ch 3.

RND 3:  Sl st in the first 2 dc's and over to the ch2 space. Ch 3, 2 dc in ch 2 sp, ch 2, work 3 dc in same sp. Ch 1, work 3 dc in next ch 1 sp. Ch 1. Work the following 3 times (Work 3 dc, ch2, 3 dc in next ch 2 sp. Ch 1, work 3 dc in next ch 1 sp. Ch 1.) Join with sl st to top of ch 3.

finish off and weave in ends.

Solid Granny

With G Hook, chain 4, join with sl st to form a ring

round 1: working in the ring, ch 3, 2 dc in ring, ch2, *3 dc in ring ch 2* repeat 2 more times. (You will have 3 sets of 3dc separated by 2 chains)

round 2: ch 3, * dc in each dc to corner, ( 2 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc) in corner repeat from * three times more, dc in each dc across to beg ch-3, join with sl st to top of beg ch-3 (Total of 7 dc per side including corner double crochets)

repeat round 2 until square reaches desired size (each side is 4 stitches larger than the previous side)

finish off and weave in ends

After making the number of squares required, use the following graphic as a guide on how to lay them out.

Joining:

Using the H hook and solid black yarn, single crochet the squares together using the layout below.

Shaded squares = purple

“P” squares = pink

“B” squares = blue

Plain squares = multicolored

Edging:

Round 1:  Using G hook, you will be crocheting with double crochets in each double crochet and chain 1 space. In corners, you will do (2dc, ch2, 2dc).

Round 2: Switch to the multicolor yarn. Using hdc, work as rnd 1.

Round 3: Same as round 2

Round 4: Change to black yarn, crochet as round 2.

Round 5: Change to blue yarn, crochet sc all around.

Finish off, weave in ends.

You’re done!

If you have any questions, please ask.

Sharon