alphabetghan complete

It's done! The alphabet afghan is complete so here is the post with all the info in one place. 

Finished afghan measures 37" x 50". 

Firstly, the alphabet letters are my own design but they are just block letters. The X gave me fits. It just refused to look right. Hopefully, the end result is passable.

I worked with DIYarn by Lion Brand in colors Peach, Teal, Sky, Pumpkin, and Aqua. Each little Lion Brand DIYarn skein is 1.05 oz (30g) and 65 yards (60m). It is #4 worsted weight and made in Turkey.

I used an I hook for the body of the squares and an H for a single crochet edging around each square. I also used an H for the edging around the entire afghan.

Each square took a bit more than half a skein. I started a new skein for most of the letters to go easy on the tails left to sew in. I sewed my tails as I went along. The picture on the left shows how much I got out of the leftover from a pumpkin skein. I was able to make another full letter and partway around on the edging. (How much is left would depend on what letter you're making as they don't all use the same amount of yarn. Some have more holes and some less.)

You might remember I left a long tail on each square, which ended up being useless as I put another round in beige. LOL I had to sew all those tails in. Not good planning. Without that extra length, perhaps the leftover would have made it all the way around the edging. I can't be sure.

Each square measure about 6" x 7".


Squares were ordered randomly - well, in no particular pattern. It was a "planned" random. :-)

I considered adding a plain square between each letter but decided against it. I estimated that doing that would make the afghan about 54" x 77". The intended recipient is very young so I thought a smaller one at this juncture would work better.

Each square was edged in Red Heart Super Saver Beige with a straight double crochet stitch, working 3 double crochets in corners. If I did it again, I might try five there.  I left a strand 3x the length of the square for assembly. I used a whipstitch assembly method. 

The border around the entire afghan is single crochet. I did use half double crochet at the joins because it seemed to dip there. I just eyeballed it to see where it needed a bit of extra height. I was thinking if I'd used 5dc at the corners that might have eliminated the dip but of course I can only be sure if I do it again. :-)  

I used one round of peach and one of pumpkin for the border. 

There are 6 squares of pumpkin, 6 of teal, 8 of peach, 6 of sky, and 4 of aqua for a total of 30 squares. (They are actually rectangles.) If you wanted to make an afghan using one color, you wouldn't actually need 30 ounces of color since I could get almost a second square out of each 1.05 ounce. That said, you also need to consider the edging around each square and around the entire afghan if you are going to use the same color for that.

I used an entire skein of the Red Heart Super Saver Beige (7 oz) for the edging around each square. If you want to use that same color around the entire afghan, you'd need two skeins.

I am thinking of making another one in red, white and blue and would get 10 ounces of each color. I'd need to decide on my edging color too.

I think that's all the info on the ghan. If I think of anything else, I'll add it here. 

I've turned back to the purple heart afghan I began some time ago and am now edging that in green which matches the variegated yarn.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie