Insanely large bedspread

I haven't done a lot of crochet this past year, and it's all the fault of an afghan.

I get much colder at night than B., so I have a throw for my side of the bed.  It's a basic no-sew, fringed and tied end fleece blanket that I've had for ages.  It went much better in my previous bedroom with its rustic style.  It looks downright silly on a Chippendale four-poster.

My book doesn't actually look like this.

So I thought I'd crochet a nicer looking afghan, about the same size.  I eventually came across a Leisure Arts book on Aran afghans and bought it, about the time we moved to Boulder.  Then I found some sage green yarn at Walmart, and bought a few skeins of that.

I particularly liked this book for the way it gave instructions.  It would specifically label sections, i.e. (cable row) so you could conceivably combine different stitches and make up your own pattern.

I went with the Basketweave afghan, although I initially bought it for the Sampler afghan.  Sewing together sections of crocheted yarn is annoying, so I moved on.

I'm terrible when it comes to reading crochet instructions all the way through.   I figure if I don't know a stitch, it will take me five minutes to look it up and figure out how to do it.

Really, I should have stopped here.

What I should have been paying attention to is what the stitches were.  It took me a while to realize that the afghan instructions I'd chosen were not symmetrical.  One side was different than the other!  This annoyed me to no end.  Not to mention that I discovered that the afghan was going to be a lot narrower than I anticipated.  So I decided to start winging it.  I repeated several rows to give it extra width, and looked through the rest of the book to decide which stitches I liked enough to include in my blanket.

About this time B. got interested in the project.  He liked the look of it.  He suggested that I make it big enough to cover the bed.  The big, huge, king sized bed that comes up to my waist and is fondly referred to as the Monster Bed.  I resisted, but he kept suggesting, and so I modified my pattern again.  I bought more yarn.  Then even more.  I had to wait and ransack various Walmarts because they generally only carried 4-6 at a time, and apparently the had exclusive selling rights on that particular color, because it was the only place I could find it.

The afghan got bigger. And heavier.  And harder to maneuver.  Eventually I stopped working on it, because I'd had a molar removed and was exhausted and achy and recovering slowly, and it was just too hard to deal with.  Plus the weather was getting warmer and I was sitting under a ridiculous amount of yarn.

I didn't attempt to start any other projects during the year because 'I still had that afghan to finish.'  (I did knit a few hats.)  Finally in January I hauled it back out, and finished it in early February 2014.

That center panel is an example of the 'Celtic Weave'

When I was a foot from the end, I came to the horrible realization that the celtic weave panels had really messed up my stitch count.  Yes, that's another bad crochet habit I have, not double checking how many stitches are in a row, but when you have to count up to 241, you don't want to do it often.  Fortunately I was able to tug it all straight for the photo!  You can also see it isn't long enough to cover the foot of the bed, but that's because it wasn't meant to when I started it.  I don't like fringe, and I really don't want to have to come up with an additional panel, so I'm just going to call it done.

You want to know the stats now, don't you?  I haven't measured it, but I did manage to make it hang down to the side rails on the bed, so it's at least 110" wide.  I lost count early on of how many skeins I used.  So after taking these pictures, I was crawling around on the bed for a good half hour, searching carefully for where I had woven in a new skein to the old and tying bits of red thread around the spot.  I came up with 36 skeins.  That's roughly 9,000 yards, or 27,000 feet of yarn.  Each skein is roughly 5 ounces, so the whole things weighs a touch over eleven pounds. 

It's nice and warm, and I no longer have to move it, or really look at it.  And eventually I will find a bedspread for underneath it that I like and actually fits properly, and get a dust ruffle made, since one can't be had for a decent quality and price.  

In the meantime, I'm going back to hats and scarves and amigurumi and other stuff that travels easily, or at least can be carried up and down the stairs without issue . . .