How many chains for a California king size afghan?

[Crochetks92]

Hello I was looking up crochet afghan calculator and it didn't even have the results I needed and if I remember right.. my king size Afghan is a California king size Afghan and the stitches are 365 chains and the last three chains count as the 1st double crochet stitch and I crochet 188 rows. So how much crochet chain does it take to be The California king afghan size ???

 

Thanks.

[redrosesdz]

Welcome to Crochetville!

The Crochet Crowd does a good job of calculating what you need to make an afghan for the size you want.  The first link below is the number of chains.  The other links are useful for calculations, too

• http://thecrochetcrowd.com/many-chains-start-blanket-afghan/
• http://thecrochetcrowd.com/afghan-sizes/
• http://thecrochetcrowd.com/afghan-calculator/

One thing that the Crochet Crows points out is that the larger you make your stitches (bigger hook), the fewer stitches across.  The advantage to fewer stitches, besides time making it, is that it will use less yarn and weigh less.  The trade-off is that it will be less solid (more holes.)  I made a queen size, no drape using acrylic worsted weight yarn that is a very solid fabric.  It weighs a ton and is difficult to manipulate on the bed and in the washer/dryer.  I made another queen size with the same type of yarn and hook, but it's a lacy pattern.  It's much lighter, is easy to manipulate and almost just as warm.

[Granny Square]

A bit of warning with that chart - it's really handy for all the measurements of finished blanket sizes on a specific stitch gauge, but you really need to do a swatch,and do the math on YOUR gauge.  It gives assumed gauges for different hooks which is cool, but everybody's gauge is different so it's better to figure your own stitches per inch (with your intended yarn- your gauge will different with the same hook, different yarn brands for the same weight) than rely on a chart.  I once tried to help someone make some squares for a pieced blanket and had to go 5 hook sizes different to achieve her gauge - extreme example, but ..!!

Also, I'm guessing this chart assumes you are using a plain stitch.  A ripple is going to have tons more starting chains than a straight plain stitch, and a lacy pattern might be different too.  

Don't round off on your gauge calculation - example, say you want a 60" wide blanket.  Their gauge is 225 stitches with H hook .  That's .2666 inches per stitch.  Let's say your swatch works out to .25 inches per stitch.  That's only 56.25 inches.  Or, say your gauge measured .28 inches per stitch, you'd have 63 inches. (May not matter for a blanket, but would for a garment).

 

[Josette]

How many chains do I need to do to create a 60" by 90" blanket, using bulky yarn and an 11.5 hook? I am using a rib-stitch pattern with half double crochet stitches.

[bgs]

 Sorry but I dont think anyone can give you that answer as there are too many variables.  As Granny Square explained you would need to make a swatch and do the math for your personal guage

To be honest when I am trying to make a blanket a certain size l chain the length I want plus several chains more.  Then I work the first row stopping it at the length I want and then move on to row 2.  Those extra chains can be pulled apart.  

[Granny Square]

Hi Josette, and welcome to the 'ville!  My answer directly above your post would be the same for your question--a swatch is the most accurate way to figure this out, but you COULD get around this by making a chain longer than 60", and picking out extra chains when you hit 60"--crochet does not unravel from the 'other' direction.  This assumes the ribbing was done by post stitches, or in the same direction as 'real' ribbing (using the back loop).

I'd also add that half doubles are dense stitches, and any sort of ribbing is going to be a tremendous yarn-eater as well--'real ribbing' (working into the back loops) pulls in, and post stitches are basically using 2x the yarn as the amount they cover.

Another reason a swatch might be better is to estimate the amount of yarn you are going to need, by (example) making a 6" square to figure out how many stitches in 6" and figure how many stitches you need, and ALSO to mark the yarn coming out of the last stitch with a paper clip or something and ripping it all out and measuring the yardage needed for 6".  60x90" is 5400 square inches, 6x6=36 square inches.  36x150=5400, so let's pick a totally wrong number out of the air and say your 6" square took 20 yards of yarn, you'd need 20x150=3000 yards to make your blanket.  Then you'd need to look at the yardage of 1 skein of yarn that you want to use, let's say 1 skein is 200 yards, so you'd need 15 skeins.

Hi Bgs, we'ere typing in sync again  

[Granny Square]

2 hours ago, Granny Square said:

 

Nothing to see here, I must have pushed a wrong button, sorry....

Edited July 31, 2019 by Granny Square