Graph-ghan CAL - UPDATED with guidelines

[jingles96]

Elmo is looking nice! What do you have your yarn wrapped around? Huge Safety Pins/Knitting Stitch holders?

[badrhinogillett]

Elmo is looking nice! What do you have your yarn wrapped around? Huge Safety Pins/Knitting Stitch holders?

 

Thanks for the nice words everyone! Jingles- those are yarn bobbins. I had a heck of a time finding them. Fortunately, my mom had some from a knitting project a few years back. I think you can order them either from Herschnerrs or Mary Maxim... I was unable to find them at Walmart, Michaels, JoAnns, or my LYS. They make the job SO MUCH easier. I tried a graph ghan years ago, and didn't have them... I ended up throwing the project away. If you can find them, go get them, it will make the job considerably easier.

[robbinstx]

I'm definately in on this one. I started 2 graph afghans in November but barely got started and put them aside for Christmas gifts. I'm picking them back up again as both of my DS's keep asking me when they will be done!

 

I graphed Spongebob for my 6 year old and the Teletubbies for my 4 year old so I will be working on them both!

 

This is great!

[Crocheting_MammaII]

I'm definately in on this one. I started 2 graph afghans in November but barely got started and put them aside for Christmas gifts. I'm picking them back up again as both of my DS's keep asking me when they will be done!

 

I graphed Spongebob for my 6 year old and the Teletubbies for my 4 year old so I will be working on them both!

 

This is great!

 

My daughter loves spongebob! would you be willing to share your graph? Please and thank you.

[karin4christ]

Hi everyone. I haven't joined this CAL because even though its only the third of January I already feel overcommitted. I have made two graph afghans this past year using the large easy tunisian crochet hooks from Annie's Attic. This crochet site helped me tremendously because I knew nothing about graph afghans except that I liked how they looked. www.angelfire.com/ny5/diznemom/index.html

 

Be sure to click on Cheryl's tutorials because I think she really showed in depth how to do the afghan stitch and how to change colors correctly, etc.

Good luck with all of your afghans.

And if someone already posted these websites, sorry for being redundant.

[robbinstx]

Sure, I just need to dig it out - and I'm afraid it is on, I think, 9 pages. Can I mail them to you?

[Crocheting_MammaII]

Sure, I just need to dig it out - and I'm afraid it is on, I think, 9 pages. Can I mail them to you?

 

sure that would be great! Thank you!

 

PM me and i'll give you my address

 

Melanie:hook

[jingles96]

Thanks for the nice words everyone! Jingles- those are yarn bobbins. I had a heck of a time finding them. Fortunately, my mom had some from a knitting project a few years back. I think you can order them either from Herschnerrs or Mary Maxim... I was unable to find them at Walmart, Michaels, JoAnns, or my LYS. They make the job SO MUCH easier. I tried a graph ghan years ago, and didn't have them... I ended up throwing the project away. If you can find them, go get them, it will make the job considerably easier.

 

 

I was in Hobby Lobby this last weekend, wandering around the notions isle, and found the yarn bobbins! I picked up a package 8-9 of "regular" ones for about $1.81 and a package of two giant ones for about $1.71. These will definitely come in handy when I start on my next graph-gahn.

[junerose]

Hi, I would love to have a go at this.

 

I have been planning on starting 3 this year, (subject to how the first one went! lol). One for baby, a jolly roger flag afghan, a John Wayne Afghan for my dad's birthday/Fathers Day gift, and a Dora one for my God-Daughters birthday.

 

I will be working them in SC, but I am unsure how to estimate the yarn. Does anyone have any guidelines?

[fran]

Going to do a "Rosie the Riveter" afghan in the afghan stitch. Hope to start it soon.

[badrhinogillett]

Not much time to work on it again this week, but the afghan is going quickly. I'm getting better at it as I go along, and am, generally, pleased with the results. My color changes are getting smoother, and this has been far less frustrating than my first failed attempt.

 

[lily]

wow. elmo is so cute!!!

 

my plan is to actually make sunday my 'posting an update' day, but I need to vent NOW so I guess I can kill two birds with one stone because I need to vent about my progress.

 

If I were to post a picture it would be a tangled pile of yarn and several hooks throw around near it. I am SO frustrated. today was gauge swatch day.

 

I'm using Caron SS yarn, because it is cheap and soft, and so I can use the scraps for my cancer-ghans

 

attempt 1: H hook, sc

result: way too stiff and way too small

 

attempt 2: I hook, sc

result: good drape, still way too small

 

attempt 3: I hook, dc

result: excellent drape, size seemed like it would have been ok, but the dc's are off center from row to row and I couldn't see how it would work right with a squared graph

 

attempt 4: H cro-hook, some made up afghan-type stitch

result: I didn't know what the heck I was doing, so it was a disaster.

 

So then I thought I'd try to figure out filet techniques, because that was one of the options listed with the graph. THAT was an experience.

 

 

Ugh. and...... UGH!!!!!!!!!

 

So I just posted a plea for help in the stitch clinic forum, and maybe a dc type filet thing will work. If i can manage to get it to soak in.

 

another option is to do a block of 4 sc's with a J or I hook and see what that looks like. *sigh*

 

so there's my 'progress'

[crochetlady]

:cheer:cheerI love graph ghans and I had started one with Pooh's head . Just needs some 20 odd rows to finish. Its been sitting in my bag for quite some time now and I would love to finish it! I will restart it tomorrow as Sunday is a horrible day as far as crochet is concerned!

 

Thanks for starting this!

 

hugs

vims

[crochetlady]

Lily Why don't you try the afghan stitch with a J or K afghan hook. With Caron SS being a limp yarn the resulting fabric would be nice if you use a big hook. Just my opinion. I found this easy because I use MOEZ hooks and they are way bigger . I used them on regular Red Heart SS and the blanket was a breeze to complete. If you need help with Afghan Stitch just holler!

 

hugs

Vims

[lily]

I still don't understand how a whole length of a big afghan will smoosh itself onto an afghan hook. I'm pretty dense that way. I will go ahead and try little swatches on my J hook and see what happens....The next bigger size I have is an N....but the afghan stitch is pretty much the same size as a sc, isn't it?

pardon me while I derail the thread, folks. lol

[badrhinogillett]

Lilly,

 

If you decide to do it as Filet, then you just read each solid block as 4 DC, with the last DC counting as the first DC of the next block. Each open block is DC, ch 2, DC.

 

I'm clueless about the afghan hook.

 

However, you can do what I am doing with Elmo. He is working up very small. When I am done with the Elmo portion, I"m going to do a boarder around it until I have the size ghan I want. Kinda like the pictures they show on Citiusa.com. Even though the picture part won't take up the whole afghan it will still work. I"ll boarder him in the same red that I am doing Elmo in, and probably a little bit of the orange from his nose to tie it all together.

[dws1119]

I'll be joining everyone as soon as I finish a couplke of other projects. I've already designed it with my new software. It is going to be a copy of my sons tattoo. He was wanting a unique afghan from me. He's got plenty og traditional ones I made years ago.

 

He originally wanted a dragon but I couldn't find a decent picture to use. So I came up with this idea. His latest tattoo is a ying yang symbol with the god smack sunburst around it. He's 22. But he still loves to snuggle under his mama's afghans.

 

I haven't told him what design I came up with so he'll be real surprised when I send it to him.

[rsisland]

I promised my oldest (17) son a dragon blanket for Christmas. Of course, it never happened. My first attempt at working from a cross stitch pattern floundered. Good attempt (actually 5 attempts) but not quite what I wanted. So I bought a nice dragon pattern from cuddleupcreations on ebay and will start at the end of January when I can purchase the supplies. Yarn bobbins will definitely be on the list this time!

[lily]

ok, after dealing with pattern induced insomnia for two days. lol

 

I'm going to go with your suggestion, badrhino, sort of. I'm going to work this chart up in sc, on an I hook.... it is 110 by 150, but since this graph will be the focal point of the ghan, I'm adding 20 rows of black on either side of the 110 edge to make it a square.

 

Then, depending on how big it turns out, I'm going to somehow find logos for the five superbowls dallas has won, graph and work them up, plus maybe a few others, I don't know yet. but I'm just going to a patchwork Dallas theme, and plan on piecing it together, that way, if I end up way, way off on any of the pieces, it's no big deal, I can just make other pieces to fit.

 

*breathes a sigh of relief*

 

my progress so far: I'm about a third of the way done with my foundation row.

[ViciouzKitty]

HI Everyone! I'd love to join this CAL. How do I start a graph, is there a software to make the graph? I'm looking forward to making one of these, I'll start mine by the end of Jan.

[Tampa Doll]

Kathryn, Elmo looks great. I am surprised you couldn't find the bobbins at Joanns. That is where I bought mine. I know Herrschners has them. Anyway, great job. Glad you are having fun.

 

As for bobbins if you can not find them, you can make them out of cardboard. Make an H with the top closed and just a slit in the top to hold the yarn on.

 

Jessica, as for a graph, you can use cross stitch graphs. just count one stitch for each block. If you want to make it bigger, just as enough rows till it is the size you want, or use 2 graphs to make the blanket.

 

Sounds like you all have a big group. Whether you use the afghan stitch or the sc (which I use) just have fun. When you get frustrated or annoyed, put it down and come back to it.

 

Good luck to you all.

[badrhinogillett]

Thanks Mary Jo. It's always nice to hear an expert say you are doing somehting right!

[AmyG.]

I'm almost done with my first ghan. It's a teddy bear with a football. I'm working on the border right now. I'll post a picture when I get done. I decided to do it in the afghan stitch (first one:eek ), but I think it turn out good. I used a J hook. All of my other ghans have been in SC with a J hook. That seems to work the best for me. Well, I better get back to work. Just wanted to check in.

[dws1119]

Amy,

 

I just checked out your pics. I love all your graph-ghans. They are all so beautiful. My son would love the asian design. I like the panda. I've just started to do these over the last several months. My first couple were very simple. I now have a couple software programs to help with my design process. I hope mine turn out as well as yours. Congrats!!

[badrhinogillett]

Once again, I haven't done as much as I wanted to this week on this. Got sidelined when a new fancy schmancy yarn store opened up in town. I HAD to make myself a scarf out of fancy Italian yarn. But, I must say, committing to posting the picture once a week is a help in getting me to get moving on this.

 

Here is this week's progress