Afghan issues

[tinkerpuppet]

I have been working on an afghan for my hubby for quite awhile now, and I'm soooo close to be done . But I've come across a few issues, I'm hoping someone can help me with for next time.

 

1. This may just be an experience thing, but when I did my chain and foundation row (soooo long ago), they are incredibly loose now (even though at the time they were perfectly fine and even tension). I didn't notice until I was doing my edging, and it was really bad. Huge huge gaps, giant holes, it looked like the whole bottom had been pulled on and stretched out. I ended up doing my edging over the chain and foundation row into Row 1 just to keep it together. I'm hoping that maybe as it was my first project, I just didn't work tight enough. Does anyone else have this problem with afghans?

 

2. The afghan has many stripes in it. When I would change colours, I would crochet over the ends (to avoid having to weave them later). Worked great, except that now, even though I've trimmed them as best I can, the ends peek out a little. I'll trim them a little more, and then they peek out again. Anyway to keep them from peeking out? Would weaving have been better then just crocheting over the ends?

 

3. And because of issues 1 and 2, now that I'm doing my edging, the bottom of the blanket and the side where I did all my colour changes are quite hard and bumpy. I don't think my hubby will notice, but I wouldn't want to give it as a gift like this, I think its quite noticable. Obviously next time I hopefully won't have issue 1 to deal with, so I will not have had to edge over the chain and foundation row. But how to I keep the side where I've changed colours from being hard and bumpy?

 

I'm so close to being finished, and then I'll post some pics. I won't be making any changes to this blanket, but I'd like to avoid these issues in the future. Thanks!

[Ga_Rebel]

1. This may just be an experience thing, but when I did my chain and foundation row (soooo long ago), they are incredibly loose now (even though at the time they were perfectly fine and even tension). I didn't notice until I was doing my edging, and it was really bad. Huge huge gaps, giant holes, it looked like the whole bottom had been pulled on and stretched out. I ended up doing my edging over the chain and foundation row into Row 1 just to keep it together. I'm hoping that maybe as it was my first project, I just didn't work tight enough. Does anyone else have this problem with afghans?

 

I don't know if I am having the same problem or not but I will say this. I have a similar problem with my foundation row. And begin I just started crocheting I thought A) it was normal and 2) I'd cover it with a border and fringe. But now that I am working on my shawl I see I was putting the stitches in the wrong place. If you turn the foundation row just right you'll see and feel a line that looks and feels like a backbone. And I put the needle under that . SO you have a loop that goes over the nedle and 2 that are under it. And when you YO and pull through the loops it closes it up nicely.

 

I don't know if that makes sense so I'll try to take some pictures and show you.

[crochet.sandie]

There are several ways to work into the foundation chain. The one most often seen by myself in books is where you work your hook under the top two loops and leave one loop below the hook. The second is to insert hook under the top loop and leave two loops below. The third is to work into the back "hump", which is actually the middle strand, but you insert hook top to bottom in the back. This is the method I like to use because it gives a finished edge much like what you will have on your last row.

 

You can see pictures of two methods and a description of one here.

 

As to the "hard" sides, are you tying the two colors together? That will give you a hard lump on the sides.

 

I would wait until after the piece is laundered before trimming as bits of the ends usually will poke out then if they are going to. Of course, you should weave or crochet over a long piece. Leave at least 4". I prefer longer.

 

The prevailing thought is if you weave the strand in one direction and then turn it around and weave in the other direction (leave a small section between or you will just be undoing what you just did if you go back on the same row), it will stay put. Another thought is to weave the yarn in diagonally. I am told this keeps it in place.

 

I myself sometimes weave, sometimes sew over. When I weave I sometimes go in one direction only, sometimes in two, sometimes up and down or diagonally. It just depends on the pattern. If the pattern is very open or is multi-colored, you want to sew where the end will be less noticeable. I have a section on taking care of ends as well.

 

 

Hope that is some help.

[tinkerpuppet]

Thanks for those tips! I did a swatch and realized that I have been doing my foundation row wrong. I've been using Method 3, which wasn't 'strong' enough (so leaving two loops below my hook). I have Crochet Cabana bookmarked, and its my first stop when learning something new, it just never occured to me that I was doing this very basic stitch wrong. I guess on my dishclothes it didn't show up because they aren't as big or heavy.

 

And yes, I was tying the ends on the side. Even though I leave at least 6" to crochet over, I'm still not convinced that they won't just unravel. Is it safe not to tye them? I would love to avoid the hard bumps! Especially as my next few blankets will be for babies/kids.

 

And I'll try washing the blanket and then trimming the ends, hopefully that will help. Its just so frustrating to look at this blanket that I love and see teeny tiny ends sticking out everywhere!

 

Thanks!

[Kiki]

I do all my afghans with the third method and have never had this problem. Hmmm! SOmething to keep in mind!

[crochet.sandie]

And yes, I was tying the ends on the side. Even though I leave at least 6" to crochet over, I'm still not convinced that they won't just unravel. Is it safe not to tye them? I would love to avoid the hard bumps! Especially as my next few blankets will be for babies/kids.

 

And I'll try washing the blanket and then trimming the ends, hopefully that will help. Its just so frustrating to look at this blanket that I love and see teeny tiny ends sticking out everywhere!

 

Thanks!

 

One other thing I might mention - if you are doing an afghan where you repeat the same colors you can carry the yarn up and have no ends at all. For example, if you are working 2 rows white, then two rows green, you don't have to finish off white and join green. You can just carry the white, do your two rows of green and pick white up again. I show how to do this in Joining New Yarn (method 4B)

 

I am like you. I never felt it was safe not to tie, but people do it all the time, so it must be okay. *grin* What you might do if you are doing an afghan that changes color each row is tie while you're working if you are not going to sew over immediately. Then when you go to weave in, you untie and weave.

 

You're right in that on a baby blanket this would be more noticeable. The hard knob would hurt sensitive baby skin.

 

As to the methods of fch, IMHO none of them are wrong, they are just different. Whatever works best for you, what gives you the look you want, is what you should do.