63 Squares Crochet Along

[JulieKay]

Hi Olga

Well, after this morning, I'll have to agree with you on the yarn . I bought Caron simply soft for my second 63 .... It is a nice yarn as far as softness goes , but I had 3 squares made and they were all turning out a lot different sizes than the one I did with Red Heart -- those squares were much more uniform in size-- a little difference in some, but not bad . SO.... I'm right back to SQUARE ONE on my second 63-- it's ok though ... I don't mind .

[irikel]

Hi Julie....I have used that Caron soft and it is soft..i think thats the one I made a halter for my grandaughter ...it's not itchy and i think it's so soft it must give the squares a little distortion.

 

Hi Olga

Well, after this morning, I'll have to agree with you on the yarn . I bought Caron simply soft for my second 63 .... It is a nice yarn as far as softness goes , but I had 3 squares made and they were all turning out a lot different sizes than the one I did with Red Heart -- those squares were much more uniform in size-- a little difference in some, but not bad . SO.... I'm right back to SQUARE ONE on my second 63-- it's ok though ... I don't mind .

[JulieKay]

Yea, that yarn would be great for clothing items especially -- it would be very soft and warm .

 

I guess I'll just stick to good old Red Heart for afghans .

[yarnoholic]

Hi Yarnaholic

I'm not sure what types of yarn everyone else used. I used Red Heart for my first one , and am using Caron Simply Soft for my second . Maybe someonw else on here will know your answer . I hope you join us -- the more ,the merrier !

 

No problem, JulieKay. I went by my LYS today and purchased Plymouth Encore in lavender, grey, and a pale blue for my afghan. I purchased the book at JoAnn's with my 50% coupon and I plan to get started tonight after I get some knitting done. I'll let you guys know how it works up. I'll do about two squares tonight and let you know in the morning how it goes. I only plan to do about half, 30 or so, squares, does that still count as a member of the club? Say a 50/50 membership? LOL

[JulieKay]

Hi Yarnoholic,

Of course, you can be a member-- a full-fledged one , even if you decide to only do half the afghan !

Your colors sound like they'd be really pretty together . I hope you're able to post photos ! We'd love to see them .

Keep in touch with your progress !

[tobybob]

Has anyone used a wool type yarn for this afghan? Like maybe Patons Decor or Plymouth Encore? I'm just kinda curious as to what an afghan looks like with this type of yarn and I'm seriously considering joining this crochet along.

 

I was just on lionbrand.com looking something up and checked there free patterns out. They have patterns there using wool-ease yarn in aghans. Maybe you want to look at there patterns to get an idea if they would work for this one or not. Another thing might be to go on the web site for the yarn you have and see if they suggest it for afghans. First thing that came to my mind is will it shrink?

Marlene

[viggie]

I just finished my first 8 squares! I'm going in order and trying to do one a day. We'll see how long I can keep that up...lol. I have pictures on my blog of what I have so far if anyone is interested

 

I agree with the guage being hard on this one...I've never had a problem with it before! My squares come out 8"x8" before edging so consistantly that I decided to just go with it.

[JulieKay]

Hi Lynn !

 

Great job on the squares ! They are very pretty . I need to go pick up some of the pounder yarn and try it out . That's one I haven't used before ! I like the colors you chose, and that's a good plan , to make at least one square a day . Keep on going, you've got a great start !

 

[JulieKay]

Lynn ,

Whoops, I forgot to tell you that different yarns will come out in different sizes. I think the pounder yarn is pretty nice and thick ,so your squares probably will come out 8 inch instead of 7 . If you use simply soft, they tend to come out smaller because it's a thinner yarn . As long as all your squares turn out as close as you can get them to the SAME size, it won't matter if they're 8 instead of 7 inches -- you'll just have a bigger afghan when done !

Keep in touch !

[yarnoholic]

vigilant20,

 

your afghan squares are GORGEOUS! fantastic job!

 

JulieKay, those are great suggestions. I'm going to double check and make sure Plymouth Encore is recommended for squares/afghans on their website, but so far, I've been right on with guage on this yarn. I checked someone else's blog, Yarn Tomato's I believe, and they had a post from about a year ago when she was using Paton's Decor (same 75% acrylic, 25% wool mix as Encore) and she had pretty standardized squares.

 

You can check my blog for pics of my first THREE squares! They're really fast and fun to make. I'm really getting inspired...watch out, I might do the whole 63 after all!

 

And I agree about the pounder yarns. They claim to be worsted weight, but I've found them to be slightly thicker than the smaller sized skeins.

 

My blog, Anna's Yarn Mansion , has pics of my three squares. I'll post as I complete squares. This is fun!

[viggie]

JulieKay...you are right. I bet that is the problem. This is the first time I've used the pounders and I didn't notice how much "meatier" it was than your average worsted weight. But bigger afghans aren't bad things! Especially when the yarn was on sale...lol.

 

Yarnoholic...thanks! Yours are looking great too I haven't blocked any of mine yet, so you are way ahead of me. And thanks for the link...I hadn't stumbled across your blog before so it was fun to look through.

[yarnoholic]

I was just on lionbrand.com looking something up and checked there free patterns out. They have patterns there using wool-ease yarn in aghans. Maybe you want to look at there patterns to get an idea if they would work for this one or not. Another thing might be to go on the web site for the yarn you have and see if they suggest it for afghans. First thing that came to my mind is will it shrink?

Marlene

 

I just check out Plymouth Yarn's website and they had photos of some afghans made with the yarn. The label states to machine wash AND dry at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so if all goes well, it won't shrink any more than 100% acrylic yarn. Paton's Decor (same type of yarn, except it's made in Canada) is the same way in case any other crocheter's are interested.

 

It's a little more expensive, but I'm one of those people that's ALWAYS cold. I travel by train A LOT, so this will be my all purpose sitting in front of the TV, traveling back and forth between my parent's house and my home, etc., blankie!

[JulieKay]

Hello Anna

Nice job on your first 3 squares ! I wondered if you might decide to do the whole thing once you started !

 

Lynn -

I went looking for some pounder yarn yesterday in 2 different stores, but they had lousy colors to choose from, so I didnt get any . We don't have a very great number of craft stores around here, and our Walmart doesn't have the pounders . I'll keep on looking, though .

[yarnoholic]

JulieKay & All,

 

I've seriously considered that, but when I worked on square #51, it didn't "click" between the instructions and the diagram, so I'm thinking I'll stick with 42 squares. That's up from the original 30, so who knows? I might come back to it and/or come up with more money to buy more yarn to make all of 'em.

 

After deciding on working 6 strips of 7 squares, I've REALLY gone to town. I've got one completed strip (7 squares), and I did 2 more squares this morning. I hope to have the second strip done either tonight or tomorrow. I really like the way they have you work the squares, I'm so used to working from the center out that it's a nice change to do so many chains and work the square from the bottom up.

 

I'll take pics when I complete the second strip and join it to the first. I'm loving the way these colors look together!

[CatsCradleCreations]

I'm using Caron Simply Soft for my sister's ghan and will probably use a soft yarn for my kids' ghans when I do those. The only thing you have to watch with a soft yarn is that it's a light worsted weight and won't always work to the right gauge. Play around with hook sizes until you get your gauge where you want it.

 

I'm using an H hook on all of my squares and will just edge them another round before joining if necessary.

[JulieKay]

Yarnoholic -

Can't wait to see your photos. I t sounds like you are doing really great on them . Yes, there are a few that are pretty challenging, so you can always skip around and come back to those later if you decide to make all 63 .

 

Melissa

I know a lot of people that prefer the simply soft over Red Heart . I guess it's everyone's choice which they like better. They do make up into really soft fuzzy blankets ! I guess I'm just used to Red Heart . It's not as soft, but it's sturdy .

Different Strokes for Different Folks, as they say !

[angels776]

Howdy here today !hope everyone is doing good tonight,juliekay did you see what i did with my name? Yes I changed it now I'm juliaVC(angels776)lol.Hey I wanted to let you know that I have them 44 sq done but with a lot of trouble lol.but I'm very close to getting them done and I am demanding mysefl to finnish it.Well about the color's,it's a scrap afhgan ,it has all colors.As soon as i get it done i'll post them on my blog if i get to learn that part:lol :lol of how to post my stuff there.I did put some slippers that I made but I don't even remember how i did it.but it'll come to me again I hope soon lol well happy holidays everyone see ya soon God bless you all. :hug :hug

[angels776]

Thank you Jimmielu for your advice but believe me if I leave this one I will not do it at all because of how many times I took it apart so i prefered to frog it as many time until I got it right ,now i can keep on thank God .God bless you all and for your help.thanks irikel too

[JulieKay]

Julia -

Sounds like you're doing great ! Can't wait to see your photos posted .

[irikel]

me?? OK .. but all you have to do when you get stuck is keep frogging and trying or move on to the next one and then come back..

[angels776]

Hi juliekay "yeah right" like my niece's daughter used to say,,,, well I'm not that bad either, well I've ben hanging in here .lol lol lol, :cheer :yayand I'm going to finnish this darn thing becase I can't wait to see it done lol lol. I'm so happy I even started it and being in this group give's me therapy,which I definitly need . Thank you all and God bless you all. :hug :hug

[JulieKay]

Hi Everyone,

Donna emailed me this morning and said she has had some technical difficulties with the old way the Join Form was set up and will be working to correct the problem soon . So it should be up and running again shortly .

[angels776]

Julia -

Sounds like you're doing great ! Can't wait to see your photos posted .

Hey Juliekay I got it #44 now I'm on #46 now got 4 rows to go,but my goal is to finnish it this weekend hopefully,if I don't get cought with another burden one lol lol lol:clap :clap

[JulieKay]

You are doing wonderful, Julia ! Keep it up !

[yarnoholic]

I'm happy to say that I've completed two strips of seven squares each! I took a pic of a part of the joined strips the other day, check it out.