Plaid Crochet Blanket
The Christmas season was approaching, and having gained some speed and skill at crocheting afghans of late, I decided it was time to make each of my adult kiddos one for the birthdays throughout the 2023 year. Starting with my 2nd born daughter who's birthday was in January I knew my best opportunity to get it to her was during the Christmas holidays and forgo shipping it across the country. This meant a bit of a tight timeline. But with recent confidence and experience of completing several blankets in short order, I was confident I could have another one done in time.
After a bit of discussion with her (no birthday surprises here), we opted to do a weaved blanket. It piqued my interest and uses a worsted weight yarn. Having never done one before I was excited to give it a try. I found this great free pattern from yarnspiration. The link is in my crochet board in Pinterest or head over directly yarnspirations pattern here
Weaved crochet patterns aren't nearly as difficult as they look and allow the creation of plaids. Choosing different colors really make the possibilities endless. I opted for some neutral tones so her blanket could go with most decor. I quickly learned that a base is made using DC (double crochet) and chain spaces. I also learned it was difficult to mess up basically following the row prior, but that I still managed to somehow. I should have counted stitches throughout and I was forced to rip out half of my base and redo it once I started to weave and found I has skipped 2 stitches. SUCCESS IF OFTEN DEEP BREATHING AND REFUSING TO GIVE UP. My suggestion is to count every couple of rows, especially if you struggle with patience, as it's nearly impossible to fix this error later. Luckily it didn't take too long to redo and I was off to the fun stage of weaving.
The hardest part about the weaving is cutting the lengths and adjusting the tension of the weaves to match. I made a template yarn piece and matched yarns of the various colors needed to match. But after laying it out on the dining table I was able to play with the loose strands and tensions with the base to get everything symmetrical before locking the strands down with the fringe pieces. Hint, it was easier to make note of the plaid color changes throughout to see where things needed to be tightened or stretched. Once I noticed that I was able to get everything laid out relatively even.
