The 2014 Afghanpalooza

Even though I swore off crocheting afghans many years ago (so much time! so much money to buy the yarn! so much boredom with doing the same pattern over such a large area!), I managed to crochet not one... not two... but THREE afghans in 2014!  Well, two and 9/10ths, anyway.  I finished up the last bit of the third afghan just yesterday, but it's barely 2015, so I think that counts.

The first afghan I finished in 2014 was the last one that I started....  Even though I had been working on the Moogly Crochet-a-long all year, I couldn't resist jumping into one more CAL in November.  One of my favorite crochet pattern designers (whom I had discovered through the Moogly CAL), Margaret MacInnis, hosted a mystery CAL for her new afghan pattern.  A mystery CAL is fun because you buy your yarn based on some hints provided by the designer, and then you crochet bits and pieces of the project without knowing until the very end what it's going to look like!  You definitely have to place a lot of trust in the designer.  I think this "Maggie Muggins Mystery CAL Afghan 2014" turned out great!!  I made it for Niki & Corey, so I let them choose the colors (didn't they do a great job?).

I helped test the pattern for Ms. MacInnis, and it was so much fun talking with the other crocheters on Ravelry as the mystery CAL unfolded.  Right before I finished the last couple of rounds of the border, I caught Margie Cat lounging on the afghan (which is more of a "lapghan" size)....

My other two afghans were the result of the amazingly fun Moogly CAL 2014.  I was having such a great time crocheting the 12" blocks that I kept doing "extra-curricular" blocks in addition to the official CAL ones.  By August, it was clear that I was going to have too many blocks for one afghan, so I decided to make two: one for Andrew and me, and one for my sister- and brother-in-law.  Without further ado, here are the finished products!

Ali & Daniel received this afghan for Christmas:

Andrew and I kept this bad boy for ourselves:

Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures....  Due to their sheer size (around 6.5' x 4.5'), it is incredibly difficult to get good pictures of afghans!

Spread out over one year, crocheting my two Moogly CAL 2014 afghans didn't seem to take horribly long or cost too much, but when I crunch the numbers....

- Crocheting one 12" block: 2-4 hours (let's say an average of 3 hours)
- Joining the blocks using the flat braid join: 2 hours to join 6 blocks
- Working one round of border (each afghan had three rounds of border): 2 hours

During 2014 (and the first 2 weeks of 2015), I spent 172 hours on these two afghans.  ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-TWO HOURS.  Whoa.  That's 86 hours per afghan.

Each afghan took about 6 one-pound skeins of Caron One Pound acrylic yarn at about $7 per skein.  Most of the patterns were free, but I splurged and spent about $6 on patterns for each afghan.  So, I spent a total of $96, or $48 per afghan.

Would I do another CAL?  Most definitely!!  But I need to take a break and finish some baby gifts, commissions, and some other items.  Plus, I'm trying to learn how to knit!  I know, I know, flying pigs are being spotted everywhere.....  I'm not sure if I'd do another "sampler"-style afghan where every single block is a different design.  It's fun not crocheting the same design over and over, but even when you use the same colors in each block, it's still not very cohesive.  I think I like the look of Niki & Corey's MMMCAL afghan slightly better than the Moogly CAL afghans.  But I still love all of my afghan babies!  And let me tell you, the huge Moogly CAL afghans are SO WARM.

Hurray for afghans!

Update: Moogly Afghan Crochet-a-Long

I have been having such a great time crocheting these afghan blocks for the Moogly Afghan Crochet-A-Long 2014 (see my first blog post about it here)!  In fact, I was enjoying myself so much that I have crocheted 4 extra blocks in addition to the patterns that Moogly has chosen.  Here's what I have done so far:

I swear I don't remember the colors looking so patriotic in the yarn aisle of Jo-Ann Fabrics....  Oh well.  I am using Caron One Pound acrylic worsted weight yarn in the following colors: Claret, Cream, Azure, and Cape Cod Blue.

Each block is roughly 12"x12" and will be joined once I get all the blocks finished.  The red is a very strong color, and I need to strategically place it in the blanket to make it look balanced.  We are exactly halfway through the CAL (12 patterns have been revealed with 12 left to go), so I won't start the joining process until December.

Here are the blocks by themselves (excluding the ones that I talked about in the previous Moogly CAL blog post):

Lion's Mane (by April Moreland):

More V's Please (by Melinda Miller):

Drop in the Bucket (by Janie Herrin):

Princess (by Melinda Miller):

 Op-Art (by Jennifer Christensen):

Flower Tile (by Marta Chrzanowska):

Summer Romance (by April Moreland):

Summer Solstice (by Margaret MacInnis):

This last block (Summer Solstice) is my absolute favorite so far.  Look at the 3-D quality of this awesome design!!

And now for my "extra-curricular" blocks....  I was inspired by a blog post that Moogly did, encouraging us to swap out any block patterns that she chose which might not suit our fancy with some other alternate patterns.  I have liked most of the Moogly-chosen patterns so far, so I might just make a larger afghan and include everything.  We'll see!

Eight Pointed Flower (by Julie Yeager):

Patriotic Star Square (by Rik Gillette):

I used very strategic color changes on this Patriotic Star Square....  In honor of our family's move to Texas, I wanted to make it look reminiscent of the Texas state flag.

Magic Spike Mandela Square (by Tamara Kelly, Moogly herself!):

The Crocodile Flower (by Joyce Lewis):

I am so proud of this last one.....  It was tough but so satisfying.  I think I need to make more crocodile stitch patterns because I am in love!

This last afghan block is so special to me.  Moving from Illinois to Texas has been rough because I had to leave behind a wonderful group of friends, and I miss them all a lot.  One friend, Joann, is a fellow crocheter, and as a going away present, she figured out what yarn I was using for this Moogly CAL and crocheted me a block to add to my afghan!  To make it even more meaningful, she chose a pattern called "Circle of Friends Square" (by Priscilla Hewitt). Joann gave me the afghan block two months ago and I still can't look at it without getting a little weepy.  I love it so much.  Joann, you are such a thoughtful lady.  Thank you so much.

I love getting to exercise my doily-crocheting skills through these doily-esque patterns....  I have missed doing more complicated stitch patterns with amigurumi crocheting, in which you basically use one or two stitches for the entire pattern.

But the best part of the CAL is really getting to see what everyone else is doing.  A lot of the participants post pictures to the Moogly CAL 2014 group on Ravelry, and it is amazing to see how different each pattern looks when hooked with different yarn colors, different yarn types, and different color changes.  I can't wait to see what the other 12 patterns are, and I am looking forward to hooking a few more extra-curricular blocks.  So many cool patterns, so little time....

More afghan updates to come in the future!

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo: A-dog's Afghan

Alternate Title: The Gigolo Strikes Back

I just completed another afghan for a lifelong buddy. This one was for the one and only A-dog. He was my roommate at UC Santa Barbara in the freshman dorms. We didn't really get along much that year as he was always studying physics and I was always partying. Our friendship really blossomed during the sophomore year when we didn't live together- we apparently make great friends but horrible roomies. Here he is enjoying a cuppa on a sunny Seattle morning:

And here he is after a successful farmer's market extravaganza- never mind the Drano.

He was the best man at my wedding, and the decision was a very easy one. A-dizzle fo' shizzle. I cannot adequately describe how cool this dude is, but I can point you in the direction of the A-fro he is wont to sport. I recently spent a month on my motorcycle touring the southwest with a full five days visiting the Dizzle's house cooking gourmet food and thinking deep thoughts while hackey-sacking. I don't have many pics of the two of us together- we simply aren't the sort to take a bunch of duck-faced selfies- but here is one from Santa Barbara:

For this afghan, I converted a granny square into a granny rectangle and just kept adding row upon row. I used four Caron Pounders of white and three different blues of increasing shade. I started off with a single row of each, then double rows, triple rows, and finally quadruple rows in order to create a pond ripple effect. As you can see from the zoomed-out shot, my corners began to outstretch the sides and the afghan is a little distorted. I think this is due to using a ch-3 for the corners instead of a ch-2. Or possibly because any pattern will reveal its weaknesses in a real world application when you take it to undue proportions:

When I was nearing the end of the triple-row iteration I began to be concerned about how much yarn was left. I weighed the remainder of each skein but needed a way to describe how much yarn was used per unit crochet. This led me to spend an intense caffeine-fueled morning deriving an algebraic expression to predict my yarn usage. I ended up with:

y = 64(nx) + 4[(X1-1) + (X2-1) + ... + (Xn-1)]

where x describes the row numbers of that particular color and y is the number of "stitches" where 1 stitch equals 3 double crochets. This counts the initial white row as row zero and requires a factor of +32 for the white yarn calculations.

Using this equation it was possible to determine the values of grams of yarn per stitch. I then calculated the number of stitches required to complete the afghan: the crunched numbers revealed that I had sufficient quantities of each color to complete the pattern, but just barely when it came to the dark blue, which makes sense because it uses more yarn for each pattern repetition than the other three.

Once I was done with all this BS I realized that MS Excel could aid me in these calculations with about 10% the effort. I used it to double-check my results and the equation held true.

I'm really digging this afghan. Part of me wishes I didn't tell the Dizzle that I was crocheting him an afghan, because then I could simply keep it for myself. I enjoyed many hours of winter warmth with this sucker draped upon my lap as I added row upon row. Here is the concise list of full albums listened to during the crochet process:

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs (I really should point out that A-dog sent me this album as well as Reflector right before I commenced the project. I don't mean he drop-boxed me some mp3s, I mean he really sent the physical albums purchased from a real store. Home-Dizzle rocks the house again)
The Avett Brothers- The Second Gleam
Beck- Mellow Gold
King Crimson- Starless and Bible Black
Live- Throwing Copper
Jim Croce- Greatest Hits Volume II
My Morning Jacket- It Sill Works
Radiohead- The Bends
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Russian Circles- Station
Yes- Close to the Edge
The String Cheese Incident- Born on the Wrong Planet
Phish- Rift
Ween- The Mollusk
The White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan
King Crimson- Larke's Tongues in Aspic
The Mars Volta- Deloused in the Comatorium
The Builders and the Butchers- Self Titled
The Builders and the Butchers- Salvation is a Deep Dark Well
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Blind Melon- Self Titled
Gomez- Bring It On
Ween- White Pepper
Yes- Drama
Pink Floyd- Animals

A-dog and I discovered the band Yes together, and spent many priceless college-age nights tripping out on The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, Fragile, Going For The One, and Drama. He wrote a college paper on the Drama album and its meanings. Deep stuff. I remember a Hunter S. Thompsonesque road trip to Sedona, AZ that was spent listening to Yes albums in my beat up Civic hatchback. Good times.

If any single ladies in Orange County (Costa Mesa, specifically) are reading this, you really need to track this dude down and attempt to date him. You'll never meet a more cool, competent, and capable cat. He's the CSO of a profitable optics company that makes laser prisms for all sorts of top-secret contracts, and is a gourmet cook to boot. By gourmet I mean that he uses an all-copper bowl to beat egg whites. Try it and see. A-dog meditates, performs Tai-Chi, and loves a succulent dry-aged steak as much as the next king. Oh, and he keeps his bachelor abode spic-and-span. I can't wait until he flies out to TX this summer to visit me for some good homie chillin' times.

Oh, right, this is a blog about craft projects. Sorry for all the A-reminiscensces. Here's another pic of the afghan to distract you from my best homie ever, the hellarighteousdudeskillet known to most as the A-dog.

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A note from Erin -- I am totally flying to Texas and stealing this afghan before Jordan has a chance to give it to A-dog. The colors are fantastic, and this is THE coolest use of a granny square-ish pattern!  I'm not experienced enough with granny squares to know why the corners are a bit pulled out.  I don't think blocking is the answer because that wouldn't really hold up with an afghan.  Who cares, though?  This afghan is still ridiculously awesome.  The math Jordan used to calculate the amount of yarn he'd need absolutely kills me.  He is a closet genius.  I can't wait to see his next project!

Afghan Ahoy!

So, I have said for a long time that I would never crochet another afghan (the time! the cost! the boredom!), but when I heard about Moogly's Afghan Crochet-a-Long, I was intrigued.  To make a long story short, my favorite crochet blogger organized a fun project where she would post a free pattern for a 12" square (also called a block) every two weeks, and 24 blocks later, voila-- you have an afghan!  Well, you need to sew or stitch them all together, but still, the hardest work will all be done.  Plus, a whole community of crocheters (hookers is my preferred term, of course) will be doing it all together, communicating via Facebook and Ravelry.

I was still a bit skeptical that this would be as fun as it sounded until my awesome playgroup and crochet buddy, Joann, said she was going to give it a try.  All right, I thought.  Let's go!  8 weeks later, here's how I'm doing so far:

Bam!  I am having a blast.  It is so fun to post pictures of the completed blocks on Moogly's Facebook page and on the Moogly CAL 2014 forum on Ravelry.  We're all using the exact same patterns, but each hooker chooses his/her own yarn brand and colors, so everyone's blocks are turning out very different.  It is so amazing to see everyone's afghans coming together.

Oh, sorry-- Sonia wants me to post this picture of her posing with the blocks:

Because of all my doily crocheting experience (good grief, those patterns are complicated), I'm not having much trouble with the afghan block patterns.  But, on the Ravelry forums, anyone who is having trouble can post their questions and even upload pictures of their partially-finished blocks; then, other hookers can respond and give help where needed.  I am so in love with Ravelry (click here to check out my projects).... Once again, I have Joann to thank for encouraging me to get in involved with that website.  It's a great place to keep track of all my projects, see other projects that people have made with the exact same pattern that I am using, and find new and fun patterns to try.

Anyway, back to the Moogly Crochet-a-Long....  I am using 4 different colors of worsted-weight Caron One-Pound yarns.  The "claret" red isn't as bright in person as it is in these pictures.  I'm edging each block in the same dusty navy color to give a more homogenous look to this patchwork quilt.  Here are closer pictures of my afghan blocks (which have not yet been "blocked", which means soaked in water and pinned into a perfect square shape):

Anticipation Mystery (by Margaret MacInnis)

Catalina (by Julie Yeager)

Hugs N Kisses (by Aurora Suominen)

Veronica's Rose (by Melissa Green)

I can't wait to see what other blocks Moogly chooses for us to crochet!  And I'm dying to see how the afghan will turn out.  This is going to be one heavy blanket....  I'm definitely not letting Sonia use this one in her fort-building activities with Daddy.  I'll have to find a good place in our new house in Texas to display this labor of love.

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo, Part II

After a long month of furious single crochets, I have finally finished the afghan I made for my awesome buddy Tim. It was inspired by our latest motorcycle trip together, one we took in the summer of 2013 from Seattle to Santa Barbara. I chose the colors to match our bikes- navy blue for my Yamaha, burnt orange for his Triumph, and tan for the dirt that tends to glom on to everything one owns during a road trip.

The bikes:

The afghan:

I tried to create a pattern analogous to the way the trip manifested. The afghan (starting on the left) began much like our trip did, focused on the two bikes. We started the journey by zooming south, gradually staying longer and longer at the various destinations. I represented this by increasing the length of each color as the afghan took shape. Down at the end in Santa Barbara we parted ways and Tim headed back up north to Seattle, so I finished it up with alternating orange and tan. The rest of my own trip is another story, another afghan.

With each color change I crocheted into the back loop in an attempt to create texture and overlapping waves. It sorta worked, but the vast fields of single crochet madness somewhat diminishes the effect:

This bad-mamma-jamma of an afghan was a zig-zag pattern with a base chain of 220 knots, worsted weight Red Heart Super Saver, done with a J-hook. I calculate that there are 32,120 knots all tied up in there. You had better believe it took me a long time to complete. I am not the fastest hooker ever, at least compared to the greased lightning I once witnessed when Erin completed a one-skein scarf in like 5 minutes.

The edges are a little curvy and the afghan, as a whole, tends to wave a bit with the pattern. I figure Tim will beat this out of it via marathon Xbox sessions and cuddle time with his latest main squeeze. Seattle gets cold in the winter, hence the single crochet battlefield. No holes or gaps that might let precious heat escape!

Knowing this would be a loooooong project, I was tempted to keep track of the man-hours spent behind the hook but instead I logged all of the full-length albums I listened to. I also crochet during football games, getting in a few knots between each play as well as during commercials and halftimes. This is the complete list of all albums/games enjoyed during the afghan process, in chronological order:

Kansas- Point of Know Return
Keller Williams- Dream
The Band- Music From Big Pink
Sunny Day Real Estate- Diary
Viva Voce- Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Show Your Bones
Cake- Comfort Eagle
The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
Devotchka- Una Volta
Ween- Quebec
Outkast- Aquemini
Rush- A Farewell to Kings
Rush- Moving Pictures
My Morning Jacket- "Z"
Man Man- Life Fantastic
Built to Spill- Keep it Like a Secret
Broncos vs Raiders- Broncos win 34-14 and set all sorts of records.
Panthers vs Falcons- Panthers win 21-20.
Belle & Sebastian- If You're Feeling Sinister
Phish- Billy Breathes
The Decemberists- The Crane Wife
Ween- Quebec
49ers vs Green Bay- Niners win 23-20.
Jack Johnson- Brushfire Fairytales
Saints vs Seahawks- Hawks win 23-15! Go Seattle!
Steely Dan- The Royal Scam
Steely Dan- Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan- Countdown to Ecstasy
Broncos vs Chargers, Broncos win 24-17. Go Broncos!
King Crimson- Discipline
Spoon- Gimme Fiction
System of a Down- Hypnotize
Steve Howe- Homebrew II
Tool- Undertow
Built to Spill- You in Reverse
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Gomez- How We Operate
Pink Floyd- Animals
Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
Broncos vs Patriots, Broncos win 26-16, Super Bowl bound!
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Arcade Fire- Reflektor

Such good music! Such good football! Such tedious crocheting! This was a once-in-a-lifetime pattern, because once was enough. Yes, I realize I listed Ween's Quebec twice, because I just so happened to listen to it twice- it's that good. I also went on a bit of an Arcade Fire tear there near the end.

Tim, hope you enjoy the afghan!

We met on a disc golf course, and said goodbye on a disc golf course. Next time we meet, it might be at a disc golf course! Well, it will realistically be in the terminal of an airport, but rest assured we will head straight for the nearest set of frisbee links. Here's us parting ways at the course at Lake Casitas, just south of Santa Barbara- Tim's the one on the left:

Best bros. I hope this afghan will always remind him of not just the road trip but all of the kick-ass times we shared when we hung out on a regular basis. Blood, sweat, and cabernet sauvignon were all spilled during this project but you'd never notice the stains 'cause I'm bunny-quick with a washcloth.

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Note from Erin -- Yes, I am a quick crocheter, but perhaps it only seems that way because I choose small amigurumi projects most of the time!! I had to swear off afghans because I would get so bored making them that they would sit, languishing, as works-in-progress for months, if not years. I wonder if maybe I wouldn't have given up crocheting for several years around the time of Sonia's birth if I had realized my love of amigurumi earlier. Anyway, Jordan is a crocheting genius (he is so much more of a natural at this-- I mostly need patterns, and he comes up with his own as a rule). I frickin' love this afghan and wish I had it. Oh, and I totally approve of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Cake!! And a lot of the rest of the music list, too. Also, the thinking behind the pattern of this afghan makes me a little teary-eyed: friendship and a road trip captured in a crochet project.