Bicolor Chevron

I bought the book Comfort Knitting & Crochet Afghans because it had the pattern for the Bright Star blanket, based on a patchwork pattern, that I had long admired.  Glancing through the book I thought it worth buying because it had many other interesting patterns for blankets.  I know that I would be happy just knitting my standard blankets over and over again, but there are so many patterns around that I would like to try (and there is so much yarn in the yarn store).  So I decided that I would make each pattern in this book, in the order that they come.

This is another aspect of the randomness that I like.  That I do things to a predetermined order so that the weight of making decisions is taken away from me.  I have flexibility in the choice of yarn, because I can only use yarn in the yarn store, and I can interpret the size and tension as best fits.






Looking through the book quickly I had not realised that the yarn used throughout is Berroco Comfort yarn, a nylon acrylic blend in several weights.  As it is an American yarn I have not actually seen it but it does not really matter as I was going to use my own yarns anyway.

The first pattern in the book is called Bicolor chevron by Donna Yacino, and it is a chevron pattern in crochet.  So this follows on from my knitted chevron blanket.  I decided to use my Rowan Cotton Glace which is thinner than the yarn in the pattern, so I used a smaller hook and recalculated the number of stitches.  The pattern said to crochet rows 1 and 2, and then return to the beginning of row 2.  Because I was going to use more than two colours I turned round every row, so my blanket will look different from the pattern.  But this is the kind of decision I can take.

It was an easy pattern to crochet, and so relaxing.  The one thing that bothered me was a hole at the decrease, and I can't say if it is me or the pattern.  You decreased one stitch by skipping two spaces.  I could have decreased two by crocheting two stitches together and avoided a hole, but this was not how the pattern was written.

The two Rowan Cotton Glace yarns came from charity shops, in shades Oyster and Candyfloss.  I had 10 balls of the first and 8.5 of the second, so on their own it was not enough.  I added an unlabelled mercerized yarn, that feels like cotton, in a natural shade, and Anna og Clara cotton yarn, bought very cheaply in Copenhagen.  I used three of the shades in the picture.  It was not mercerized, but feels very nice, and it fits very well.  I did my 3 * 3 stripes, which was probably too long.  I must experiment with shorter stripes.

The pattern did not have an edging, but I wanted to hide the yarn carried along the sides, so I did a row of crab stitch all around.  Other than fastening a few ends there was no more finishing to be done!

I like it.  I so enjoyed the simple crochet.  I must do more crochet.  The colours look good together, and they are the same pastel colours as in my knitted chevron blanket.  On the whole I prefer the knitted one, because the knitted fabric feels nicer to snuggle up inside.  The crochet blanket is good for other uses.

CKCA1 Bicolor Chevron

Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace, Oyster and Candyfloss shades, unlabelled natural yarn, Anna og Clara cotton yarn, all 100% cotton
Hook:  3.5mm
Tension:  23 sts to 10 cm (how do you measure tension for chevron?)
Weight: 1320 gr
Size:  125 cm by 170 cm
Made: 28 July to 17 December 2014