"Gothic" was the first afghan I made really thinking about being environmentally friendly. It's made entirely from super-soft organic cotton from Fabulous Yarn (the white color is actually color grown cotton, cool stuff!) However, organic cotton isn't cheap.My next idea was to reuse yarn from thrift stores, old sweaters, garage sales, etc. This presented the problem of not having enough of any one color, especially for a larger project. So I categorized my yarn into color bins (i.e. light blue, blue, dark blue) and switched between yarns of one color bin for that section in the pattern.
Let me explain again. Above is what I have finished on the wave afghan so far. Below I've outlined the corresonding section on the pattern. If you look at the areas that are supposed to be white according to the pattern, you'll see strips of white and cream.For each color section, white in this case, I switch between several "white" yarns, doing about four stitches of each. This method will allow me to maintain some consistency in color throughout my blanket because even if I run out of one white, there will be another one that carries on.
When I began the afghan I did try switching between three "white" yarns every stitch. While this had more distinct lines between the color sections, the strips of color compliments the structure of the waves better.
3 comments:
Does switching colors so often make the afghan "heavier"?
The color variation does make for a rich look....
Yes, but the reason may not be readily apparent.
It's easiest to carry (which means crochet around the threads you aren't using) all three colors when you switch every stitch.
When I switch colors every four stitches, I actually drop the color and pick it up again in the next row (which means you can see the thread on the backside, but you end up using less yarn).
I have a wool sweater (heather brown) that I bought to harvest the yarn but I am not going to do it now. If you want it, I'll slip it in the mail to you. Send me your address again.
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