I realized this morning that I never posted a picture of the finished Celtic-patterned afghan that I posted about in my post Photo Friday – Progress in November 2008. I finally finished the afghan a year later, November 2009. Time to fix the omission!
When my youngest son married, I told Charles and his wife Rebecca that I would make them an afghan for their wedding gift and they could choose the pattern. Charles wanted something with a Celtic design, so I told him where my pattern books were stored and let him pick something out. I’m not sure if he didn’t realize that I meant my crochet pattern books rather than my counted cross stitch pattern books or whether he just didn’t find what he liked in the crochet pattern books, but the pattern he sent to me was this:
Talk about a challenge! I had never attempted to convert a counted cross stitch pattern into a crochet pattern, but after a little research and some trial and error, I decided it could be done, or rather, I could do it!
A year and a half later, this was the finished product:
That is a double bed that the afghan is displayed on! When I finished it, I vowed never again! And yet, I find myself contemplating making something similar for myself! I definitely would chose different colors and a different design, but I would love to have something equally as striking displayed on my bed.
Oh my goodness, Karen, that’s GORGEOUS!!! What a beautiful gift!
Holy Cow!!!
That is so beautiful!!! I can’t imagine how long that took.
Kel
Thanks, Kelly. Each row took me about 20 minutes (after I got it all figured out), and there were 250 rows, so you do the math! And that doesn’t count the times I had to pull out a row or two or three because I miscounted somewhere!
[...] are more utilitarian than these gorgeous, hand-and-love made ones. Take a look at Karen’s Celtic afghan (holy cow, the work she put into it!) and Carol’s Dogwood quilt (again, so beautiful!). You [...]
Wow! That looks really amazing. I’m thinking about taking it on as a potential gift for my boyfriend, though I’m a bit wary. If nothing else, it would be a fun project. How much yarn would you estimate it took you to make it?
Thanks for the compliment, Cass. Honestly, I don’t know how much yarn it took. I used the Red Heart sport weight yarn and luckily my son had picked two colors that were common, so whenever I was getting short, I’d just go and buy a few more skeins. Also, the project took me a little over two years to make, working at it off and on. I do remember that each row took me 20 minutes to crochet. And there were about 230 rows! It was definitely the largest and most complicated project I’ve ever done. But I loved the results and may just have to try another one sometime.
I have been watching the progress on this blanket since you first posted the first few rows. Absolutely amazing and beautiful. I hope it will be ok if I use your pattern to make this blanket for myself, though I think I will be attempting it with a Tunisian stitch.
Loved the beginning and the originality of the blanket. The final product is absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for making such an incredible blanket to not only celebrate a wonderful occasion but to aspire another’s creativity!