New Project Spotlight: All In The Family crochet blanket
Today’s New Project Spotlight shines the light on the All In the Family crochet pattern. A pattern worked “in the round”, more specifically, “in the square”. The All In The Family pattern (designed by Lisa Gentry, adapted by Jeanne Steinhilber for Yarnspirations; pattern link in the supply list below) was a lesson for me in some new stitches and building from the inside out.
This was another pattern that was well written. Instead of using multiple colors and skeins of yarn, I chose to use a self-striping yarn and just let the colors flow. If you know me by now, you know it’s so I don’t have to tuck any more ends than are necessary.
What You’ll Need:
- 4 skeins Caron Big Cakes (4 weight, 603 yards/skein) in the colorway Cranberry Crisp
- 1 skein I Love This Yarn Stripe (4 weight, 251 yards/skein) in the colorway Somulant
- US I/9 (5.5mm) and US K/10.5 (6.5mm) hooks, as directed in the pattern
- All In The Family Pattern from Yarnspirations
- Yarn Needle
- Scissors
A lesson learned about my supplies
A note about my yarn yardage for this All In The Family crocheted blanket. I actually used 3 full Caron Big Cakes, a smidge of a 4th one, and ½ a skein of I Love This Yarn Stripe. I was worried about not having enough yardage for the Caron Big Cakes because I only had 4 skeins. The pattern called for 7 different colors with a total yardage of 2,590 yards. My Caron Big Cakes only added up to 2,412 so I supplemented. In hindsight, I’m not sure this was necessary since I had almost an entire skein of the Cranberry Crisp Cake leftover. So should be fine just using 4 skeins of the Caron Big Cakes.
I think my lesson learned on this one is the more colors called for in a blanket, the more likely you’re not going to use ALL of the skein. So some % of leftover probably needs to be accounted for. I’m not sure what that percentage is, but just being aware of it could help.
Another alternative could have been to plan on using the I Love This Yarn as a border. And I did consider this but was afraid it would look like I literally ran out of yarn and threw something on the outer edge.
It was rather eerie though the way the multi-colored Somulant matched so well to the colors of the blanket. Like when you buy a top and pair of pants on two completely different shopping trips, maybe even years apart, and it’s like you bought them as a set because they go together so well. The Somulant had been bought at least a few years ago as a one-off —- a single skein in a clearance bin. And the Caron Big Cakes were just bought this year.
All In The Family – Stitch Complexity
The stitches for the All In Family crochet blanket ranged from the simple: single crochet, double, half double, and treble.
To the slightly more involved: front post double, single crochet in the backloop, front post treble, and front post single.
To the next level: petal, spike-together, and cluster.
The only stitch I needed more assistance than what the instructions provided, was for the spike-together series of stitches. But I found Mikey’s video tutorial and moved right along.
How to Set Yourself Up for Success
In addition to some of the new stitches, combinations, and techniques in this blanket, I was inspired by a fellow crocheter to also try something else.
After printing off the instructions, I cut each row into it’s own square/rectangle. I cut 3”x5” index cards in half so they were 3”x2.5” and glued one row onto each. It was like gluing one paragraph of a story onto each card. I used a hole punch to punch a hole in each upper left corner of the cards and strung the cards (in order) to a (I’m not sure what this is called) key chain thingy. You could also use a string of yarn. Anything to keep the cards together.
As you are crocheting, you have the current row’s instructions facing you. If you have to set your work down, you don’t need to mark where you’re at because that card is your placeholder.
This was a game changer especially for those bigger blankets with lots of instructions per round. It really helped focus and not have to always find my place in the midst of an 8.5”x11” piece of paper filled with 20 rows of instruction.
Final Thoughts on All In The Family blanket
How do you set yourself up for success when crocheting a lengthy pattern? Have you tried the index card technique? Tell me about it in the comments!
