Upcoming crochet project- a comfy afghan

Now that winter is officially rearing its ugly head here in Chicago, I am back to my seasonal crochet-frenzied state. For whatever reason, the need-to-crochet bug tends to bite in the wintertime. Probably because sitting in front of a fire working on a new project is oh so “Norman Rockwell” perfect.

Regardless, I’ve been working on some projects over the past few weeks. I finished Brian’s hat, which is getting its first real tests of winter weather. I’m also working on a cowl for myself since I get bored with scarves and neck warmers super quickly. And why not, since I can make a new one whenever I want?

As soon as that is done, I plan to get started on this:

Isn’t it beautiful? I can’t take credit for this one- it is the example on Lion Brand‘s website that can be found and used by anyone here. But since I haven’t made it yet, I wanted a picture to show you what it will look like. Or sort of look like, since Brian didn’t like the colors suggested in the pattern. So I told him we should pick out colors together, since I’m making it for us. But he had a brilliant idea- why not use our wedding colors?

I headed to the craft store (alone, of course) to play around with colorways so I could see what worked. I don’t know if I’ve shared yet, but we’re going with a cranberry, tangerine, and aqua color-scheme for the big day. The store ironically had a color called “Cranberry,” and their “Terracotta” was close enough to tangerine, but their version of aqua was, well, horrible! Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but it was definitely more a color I’d use for a child’s scarf. Fortunately, “Dusty Blue” was a close enough match for the blue we are striving for at our wedding.  But, since the pattern called for five colors, I need to expand. We’ve talked about using a cream color to tie the wedding colors together, and luckily the store carried a “Beige” that tied in perfectly. Since I knew that was where the wedding connections would end, I simply picked out a color called “Chocolate” since it went well with the rest of the colorways and gave the whole thing an autumn-y, leaves falling off trees feel:

I hope they all work together once the pattern is complete- in fact, I hope that I manage to finish it! I’m a bit nervous about tackling a pattern that involves crocheting a bunch of individual pieces and sewing them together, but we’ll see! Plus, since I am already known for my nerdiness, I wasn’t afraid to ask for the majority of the yarn I’ll need in a Secret Santa we are participating in with Brian’s family. While my Santa may be annoyed by time spent sorting through colors at the craft store, I’m pretty excited to cut down on project costs!

Keep an eye on the “currently…” page for photos of the blanket’s progress, that is, once I get around to starting it!

Just a housekeeping side-note: All yarns listed in this post are Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Choice Yarn in the colors Cranberry, Terracotta, Beige, Dusty Blue and Chocolate. The finished product photo is also owned by Lion Brand- the pattern can be found for free on their website. I am not connected to or affiliated with Lion Brand Yarn, other than using it for my own crochet creations.