Pinwheel Afghan - a finished object

The Pinwheel Afghan is complete. What started as a project to use up yarn from the granny square ponchos became a really bright, colorful and fun project.

Finished measurements: 38 x 64 inches.

The pattern called for a 1mm crochet hook and bunches of lighter weight yarns (28 colors to be exact). I don't have the patience to work with the tiny hooks, though I wish I did. For my afghan, I used an "H" hook and worsted weight yarns. We had a bunch of Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarns that needed to be used. I like the Impeccable yarn. It works up easily and once washed becomes pretty soft and snuggly. It wasn't splitty to work with, either.

When I started the afghan, I placed all of the yarns in a tote bag and would grab colors at random. That worked for a few "squares" but then I started getting a little crazy about which colors should be next to each other. I'm a little too tightly wound to let my hexagons create themselves.

The hexagons are easy to make and the pattern is easy to memorize. I made many motifs at my sons' baseball practices and games without having to look at the pattern. They were easy enough that I could carry on a conversation while working on the afghan.

Measurement of the each hexagon is
10 1/2 inches (measured across the middle).

The size of the afghan is smaller than the pattern, but I was running out of most of my yarns, so I stopped making the squares when I had enough motifs to lay out a lap blanket sized afghan. I steam blocked the hexagons to the same size on my ironing board. I placed pins at each of the corners, then fit the individual squares to the pinned shape and steamed away. The iron never touches the yarn. That would melt the yarn. I placed the iron about 1-2 inches from the yarn and pushed the steam button like nobody's business. I let the hexagons cool, removed them from the ironing board and moved on to the next hexagon.

Once the hexagons were pieced together we had to decide what type of edging to use. I had to have help on this because I hung up on having a rainbow edging and working in every color that I had used in the motifs. I knew the multi-colored edging would look awful, but I couldn't let it go. Eventually Alison & my crochet buddy talked me out of it. We ended up with the navy edging on the outside that really makes the afghan come to life. 

100% acrylic, worsted weight yarns:
Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice solids, along
with a few lost label yarns.

The pattern can be found in our Etsy store.

New Project in the Works - Pinwheel Afghan

There was a bunch of yarn left over when the two ponchos were finished, and I have to use it up so I can buy new yarn. Alison sent me the Pinwheel Afghan pattern,  and I knew as soon as I saw it that it was the project for all of the different colors of yarn we had left.

This is such a cool pattern. The pattern is easy to memorize and because it's a pieced afghan, it is a portable project. I am taking the finished blocks to my sons' baseball practices and games and weaving in the ends - while practices are taking place, or when the games get a little slow.

I am using worsted weight yarns and a size H crochet hook, both of which are significantly bigger than what the pattern calls for - but that means I need to make fewer blocks to complete the afghan. Yay!

{The finished blocks are about 9 1/2 inches. I will need about 42 blocks to make the afghan the same size as noted in the pattern. About 1/3 of the blocks are complete.}