The Victorian Steampunk Navajo Afghan - pictures

[TheDustyZebra]

For those of you who have any idea what that means, and actually care, here are pictures of the project I finished last week for my nephew's wedding (it's a Victorian Steampunk Wedding, hence the name):

[hopewrites]

holy wow! is that single crochet? *mind boggles* You have my undieing respect and admiration! Beautiful, heartfelt, warm... ever thing an afghan should be.


*wonders if she could get the pattern*

[StormFeather]

Wow!

That is lovely. And HUGE!!!! I bet it was nice to snuggle up under as it got bigger.

It's certainly something that your nephew and his family will treasure, and I'm sure it will become a much loved family heirloom.

Am hugely impressed (and slightly jealous of your nephew!)

[Teresa Edgerton]

My goodness, what an enormous amount of work and an enormous amount of love must have gone into that one. And it looks like the result justifies the effort!

[The Judge]

It's lovely -- and a very striking pattern, particularly in those colours. I could never get on with crochet, but my mum did lots of bed-spreads out of odd bits of wool, but never anything like that! Well done!

[TheDustyZebra]

Aww, thank you thank you!

Yes, it is single crochet -- the pattern is made with a double crochet into the second row down, but the rest is single. It was about two and a half months' worth of 5-6 rows a day; I had to make a chart like I did with NaNo to keep track of where I ought to be at any given point. Mostly falling behind during the week and then playing catch-up on the weekends.

Hope, I'll send you the pattern -- you can make it any size, just calculating how many repeats you need to make it come out even.

[The Ace]

Mum used to do christening shawls, but that's another level entirely.

Nice piece, though.

[StormFeather]

ooh - can I have the pattern too please? I love it!

(may take a while before I get to do anything with it - got so many projects on the go as it is! )

[nixie]

That is absolutely amazing. My mum, her sisters and my gran used to crochet and knit blankets but nothing as beautiful as that.

[hopewrites]

*picks jaw up off the floor* ONLY 2.5 months?? I made one 2/3 maybe 1/2 that size in 4 months but it was double or half-double i forget which, wow! I am going to have to try out this chart thing to see if i can get my work along faster.
Again my heartiest congratulations and undieing respect. I know that last tie off comes with a feeling of accomplishment like nothing else.

[TheDustyZebra]

Well, that's all the time I had -- I got the announcement at the end of July, and the wedding is this Saturday. So I just figured out how many rows I had to make (I have one that my mother made, for comparison), and how many days I had until it had to be shipped, and that came out to 5-6 rows a day. 5, and 5, and 6, actually, is how I wrote it down. I think I only missed two days entirely, and did at least a row or two every day otherwise.

It was hard to part with it, though. He'd better appreciate it!

[Mouse]

Pretty fantastic, TDZ. What do young people say? You got skillz.

[HareBrain]

Looks lovely. And black and white stripes, with brown and grey ... very dusty zebra!

[Talysia]

That's beautiful, TDZ. I've knitted blankets before (albeit knitted squares, and turned it into a patchwork), but I don't think I could make something like that! Nicely done!

[TheDustyZebra]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

Looks lovely. And black and white stripes, with brown and grey ... very dusty zebra!

Ha! I hadn't thought of that!

Mouse, I have no idea what young people say -- isn't that awful? If I did know what they said, I still wouldn't know what they meant. My daughter (5) says "sick, man!" and I think that means she likes it. But then again, "sometimes bad is bad."

Talysia, I'm sure you could -- if I can, anyone can! This is the first time I've ever attempted anything on a monstrous scale. It's just a little bit every day, and great things happen.