Vintage Crochet Afghan

One of my favorite crochet projects that I’ve ever made is my vintage crochet afghan.  And its entire creation happened because of the Pea Green color in Vanna’s Choice yarn.  Allow me tell you the story.

When I first started crocheting, I was unfamiliar with pretty much all yarn except for Red Heart and the Lily cottons.  These are what you see at WalMart and they’re very inexpensive, so of course that was my go-to when I started out.  My first few afghans had been done in Red Heart and I was thrilled with it – I had gone through mistake after mistake (and therefore skein after skein of yarn) in making them, and “no dye lot” were the happiest words I could imagine.

Around that  same time, I began raiding my mother-in-law’s library of crochet patterns and books, and was currently infatuated with the gorgeous afghans in A Crocheter’s Garden of Afghans.  One in particular struck me, designed by Anne Halliday, called “Vintage Collectable”.  I fell in love with it immediately, and I fell in love with the whole color scheme used.  Rather than the brighter Red Heart colors, the afghan looked to me a little muted – like it had been stored in grandmother’s attic and had yellowed a little in the sun.  It looked truly vintage, especially with the yellowy-green, avocado color that I will always associate with my own grandmother’s kitchen.

Coincidentally, it was right around that time that I started to move beyond Wal-Mart for my yarn buying.  I think I had meandered into a Joann’s and was wandering up and down the aisles when I came upon Vanna’s Choice Pea Green.  The Vintage Collectable Afghan immediately came to mind.  It was a perfect fit – and the other colors in her line seemed to coordinate perfectly to give that olden feel that I was looking for.  (No worries, I’m not getting paid to say any of this!  Just my own preferences here.)  I went home that night, a bag full of yarn in hand, to start working on it.

I was completely undaunted by all the popcorn stitches, something that had I known more about crochet, would likely have scared me away in retrospect.  But one of the great things about crochet patterns is that there’s no risk: there’s what you do and here’s how you do it.  I was comforted knowing that if I followed the pattern exactly, I would get exactly the same result.  I’m fortunate that this pattern was so well written that it was completely the case.

Here’s my Ravelry project page, and if you’re interested in checking the pattern out, the picture of the book below will take you to the Amazon page.

Click picture to find on Amazon

It took many months and many, many mistakes, but the finished piece is just gorgeous.  I use it all the time too, for snuggling up on winter days, to warming up cold little hands and feet fresh in from playing in the snow, to decorative uses in my home.  I love it.  Who knows, I may just make another one day!