Chocolate Caramel Crochet Blanket

Materials: Fingering weight acrylic yarn
Finish date: somewhere around May or June of 2013
Size: 54 inches x 77 1/2 inches (4' 6" x 6'5")

    I was wandering through my local Good Will thrift store probably summer of 2012 or so.  I came across a dozen or so industrial cones of fingering yarn in dark and light brown and a couple in black and white.  I excitedly scooped them up for cheap started experimenting with textures.  That is, I tried different combinations of strands worked together at the same time with different hooks to see what worked best.  This blanket was worked with four strands of dark brown and two strands of light brown.  It's worked in half-double stitch with a smaller hook (I believe it was an American size G hook, but I didn't keep track.). This piece is very soft and lightweight.  I think it works best either as a through blanket for a couch or as a bed spread.  The bed in the picture is an American standard twin mattress and it gets quite good coverage.  

    This piece took a while because I keep remaking it for size.  I've never been very good at taking gauge when it comes to crochet.  As hard as I try I really can't measure the size of my stitches and then count how many I should make to obtain a particular length of work.  I also couldn't just go back to the craft store and buy more yarn if I needed it.  The first try came out too wide and not long enough.  Seriously, I had a completed blanket in the wrong size.  So I unraveled it and started over again a few times until I found something that worked better and used up most of the yarn.  I'm not sure exactly how long it took me to finish this piece.  The first try was probably a few months in the making, then I took some time away from it when I got frustrated with the remake.  I know I got a huge hunk of it done during April 2013 while working backstage at Stocker Center during a production that lasted a week.  (The entire second act of Peter Pan I had nothing to move or operate. Plenty of time for crochet.)  So all in all a couple of years working here and there at various times.