Mile-A-Minute Afghan

A while back my friend went through a bit of a nasty divorce and in the process, a few of the crocheted afghans his granny had lovingly made for him were lost. While those afghans could never really be replaced, I attempted to duplicate them. Thanks to the help of a few of his family members, I was able to put together one of the afghans. If you have any questions about details, comment below and I’ll get back with you. I know my explanations probably aren’t always clear.

In a nutshell, I made nine strips and crocheted them together.I used Red Heart Super Saver in a dark blue and Red Heart Super Saver multi-color in a shaded dusk. I used an I hook because that works best with this worsted acrylic yarn.The first part of the strips pattern I got from the Marvelous Mile-a-Minute pattern out of Our Best Afghans A to Z. That covered the triple crochet shell-looking stitch and the first double crochet round that you see here:

They crocheted up really quick. Okay, now see that double crochet round followed by the single crochet round in the photo above? That’s the adjustment I had to make in order to duplicate Granny’s afghan. All I did was a double crochet in both loops around each of the nine strips using the dark blue yarn. On the corners, I did two double crochets. You may have to do more depending on the yarn you use. The idea is that it needs to be able to lay flat and not curl up around the corners.

Then it was time to attach these puppies. I used a single crochet stitch with the multi-colored yarn. I laid the strips facing each other and single crocheted each one, going in the two loops of the strips closest to each other, one from one strip and one from the other. See that multi-color going up the middle there? You’re seeing the top of the single crochet on the back of the afghan. Just single crochet all the way down until you get to the end. Don’t worry – you’ll be able to tell. You’ll be single-crocheting around the whole thing anyway.

Look at the photo below. It looks nice and flat. Doesn’t that look neat?

THEN, I did a single crochet around the whole thing. See how it kind of dips in and then back out? Nothing special was done there – I just single crocheted straight across and it did that naturally. The photo below is the almost-finished project. I hadn’t tucked in the ends yet. Sorry about the sideways photo. It’s right-side up on my computer. You’ll just have to turn your laptop around to see it. 😀

Here’s the finished product! I can’t remember what it measured at. He laid it on his bed which I think is a full-sized bed so I’ll post the photo below. He took the photo with his handy-dandy Nokia Lumia which he never fails to remind me is better quality than my stinkin’ iPhone. In my defense, I do have the 3. Okay, I have to admit the photo quality of his is much better.

You can check out my Ravelry post here:Mile-A-Minute Afghan

Here are a couple of photos of some of Granny’s afghans she made for other family members and the ones I got my inspiration from.