Anniversary Present

During the last week of December last year, I got the idea to make my parents a graphgan for their 50th wedding anniversary. I was trying to finish up my temperature blanket but kept getting distracted by figuring out how to make a graphgan of my parents' wedding picture.

I checked out several programs/websites and finally settled on stitchboard.com. I still didn't really like the way the graph turned out as it had a big white blob on my dad's forehead and my mom's dress was half cream and half white, with no shading. I figured I could tweak it myself, but then I discovered that Stitchboard had other color palettes to pick from, so I tried them and found one I liked. The widest that the graph could be was 150 stitches which made it 255 rows tall. (For a total of 38, 250 stitches) I still needed to change some of the colors as it had pink, cranberry, and 2 shades of green. I wanted to use all the same brand of yarn but wasn't able to find the right colors I needed and ended up with a variety of brands.

Red Heart Super Saver Soft White

Bernat Natural

Red Heart Super Saver Aran

Caron One Pound Off White

Caron One Pound Soft Grey

Mainstays Medium Grey Heather

Red Heart Super Saver True Grey
Red Heart Super Saver Charcoal
Caron One Pound Dark Grey
Red Heart Super Saver Black

Originally, I was going to leave the yarns attached to the skeins, but soon realized that it was not a good idea!

So I wound off 10 yards of the colors and put them on clips or bobbins. It made it a lot easier to keep things organized. I did leave my lightest color still attached to the skein as I was going to use a lot of it.

I hadn't gotten very far before I wasn't happy with the darkest light color. It was thinner than the others and fuzzier. But I didn't have any other options so I continued. When I had 10 rows done, I knew I had to do something different for that color. 

So I looked some more and came up with a color that would fit in the color gradient scale closer to the lighter end. I knit up a 20 stitch swatch in the 10 rows to see if it would work.

I liked how it looked better, so I ripped out what I had made and rearranged the colors and adding the new color in as the 2nd lightest color.

I also decided to cast on with just 2 colors instead of the 10 colors the chart gave for the first row. It made it easier to do the first row with just the white and gray. 

I figured if I did 2 rows a day, not counting weekends, I'd get done with plenty of time to spare. 

This is how far I had gotten by May 2:



A week later, I put it aside. It was hard to work on with the kids being home and everything that was going on. This unfortunately caused me to have less time to get it finished in time. So now I need to do 3 rows a day.

Aug 30:


Sept 7:
Done with 2 sets of charts.


Sept 12:
34 bobbins so far


Sept 14 (1/2 done):


It is taking about 45 minutes per row now.

Sept 24:


Sept 26:


Sept 28:
This row took me an hour and 20 minutes to do the ONE row! There were so many color changes.


Oct 2:
56 bobbins.


Oct 3:


Oct 5:
2/3 done. 84 more rows, 36 more days until I need to be done. Working with 53 bobbins now.


Now I only have 1 set of charts left and with the amount of background, the rows should go faster.

The bobbins have gotten a bit tangled and messy.

Nice and neat and organized now.

Oct 10:


Oct 12:
Done with 3 sets of charts now.
Taking an average of 30 minutes a row.


Oct 15:
3/4 done.
It is measuring 40" wide x 36" tall so far.


Oct 24:
Only 25 bobbins now and about 20 minutes per row.


Oct 31:
16 more rows to go.


Nov 5:
I cast off today! It is 40" x 54"

Here are the bobbins I used during the construction of the blanket.


Backside:

Nov 6:
I laid the blanket on top of the backing fabric with the wrong sides together and pinned the blanket down to make it lay flat and even.

It was easiest to sit on the blanket while I worked.

All pinned down

Next, I folded over the edges of the backing fabric and pinned them down.

I had picked up these tags on clearance and we thought it was funny they were called "Crochet" labels when they all say "knit".

I sewed the backing down through all the layers.

All finished.

The tags I sewed on the back.  

I decided to give it to them after we set up for the party today.

Video of my parents opening the blanket:

I had decided to knit the blanket because with large crochet projects I've done, the sides sometimes end up wavy because the tension isn't always consistent. I would, however, crochet any other graphgans I might be crazy enough to undertake in the future. The color changes in knitting were much harder to keep neat and not too tight or too loose.