Homespun Stripes Afghan

I've made dozens of afghans and all but two of them have been crocheted. My first knit blanket was the Diagonal Garter Afghan and now this, the Homespun Stripes Afghan.

A long time ago (before my blogging days) I crocheted Sarah an afghan to take when she went to college. I used Lion Brand's Homespun, Montana Sky and most of the skeins had a problem where glue from the wrapper dripped onto the yarn and ruined the last 5-10 yards of each skein. I wrote to Lion Brand to let them know of the issue and received a package of replacement yarn! The yarn stayed in the stash for years until I found this pattern.

It's a quick knit on size 13 needles with only a two row repeat. I like my afghans wider than patterns are generally written so I increased the number of stitches from 135 to 153. However, the afghan is VERY stretchy and I didn't need to increase the width. In fact, the width (58") is bigger than the length (53") so the blanket gets turned around when used. Homespun is a bulky yarn but this afghan is remarkably lightweight and makes a fantastic all purpose throw.

The skill level for this pattern is listed as intermediate but that's just plain silly. It's a simple and easy beginner pattern. The only problem/warning is to be very careful casting off in order to get an edge that's the same tension as the cast on. I used the general cast off but it's tighter than the cast on. To the casual eye, it's not a glaring inconsistency but it could have been executed better.

My family has more blankets than we can use so it will be a while before I do another one but this is a nice addition to the collection!

 Ravelry Project Page - Homespun Stripes Afghan #1
Update 4/27/2015: I made this blanket a second time. This time I cast on the number of stitches called for in the pattern and paid close attention to having a loose cast-on and bind-off. Perfection!

 Ravelry Project Page - Homespun Stripes Afghan #2