My $10 Afghan Project

I enjoy crocheting and I do so as often as I can.  Over the years I've made many potholders, afghans, hats, head warmers and scarves.  My creations are fairly simple and basic.  I'm completely self taught, learning from an old booklet that my great-grandmother had.  My technique, particularly how I hold my hook and yarn, is a bit unorthodox.  My aunt, who makes all kinds of beautiful and wonderful things, laughs at it, but as she acknowledges I get the job done.

While laid up last month I had my youngest bring me all of my crochet and knitting supplies which included a gallon jar full of yarn balls I'd made from the tail ends of skeins leftover from previously completed projects.  I also had a zippered plastic storage bag full of  skeins of yarn in a variety of pretty colors.  With all of this I was sure I could create something useful.

After a bit of thought I realized I had a lot of complimentary colors so I started crocheting granny squares.  Within a short time I had quite a stack of these little puppies and when the girls laid them out on the floor I realized I had plenty to make an afghan.  I was also pretty excited that I'd emptied out half of the mason jar and a third of zippered bag.

To make them come together I decided to border each square with the same color of yarn.  I already had a pretty skein of buff color so I started with that until I ran out.  I went to the fabric store and luckily they just happened to be having a yarn sale.  I bought another skein of the buff color as well as one in dark green and another one in chocolate brown.  The brown and green were colors I had already used in many of the squares so I thought I'd use them in the border to tie it all together.

Good thing I took a picture before this happened.
Damned cat!  😲

Once all the squares were done with a row of buff color we laid them all out on the floor in the pattern we thought looked best.  Then I started sewing them together with the buff yarn and a large needle.  I prefer to join my granny squares this way as opposed to crocheting them together because I don't like the ridges and bulkiness.  This way the afghan is nice and flat and smooth.

Yep, this one!  She's a turd.

Once all the squares were joined together I crocheted the border and called it done.  Except...  I still had one granny square left.  So what to do with one lowly leftover granny square?

You make a pillow cover!

I crocheted the remaining granny square until it was 18 inches large for the front of the pillow cover..  Then I used the buff yarn and crocheted another square the same size to make the back of the pillow cover.  When I finished that square I found some dark brown fabric in my stash and cut two 18 inch squares to stitch together for make a pillow form and filled it with polyfil stuffing.

I single crocheted the front and back of the pillow cover together along three of the four edges.  Then I put the pillow form inside and finished the fourth edge to finish it.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I spent $8.87 on the yarn at the fabric store and used two other skeins I'd purchased some time back for 99¢ each.  I also used up a ton of scrap yarn.  I didn't use up all of the yarn I bought however.  I guesstimate the entire project to make the afghan and the pillow at about $10 out of pocket.  Not too bad, I'd say.

The afghan and pillow have been tucked away with a quilt I made to be used in the new house I plan to buy in the not too distant future.  Also know as my retirement home project.  I'm super happy to have these to take with me.

I'm sure I'll have to share it with this little girl

Ironically, by the time I rolled all of the leftover yarn into balls I had managed to fill the mason jar back up.  Guess that means I'd better get busy on another project!