05-22-2016
The county fair booklet FINALLY came out. I was anxious to find out this year’s theme: the eagle. I then have to light upon the most time consuming project to date, but if I finish this, I believe that I have a fair shot at the championship ribbon, not simply a blue ribbon. (I’m feeling very competitive, not to mention patriotic, this being an election year.) There’s a problem: The rosebud throw, also Tunisian, is only a little smaller yet it took four months, and I have just over two in which to complete this. Of course, I was also crocheting several scarves for the church at the time. My husband is resigned to be a yarn widower once this project gets underway.
The design claims a white yarn background. Perhaps the original photo is yellowed because it doesn’t look white. However, I like the antique coloration and purchased one skein each of Aran and Aran Fleck in my go-to yarn, Red Heart. I’ll work up a swatch of each before deciding which I prefer.
05-27-2016
Incorporated pattern links to an excellent tutorial on seaming blocks of TSS so that the join along the selvedge is almost invisible. (Skip over the section on cross stitching TSS till approximately 23 minutes.). This technique may help me break the project up into panels other than those called for in the pattern.
While waiting on my skeins to arrive, I worked up test swatches with both a size J hook and a K hook. The J hook it is, which is not a bad thing as I can’t discover a cabled K hook I want to purchase to save my life. Now that I know I can use my cabled hook, I can develop a plan of attack for dividing the overall pattern into panels.
ETA: Using cross-stitching method shown in video. Seems faster; two pulls on the yarn per X versus four.
05-29-2016
Ravelry to the rescue! So, yesterday, I was in mourning at the thought of resorting to panels of crochet for this project as, even with mattress seaming (photo), the join is not perfect, i.e., cross stitching over it would reveal the offset nature of the seam. So, I searched a Tunisian crochet forum for a large afghan done in one piece and, voilà!, found one, sent a question to the raveler, and (based on her reply) was able to find and order the crochet hook I wanted. (My husband has already named it “Excalibur.”)
Found a better, larger image of the cross stitch pattern here:
http://freevintagecrochet.com/sites/default/files/imagech...
Whew! The image in the Ravelry pattern link was too small for practical use. I was getting ready to recreate it using MS Excel and dreaded that chore.
06-03-2016
Both Excalibur and the Aran fleck yarn arrived today. Huzzah! I can get started!
06-04-2016
During the wait up till my packages arrived, I crocheted and blocked several swatches. Fortunately, I had also ordered the K Excalibur because this blocking practice convinced me (1) I could get pattern gauge correct with a K crochet hook without overly stretching the stitches and (2) the drape was better.
Last night, chain crocheted 156 with a J hook to start. (Figured I should subtract three stitches. Two because there is no selvedge to contend with on the non-existent extra panels and one because the cross stitch pattern appears to be based on near-mirror halves, i.e., even number.) Then, switched over to Excalibur. One row, both forward and backward TSS pass takes 20 minutes. Three rows take one hour. Psyching myself out, that’s 66+ hours of crochet ahead of me. Fortunately, I love love LOVE working with Aran fleck, and the Aran fleck should give the overall afghan an antique, distressed look like the side of an old barn, which is the effect I’m going for.
ETA: Eventually was able to complete a row in 15 minutes. Some rows in as little as 13.
06-18-2016
Pattern has it wrong: There are 209 rows, not 200. I finally settled down with a straight edge and counted everything out (photo). I had half-assumed that the additional rows--clearly visible at the top of the 1970s finished project--were shaved off the graph to save space. Uh-uh.
The pattern is 141 rows between the two inner horizontal stripes at either end. I do plan to remove one row there since I like an even number. It’s the symmetry thing. Maybe--maybe--I shave nine rows there instead to get to 200? In the end, I think that’d be too little white space above and below the eagle so I guess the Tunisian will come to ~69 hours of crochet.
ETA: Somehow, still ended up with 209 rows rather than 208. Must be the muse.
07-06-2016
Original cross-stitch chart has issues, i.e., eagle’s neck is not centered, wings don’t share the same outlines, sheaves of wheat--both at the top and bottom--are not identical. The left and right sides of the pattern are best described as a near-mirror image of each other. (I have to wonder what happened when the design was charted out way back in 1969.) So, I reworked the eagle (photo) using MS Excel. What a chore. Graph paper would have been faster except the copy and paste functions helped with getting the symmetry correct. I intentionally left the neckline asymmetrical. The wings had the most problems. I modified the foot clutching the arrows. For the sheaves, I’m just very careful while cross-stitching and have pencilled notes on a print-out.
Practiced the crab stitch using the coffee yarn on an Aran fleck swatch. First did a border of sc with a J hook. Worked the crab stitch for a while using the J and went down one hook size. The stitch definitely looks neater when the stitches are a bit tighter, not loose.
07-19-2016
Began embroidering the wheat stems (photo close-up). Probably the most frustrating thing about this pattern was trying to figure out what was meant by first working a basting stitch and then an outline stitch over top. The basting, or running, stitch seems to be intended as a guideline so that you are not constantly referencing the chart. Not sure that it needs to be a contrasting color as indicated. Went with a split stitch over that by doubling the yarn, which made a natural place for the needle to “split.” Also, the extra thickness for the stem just looked nicer.
ETA: The instruction reference to “contrasting” probably meant contrasting with the background and not the color choice used to embroider. This would make the outline easier to see.
07-20-2016
Finished all embroidery. In retrospect, I see that the instructions referred to “thread”--not “yarn”--for the basting stitches so I think the basting stitches were intended to be pulled out once the embroidery was complete. Someone had said that the original arrow shafts appeared to be done in two colors (http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/all-things-vintage/3449509...), which reinforced my original interpretation. Too late, I did separate some yarn into separate “threads,” used that to baste, and pulled it out for the arrow shafts. If I made this again, I’d use thread and pull it out afterwards.
I used one strand of yarn to back stitch the wheat stem held by the eagle and two for the arrow shafts.
07-22-2016
Used suggested technique here http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/tunisian-crochet-for-begin... to try and counteract rolling. Roll was very strong so was only partially successful. Will try to relax the roll with steam, again.
Edging: Using coffee color, sc once around in J hook. Then, worked crab stitch using I hook.
ETA 08/01/2016: Handheld steamer did the trick.
08-07-2016
Afghan won a first place ribbon for the building theme AND a champion ribbon!
Funny thing is that the first place in this category only nets $4.
ETA 08-14-2016: When I picked up my afghan from the fair today, the note on the back of the tag read, “Contender for Best in Show”!
05-15-2018
Son used the afghan while away at college this year. It washed and dried well. Followed the directions on the Red Heart label: Gentle cycle, warm, with detergent and then tumble dry low. Came out clean, soft, and unspoiled. Thankfully, no loose cross stitch threads, which was my biggest fear.
09-01-2018
Corrected the hook size. Found out after all these years that my favorite “I” hook is really an “H”.
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