100 Days Project 2018

My challenge for this year’s 100 Day Project is a blanket design inspired by my favorite candy, salt water taffy (the kind that’s sold on East Coast boardwalks and comes in beautiful boxes with old-fashioned illustrations).

I chose to work with Universal Yarns Cotton Supreme for this project because I was able to find all the colors I needed to create interesting color combinations, like those found swirled in salt water taffy. (And because the yarn is wonderful to work with and the stitch definition is amazing!) I chose 15 colors, which by my calculation should yield 105 possible combinations.

So for this challenge I will crochet 1 striped triangle a day for 105 days. Then I will join the triangles into hexagons, and finally join the hexagons into a rectangle-shaped blanket. I’ll probably edge the whole thing with a funky border. As you can see, this project will take much longer than 100 days (I’m being gentle on myself and aiming for April 2019!).

Because this will require a ton of seaming, I do not
expect anyone to be as crazy as I am, so I’m not planning on releasing a pattern. But I’m happy to share the pattern for the triangle in case anyone wants to give it a try.

Striped Triangle Crochet Pattern

Row 1 (RS): With A, ch 17, sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across, turn—16 sc.
Row 2: Ch 1, sc in first st, skip next st, sc in each st across to last 2 sts, skip next st, sc in last st, change to B, turn—14 sc.
Row 3: Ch 1, sc in each st across, turn.
Rows 4–13: Rep Rows 2 and 3, alternating colors at end of Row 2 repeats. Do not change colors at end of Row 13.—4 sc.
Row 14: Ch 1, sc2tog 2 times, turn—2 sc.
Row 15: Ch 1, sc2tog—1 sc. Fasten off.

May 4, 2018

After 30 days, I decided to abandon the 100 Days Project. That’s not something I usually allow myself to do, but sometimes it’s just a good idea to let a project sit for a while (sometimes it’s necessary). And that’s how I feel about this one. Looking forward to picking this back up when I have more time and motivation!

June 6, 2018

Starting to join some of the triangles together. I’m using single crochet to join them with the RS together, so the actual stitches are on the wrong side. I found that if I start by joining two while crocheting from the outside inward to the point, then join the next one by continuing back to the outside again I only have to weave in 6 ends per hexagon. Yay! I was really worried about all the ends. I’m using Beige for the joining (thought it would be a nice neutral), and now I think it will look lovely incorporated into the border.

July 5, 2019

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working on this for over a year! Joining the triangles into hexagons, and then joining all the hexagons together and weaving in all the ends took forever. In the end I decided that this will work better as a wall hanging than a throw blanket. I finally finished joining everything last night and added a border this morning.

July 8, 2019

I sewed the felt backing on this piece over the weekend. I love how forgiving crochet is. I was really stressing over how hard it might be to sew the backing on with my sewing machine, but it worked out just fine. I ended up increasing the width of the machine’s straight stitch and sewed with the crochet fabric facing up with the backing pinned on. Just had to be mindful that the machine’s foot didn’t catch in the crochet stitches.

I did have to give up on the idea of using a quilt rod I found for hanging this piece. It’s just too small for the size. With the crochet being as busy as it is, I was also afraid the hanger might distract. Instead I’ve decided to sew on a wire hanger that will help hold up the points at the top.

Fin

Created a hanger by bending 12-gauge galvanized steel wire into the same shape as the top of the wall hanging. After sewing this onto the back of the piece, I am now finally able to hang it up. Yay! I’m really pleased with how this turned out. I could stare at it for hours. The stripes, triangles, and hexagons are a bit mesmerizing. I hope you enjoy it too.