Leadlight Afghan the Journey

The leadlight is now in the capable hands of my testers and progressing very well!

Truth is that I have them all locked in a small room with their yarn and I refuse to let them out till they complete the testing of this design. Don't worry, I am feeding them occasionally when they work hard enough!

It is extremely exciting to see the blanket come to life in different colours. Each testers colour choices, has added a unique personal touch to their afghan, and made it their own.

The original design uses Stylecraft Batik (available here) in teals, blues, beige and just a hint of green (I grudgingly used green as I felt it needed it, but green is not often a colour I work with). With the use of Stylecraft Dk black to define the edges of each colour and give that stained glass look.

Original Leadlight Design

Kathy chose to use a very bold yellow, which gives the pattern a huge 'wow' factor. The overall effect will be quite stunning once the black comes into play in the final stages.

Bold Yellow

Carrie has chosen to use the Stylecraft Batik Dk (available here) in pinks and purples. I just love the soft effect this is bringing to the design. I am extremely fortunate to have Carrie on-board as a tester, as she also has the ability to Tech Edit a pattern and pick up any errors I may have made.

A vision in purple and pink

Corlia has selected Autumn tonings for her Afghan and I am excited to see how this is going to look, as it grows. Although purple is my favourite colour, I do have a soft spot for oranges and Autumn colours.

Gorgeous Autumn tones. Corlia's picture also highlights the challenge of this project with multiple bobbins in play.

I am very impressed with all my testers on this project. Their work is so neat, especially their organisation with bobbins. I know I did have a tangled mess at times, and their ability to work in such an ordered way tends to put me to shame.

I am aiming for a June (Maybe earlier if I can force my testers to work faster) launch date for this pattern, on ravelry and Love Crochet. So stay tuned for further progress.

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Woo,Hoo! Leadlight Afghan Done!

Excitement plus! It may have taken me a forever from idea to completion, but it is finished.

My Leadlight Afghan is done and I can move on to one of the dozen, other designs I have partly done.

What a feeling of achievement! You know how it is when you can see that finish line looming. You only have a few more stitches to do and a few ends to sew in. You find yourself trying to work faster, and that feeling when you put that last stitch in place!

The border on this gave me some headaches. Being round I felt it had to have increases. I took three goes to get this and each time I frogged it, I considered heaving it off the balcony and pretending it did not exist. My darling husband just looked at me and stated he was amazed at my persistence. By these last few rows, I had almost 900 stitches per round.

I finally came to the realisation that, although this is round, the increases became unnecessary in this section as each bit of colour was over a section that seemed almost straight. Yes, the blanket had become so large. It ended up being 62 inches across.

When I first began this beauty, I had envisioned that it would be around 52 inches across. That was not to be.

The initial idea had sprung to life in my head after looking at Stained Glass mandalas on Pinterest. I saw this one in greens and blues and thought to myself 'This would make a great crochet afghan!'

I spent quite a while mulling around in my head, as to how I could get this idea from my head into a workable crochet blanket.

The Colourwork sections are done with bobbins, but I used cut cardboard. Yes, I am cheap and didn't want to spring for all those bobbins. Each time I did a colour section I was kicking myself for not getting the bobbins. At times I had a tangled mess and even my beloved Stella (dog) was looking at me thinking I was crazy!

Middle section of Colourwork.

I am now in the process of organising my test group. Testing will begin in a couple of weeks, and I have some very keen (or crazy) people signed up for testing.

I hope to have this pattern published by mid year 2019.

This uses Stylecraft Batik yarn (available here) and a 5mm hook.