Pinwheel Revisited

I decided to take another crack at the pinwheel pattern I was talking about a few days ago. Things are going much better this time. Since I managed to misinterpret the pattern twice, I figured I'd post a work-in-progress picture in case it helps out anyone else who happens to be struggling with this one. I haven't been able to find a free version of the pattern. The version I'm using comes from the book 7 Day Afghans and I recently noticed that Bernat has a larger version (the one I'm using is intended as a baby blanket) available in this new leaflet.

I'm not loving these colours. I mostly just grabbed some scraps that were on hand, so this sample is made with Vanna's Choice in White and Mustard. I'm thinking that if I keep going with this one I'll use up some of my Vanna's Choice, alternating between a white strip and a coloured strip.

My first misinterpretation was thinking that the blanket was made working from the centre outward like a round ripple afghan. It's not. My second mistake was thinking that it's piece-work. That you have to crochet all the stripes individually and then stitch them together. It's not, and thank goodness because I hate piece work. What you actually do is start with the long white row that you see on the left hand side and work your way through the white section, tapering it off a bit every second row.

Eventually you get down to a very tiny white row that's only about three stitches. Then you join your next colour and work crochet stitches into the edge that you've been tapering off. This creates your first long row in your new colour and from there you repeat the process. Once all the stripes are done you just have to stitch your last piece to your first one to complete the circle and then thread some wool through the centre part and pull it tight. At least that's the theory. I'll have to get that far and actually try it to know for sure.

So now that things seem to be going right I'm enjoying this pattern. The crocheting is very simple; just a repeat of single crochet one, chain one, single crochet one. You just have to recheck the pattern to see where to end your rows. Another nice thing is that each row you work is smaller than the one before it (until you change colours) so it crochets up very quickly.

I'll post the completed version if/when I get it done. Until then, special thanks to Amy B. who found this picture of a completed crochet pinwheel on Ravelry for me.