Sewing in the Ends

When making any crocheting project there is usually always a "tail" to be sewn into the project. This happens often with graphgans because of the colour change. They are really easy to sew in and once you cut away the extra bits of yarn you can not even notice where you sewed in the tails. Sewing in tails helps make the project more professional looking than just tying a knot and it secures the end. This makes sure your project will not unravel.

This is a picture of a graphgan I made. As you can see with each colour change, I left a long tail to sew in.

Sewing in the tails is an easy process, you have to threat a needle with the ends. (Most people like a tapestry needle for this but anyone you're comfortable with will do.) Next to want to sew them through two or three stitches in your project.

You want to make sure you go side to side a total of three times. This "locks" it in place, because your work can not go in both directions at the same time. 

You may notice holes in your work where the colour change happened, sometimes this happens because the yarn isn't the same, sometimes this happens because the tails weren't pulled tight. If you find the holes are two big you can always sew the parts together while hiding the tails. This will cause the project to become tighter. 

Once all the ends are sewn in, you can cut away any excess, you should have a clean and crisp looking final project. It is important to make sure you are sewing the ends into the making colour. (In the example above, the yellow got sewn into the yellow stitches and the blue into the blue stitches.) 

This video is a good visual aid to help out with sewing in the ends.

Graphgans

What is a graphgan?
A graphgan is an Afghan that is made using a graphing pattern.

What is a graphing pattern?
A graphing pattern is a picture that has been made into a graph. A graph is a bunch of boxes over a picture in a grid-line form to symbolize stitches.

How do you read graphs?
Some graphs have written instructions. Some do not. When looking at the graph, each square represents one stitch.

What stitch should be done with graphgans?
Most graphgans use single crochets, half double crochets or tunisian crocheting.

How do you change colours?
There are a few ways to change colours on a project. These can be very complicated and stressful sometimes so here will be a post dedicated to how to change colours.

How do you start a graphgan?
Graphgans start the same way any other crocheting project starts, by chaining. (Most graphgans are 150 chains by 200 rows).

Do you have to follow the graph?
You don't have to however I suggest you do for the first few graphs you try until you become comfortable with the way they work.

How do you finish a graphgan?
You finish the graphgan the same way you finish any other project by pulling a long tail through the last stitch.

What is the most important thing to remember when making a graphgan?
The most important thing to remember is to count your stitches. This is especially important when you're just starting to learn how to make graphgrans. You stitch count should always equal the same number as your starting chain. (For example: If you start with a chain of 150 every row from start to finish should have 150 stitches.) If at some point you have more than what you started with you can always do a decrease by one, where needed. (It is rare you will lose a stitch, most often you gain one; this is usually because the colour change is done incorrectly.)

What can be made into a graphgan pattern?
Any picture can be make into a graph.

On the left is the original picture I used for my project. On the right is what the graph will look like that I need to follow to make the graphgan. 

Crochet Stitches (Symbols)

This chat was found of Facebook and illustrates the symbols a pattern could call for.

Skin Colour Yarns

Some projects whether it be knitting, crocheting, cross stitching, etc; require exact colours. This often is when doing portraits of people, or characters. It is not always easy picking the right colour for a project, often times picking yarn is like picking a crayon out of the box, there are all kinds of different shades of certain colours and it can be hard to pick the perfect one. The following image was found on facebook to help with picking skin tone yarns.

V Stitch Crocheted Blanket

This blanket is super simple to make and all you need to know how to do is make a V stitch (two double crochets). The video tutorial I watched for this blanket started with a chain of 42 with a thick ball of yarn. You can use any type of yarn for this, if you are a beginner you may find it easier with a thicker ball because the holes will be larger but it doesn't really matter. I used a fluffy yarn and because it wasn't as thick I chained 84 as a base foundation.

This is the yarn I used. I chose this yarn because this blanket doesn't work with the stitches it works with the holes created. It is hard to see the stitches with this yarn so I wouldn't suggest it for a normal crochet pattern but it works for this blanket. 

Once you have your chain foundation, you need to chain two to start your next row. (As I said in my double crochet post, some crochet three t start the next row I crochet two). Since you use two chain stitches to create the wall of the next row, you want to skip those two and one more. In the forth chain stitch you want to create one double crochet and than another in the same stitch. Once you have your two double crochets, or V stitch, you want to skip one stitch and start over in the next one. Continue this to the end. For the last stitch of all the rows you want to create one double crochet and then chain two stitches before continuing. 

This is what one row of V stitches looks like. 

Once you have the first row, you want to stitch your double crochets into the holes left between the V stitches, this will cause the pattern to grow like a brick wall lay out. 

This is what it looks like with normal yarn. 

Continue in this same style until you have the size of blanket you want. I am creating a baby blanket so I only used two balls but you can add as many as you want. (For a bigger blanket I would also suggest adding more chains to your foundation). 

This is a close up of my finished blanket. I loved this blanket so much I created a pink one for a friend having a baby girl. 

(The Yellow is called Lemon Swirl and the Pink above is called Peach Swirl)

UPDATE: This blanket became so popular that I was asked to create an adult blanket. With the baby blanket I chained 82, for this adult blanket I doubled that to make it 164. It is still the same process, however it will take more balls of yarn. 

V Stitch

This stitch combines two double crochets to make the stitch. All a V stitch is is two double crochets in the same stitch. So you would chain the same way but when you start your new row you would do one double crochet into the first stitch and than another in the same stitch. Once you have done two double crochets in the same stitch you want to skip a stitch and start in the next one.

This is what one row of V stitches looks like. It may not be evident in the first row but you should be able to see the two double crochets make a V shape. 

This is what two rows look like and the Vs are more evident here. 

A great way to practice V stitches and double crochet would be with a V stitched crocheted blanket.

NOTE: I have also heard of Half Double Crochet V Stitch. This would be practically the same thing except the double crochets would be half double crochets.