The United States of America Afghan

Well, I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately.
The kids are all back to school now and I finally got this behemoth finished.

It seemed like a great idea to work on small squares over this hot summer.
Then you don't have a big heavy afghan in your lap while you are crocheting.
Unfortunately, there comes a time when you have to put it all together. Blah!

And this one weighs a ton. No. Really.

It's all cotton yarns. Mostly Lily Sugar 'N Cream, some Paeches and Cream, and some bernat handicrafter cotton yarn too.
Heavy!!! (Images are clickable for enlargement).







Even while standing on the bench on the deck, I couldn't fit it all in the shot.






So then I just took some photos in sections. Yes, that's my shadow blocking the entire state of Montana. Didn't think I could be larger than the Big Sky Country now, did ya? LOL!! Rrrrroar! I'm HUGE! LOL!!






The blanket measures a whopping 86 inches tall by 46 inches wide. It fits top to bottom over a king sized bed but has the width of a twin. I suppose it could be a Twin coverlet with some states draping down to the floor at the foot of the bed. If you hung it you'd need a vaulted ceiling for sure! LOL!!






Then I flipped it over so you could see the back. Someone always asks to see the back.

I used more graphs on this than any other blanket I've ever made 50 state graphs, and 5 I made at that Celtic graph generator site to spell out The United States Of America. So 55 total graphs make up this monster of an afghan. I used a long sized H afghan hook and for the edging around each square and the whole afghan, I used a regular size H hook.

The black is not cotton yarn, but Caron One pounder and some I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby too.

I'm thinking if and when it gets washed, the cotton will shrink up slightly but the black which holds all the squares together will remain the same size sort of firming up the blanket. This is my hope anyway.

ALSO, I finished my IN Crowd Fall challenge too. (These photos are clickable for enlargement too).






This is one side of the hot pad/trivet.






And here's the other side. You've seen this. But I added "Indiana" and "The IN Crowd" and sewed a plastic white star button for Indianapolis. (If it's used as a trivet, I'd keep that side down to the counter. I'm not sure if it would melt LOL!!!!

I used a tractor graph I found at a sweater knitting site. I changed the colors so they would reflect what a John Deere tractor would look like. The background is yellow to represent corn. That's basically what we have here in Indiana. Cars, and corn. LOL!!!

I made the sun using the largest plastic sewing ring I could find. It's meant to be a sort of hook for hanging it up on your wall.

We're supposed to add our Fall challenges to our etsy shops. I really love this. It will be hard to part with. :/

Anyway, sorry again for being gone so long. Hope I made up for it in this post. :o)