Me? I was secluded in a friend's dorm room, with a J-sized crochet hook I'd bought the day before, learning how to chain, single, and double crochet from my friend, K.
The pattern is called "Light & Lacy Afghan," is a free pattern that came on the label of Mainstays yarn (Wal-Mart's brand; it has since been discontinued), and is actually a really lovely pattern. When I show people my finished afghan, they are immediately impressed that it was the first thing I made--it looks fancy, but is actually quite simple, using only basic stitches and a three-row repeat that's easy to follow. (The pattern has been reproduced here, and for those of you on Ravelry, you can check it out here.)
I purchased blue variegated Mainstays yarn for the project. (Mainstays is about on par in quality with Red Heart Super Saver. This type of yarn is perfect for first projects--ie, it's really cheap, and great for that one thing you'll hang onto forever and cherish because it was your FIRST, no matter how ugly or rough it is--but every knitter or crocheter should very quickly arrive at the point where they shudder to buy the stuff.)
I learned some important lessons while working on this project. First was the all-important rule about the tension you hold your yarn at. K noted right away that I was a very tight crocheter. (This was partially because I was still figuring it out, and partially just natural.) A few days or weeks later, I informed her that I'd managed to correct that and my stitches were much looser now. Instead of complimenting me, she winced! And then proceeded to teach me why it was important to maintain a consistent tension throughout a project.
As a result, if you lay out my finished blanket on the floor, you'll notice that one edge has the narrowest width, then gets wider, and gradually narrows (as I tried to compensate for my mistake). Like every first crochet project, the dimensions are wonky. Starting with an afghan, instead of a scarf like most people, actually works to my advantage here, because folded up and thrown over the back of the couch, no one can ever tell!
Here's my finished afghan:
Oh, dorm room days. I do not miss thee.
The second important lesson I learned was about dye lot. What I hadn't known was that every skein of yarn has a little number printed somewhere on the label, that indicates what batch in the factory it comes from. The first time I switched skeins, there were no issues. The second time I switched skeins, after I had crocheted a few rows it was very obvious that the new skein was quite a bit darker than the others. You could see a line where the color changed, exactly where I had switched over. Not good. I ripped out those rows, went back to buy some new skeins that matched better, and continued.
(I still have two skeins from the darker lot that I've never used. This was the beginning of what's affectionately, or sometimes fearfully, referred to by knitters and crocheters as my "stash.")
Here's a close-up:
I know now that I was also doing something very weird with some of my double-crochets, which makes the pattern not quite as defined as it's supposed to be. For comparison, here's a close-up of a Ravelry user's version:
Here's the thing about mistakes, though: no one knows what it's "supposed" to look like except YOU. As my first project, this is in permanent rotation as one of our couch throws, and I get compliments about it all the time.
