Monday, July 6, 2015

Crocheted Italian Flag

In late May the secretary of the Bracco Italiano Club of America (of which I'm a member) asked me if I would be willing to crochet something for the upcoming annual meeting. I had done an afghan for her a while ago and I guess she thought I knew what I was doing. 

She said she wanted just something basic like the Italian flag. That sounded pretty easy so I said I would do it. Of course all my pattern books and hooks are in storage right now but a hook doesn't cost much and I have internet access to get a few ideas. Just to be authentic I got the proportions and got started. Did you know country's flags come in different proportions, they are not all 1:2 like the  Italian flag. For example the American flag is 1:1.9.

I decided to go with the basic moss stitch or granite stitch. I did it before when I did the three yarn afghan. It's fast and easy. 

I didn't work on it every day and I actually had to start over three times! First I didn't do the edges right and I ended up decreasing on the ends. I pulled it out to where it looked right and started over. That was about line 20, at least half of what I had already done. Then the tension wasn't right. I kept thinking I could block it but after continuing for several more rows I knew I would have to make it right.

So I ripped it all out and started from scratch. I think I finally got it right.

Clyde looks good, doesn't he! Oh, and the blankie doesn't look too bad either.  :-)

Not a bad door prize, if I say so myself.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I need to crochet an italian flag afghan as well and I don't even know how or where to begin?!?! Do you have a pattern or where you maybe found a pattern??!! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!. Thankyou.

tina f. said...

Here is a good tutorial:

http://crochet.about.com/od/crochet-pictures/ig/Pictures-of-Crochet-Stitches/Moss-Stitch-AKA-Granite-Stitch.htm

The moss stitch is very easy. The first thing is to figure out how big you want your project to be and make your foundation chain and go from there.

To get a clean looking foundation row use the Japanese foundation row method. Go here for a how to:

https://crochetwithpassion.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/japanese-foundation-row/

And here is a great way to join a new color at the end of the row:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-join-yarn-in-crochet.html

Good luck!

Unknown said...

Thankypu so much for your help