Fairy Lights, Fairy Fey, and Fairy Fish Afghan

[pesky pixie]

This project all started a while ago when I was looking up Blue Fish Clothing on etsy. (Blue Fish is a line of clothing for larger sized women. They are pricey and etsy sometimes has sellers with used Blue Fish clothes for cheap).

Anyway, I stumbled upon this t-shirt



sold by a shop called spitfaced.
It's not from the Blue Fish Clothing line. It's just a t-shirt with a blue angel holding her pet blue fish. (At least that's the description from the seller).

Well, I just loved this design for some reason. It's just awesome-looking!
(I did buy the shirt but it's only a large and I'll probably have to make it into something else like a t-shirt bag or something.)
The back of the shirt has a url for a now-gone website of some kind.

Anyway, I used the above photo of the t-shirt, uploaded it to Microrevolt, and graphed it there.
I decided to de-wing her as she looked so elegant running I didn't think she needed wings anyway.

I changed her from blue to green. I had more green yarn. That's basically why.

I added circles of colors like floating orbs to fill in the background where I thought there was too much blank space.

And I used a variegated yarn in fall colors. It's interesting using variegated yarn in tunisian crochet. You never know what it's going to look like.



Here's a photo of the back of the afghan.

The afghan measures 28 1/2 inches wide by 46 inches high.
It's tunisian crocheted using a size J cabled afghan hook.

I'd be fun to make her in different colors and different colored backgrounds too.
Well, I hope you all enjoy looking at it. It's really a fun design.

[fiddlegirl8]

OH MY GOSH - I LOVE THIS!!!  What awesomeness - this is just magnificent - Make me one!  Make me one!!    You ROCK - I'm hitting THIS ROCKS now!  This is just fantastic - I love it - she looks like she's on the beach to me - wow.  I like her without the wings too and the coloring you did is just - I can't quit looking at her!!  GREAT GREAT JOB!  

[lovesclutter]

What she said!!!!!!!!! This is great.

[orangesandjello]

Wow! Absolutely amazing! One day I'll get up the courage to do something like this. I was wondering, is changing colors easier in tunisian? I just learned how to do it and I am loving it so far.

[pesky pixie]

Changing colors was easier for me doing the tunisian crochet stitch because whenever I tried it with regular single stitch crochet, I would have a hard time picking up that color again after I finished the row and flipped over the afghan for the next row.
If the color on the chart needs to be too far away from where you left it in the last row, you have to keep starting new threads to keep the color you need.

With tunisian, you don't ever have to flip the afghan over. It's all done from one side that faces you the whole time. Yes, you still have to start new thread colors with tunisian too, but I found it to be a lot less.

But key to making a charted afghan is choosing a simple design. Especially when first starting to learn graphed crocheting.
Look for something that has nice big blocks of colors instead of intricate lines that will tangle you up in no time.

Like for the fairy's shirt, the slits along the side of her shirt are tricky. You have to be gentle with the tension so it isn't too tight and scrunches up with close-knit stitches. I wasn't about to start a new thread of color for each time the pattern went from green to black to green etc. It's just switched back and forth. If you check the photo of the backside you can see how it's just switched over.

So, anyway, that's why, for a beginner I'd recommend just a simple pattern with only a few color changes until you really get the hang of it.

[ColetteK]

This just fantastic! love it.

[Eamea]

Really nice work!

[Lydia the Strange]

Fantabulous! I love this!