This afghan is crocheted but does not look it. It is worked in Tunisian crochet, which produces a fabric much closer to knitting than to standard crochet, arranged here in a spiral that gives the blanket its movement.
What Tunisian crochet is
Tunisian crochet uses a long hook with a stopper at the end, closer to a knitting needle than to a standard crochet hook. Rather than completing each stitch before moving on, you pick up loops all the way across the row and keep them on the hook, then work them off on the return pass. The result is a dense fabric with a woven, knit-like surface.
That construction has two consequences worth knowing. The fabric is thick and heavy, so this is a proper winter blanket rather than a light throw. And Tunisian crochet curls – noticeably, at first. Do not panic when your early rows roll up; the weight of the finished blanket and a good blocking will settle it.
Yarn
Variegated yarn suits this pattern particularly well, because the spiral construction carries the colour changes round the blanket instead of stacking them in stripes. A set of coordinating solids works just as well if you want more control over where each colour lands.
The yarn the pattern was written for makes a thick, heavy blanket. Any yarn and matching hook size will work if you would prefer something lighter – Tunisian fabric is dense whatever you make it in, so a lighter yarn is a reasonable substitution rather than a compromise.
Practical notes
You will need a long Tunisian hook or one with a flexible cable, because at full width the whole row of loops has to fit on it. A standard-length hook will not hold an afghan’s worth of stitches.
This is a large project. Buy all the yarn at the start, in the same dye lots.
