Crochet Bedspread: Terra Incognita

Contents

Written by Dee

June 20, 2015 3 minutes read

Planning Terra Incognita

Terra Incognita design chart done in Photoshop

Crochet bedspread Terra Incognita is my latest big project. A friend of mine asked me if I can make him a bedspread for his new bachelor pad, and of course, I said yes. I designed a simple granny square motif with several colours with earthy tone because he wanted his bedroom to feel homey and warm. I immediately thought of some autumn and archaeologist’s soil chart colours for this project. I came up with the name Terra Incognita because I think it fits with the colour palette I’ve chosen.

The planning phase of crochet bedspread Terra Incognita was a little bit slow because I had to choose the correct colours for the palette and match it with the availability of yarns at the supplier’s storage. Included in the planning was calculating how big one square measures and how big the bedspread he wanted. He wanted it in king size, so it’s rather huge.

I divided, multiplied, subtracted, and finally came out with how many squares I need for each colour. I thought that this project had to be mathematically exact because I need to count in the price of yarn per 100 grams. Based on all that calculation, I have had to work on 504 squares in total.

The planning phase started in March 2015, and after purchasing the required amount of yarns, I immediately began to crochet this bedspread, Terra Incognita. Because this is for a bedspread-slash-blanket, I chose the warm but cool-to-the-touch cashmillon yarn made by an Indonesian home factory. It worked very well with my Tulip crochet hook, smooth and silky and lovely to the touch. It was a pleasure as I worked on each square. I personally have used cashmillon yarns before for other projects, and yes, I do love working with them.

The motif I chose for crochet bedspread Terra Incognita was quite a simple one—something of a traditional granny square. I modified the beginning of the square with two rounds of a full circle to give it a personal touch. I made corners on the third round, and voilà, I turned it to a square. By May 2015, I had a bunch of them ready to join. I have a terrible habit where I always join the squares even though I have not finished with all of them for each colour. But for this project, I have a design chart that I could use as a guide on which colour to join next.

Terra Incognita Colour Palette

Terra Incognita square counts

Cashmillon Colour Selection

Terra Incognita Basic Pattern

Terra Incognita Squares

Terra Incognita In Progress

In the case of joining the squares, I chose not to employ the join-as-you-go method. I didn’t know why I chose the darning method instead of joining them as I went along. I think I chose this method because I wanted to have the visual effect of each square displayed as-is instead of having them interloping with each other. Joining 504 square would be a pain in the arse if I waited until I’ve finished with all squares. The method I chose was to divide them into panels of five and joined them accordingly to the design chart.

By early May I have a quarter of Terra Incognita bedspread done and had a look of it when placed on top a king-sized bed. It looked lovely and fuelled me to keep working until it’s finished. When I had all squares finished, I started joining and joining and joining until it formed like a complete bedspread. I really liked the decision I made by arranging these squares diagonally instead of plain horizontally or vertically per colour. It demanded me of my meticulousness to make sure the correct colour went into the next one according to the chart, but it was such a fun process.

Terra Incognita Progress

Terra Incognita Final Looks

I managed to finish the whole bedspread complete with its border by the end of May 2015. It’s a pretty quick process for such a massive project, but at the time, I didn’t have any fieldwork I had to go to. In the end, it’s all good. I loved how Terra Incognita looked on the king-size bed, and even when hanged, Terra Incognita looked really pretty. Now, all I have to do is the deliver Terra Incognita bedspread to its rightful owner. Big crochet projects never scare me, I crave for them. It brings me determination and motivation to get it to finish. Terra Incognita will not be my last big crochet project. I know, and I can feel that there will be more in the future.