WIP Wednesday: Tunisian Entrelac Blanket

Here is one of my current WIPs. Unfortunately I can't show any of the others at this point as they are Christmas gifts for family. 

I know what you're going to say, this looks like knitting.  Actually it is Tunisian crochet, using the Tunisian knit stitch, which from the front looks exactly like knitting!  It uses quite a bit more yarn than knitting but the wrong side avoids the ridges created in traditional knitted entrelac on the wrong side of the fabric. This makes it particularly well suited for a blanket where the wrong side will be

visible at least some of the time.

Another difference is that the stitches don't change direction so it looses the woven effect that the knitted version produces (I'm working on one of these as well for my daughter). As you can see in the photograph above there is a little direction change in the blocks. This is because this particular version is worked in the round. When the corners are turned, the stitches change direction. 

This particular blanket is loosely based on the Entrelac in the Round Pattern Tutorial from the My Life In Knots blog. I made quite a few changes including making the squares 9 stitches by 9 rows and leaving out the selvedge stitches.  

In the last year I've realized the appeal of local yarn shop and natural fibers, so in general I am not using any of my acrylics which I have a ton of. In an effort to begin destashing I am using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and Vanna's Choice Baby which I have a ton of from back when I was doing a lot of amigurumi. 

It's poses its own challenges as since the blanket is done in the round each additional round uses more and more yarn. And since I am working from stash I have to make due with what I have on hand and as Tim Gunn says "make it work!"since after finishing round 6 I knew I was near taking a full skein of yarn for each round and the fact that I do not want to change colors in the middle of the round this required me to do some math. 

I weighed the blanket and calculated the approximate weight of each square - 3.9g, the number of squares in each round, to determine how much yarn would be needed for each round.  And at my current gauge of 3 sts and 3 rows in 1 inch I could calculate the finished size (before the border) as well. Below is the table I created. 

This should allow me to determine before beginning a round if I have enough of a given color to complete a full round. It would suck to get almost to the end of a round and run out of yarn. 

What are you currently working on?