I recently was asked to be part of a couple of blog tours — this is the first of two guest posts, the other one will be tomorrow. This book, Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afghans: More Than 50 Beautiful, Affordable Designs Featuring Berroco’s Comfort Yarn is a collection of modern afghan designs all done in Berroco’s Comfort Yarn, which is, to tell the truth, the modern-day version of 1970s acrylic. Except that it’s not. Comfort is soft, and smooth, squishy and nice to work with. But like “vintage orlon” it comes in tons of colors and it is machine washable and dryable. Unlike the old acrylic, it’s good for garments as well as afghans, and great for baby stuff and folks who are sensitive to wool. It’s the one synthetic I’d use without complaint.

Anyway, thanks to the Berroco Design Team for taking time to write a guest post:

Taking liberties with the patterns to make them fit your home and life – modifications and recolorations

Don’t be put off if the colors of an afghan in this book don’t suit your style. Most pieces in the Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans lend themselves very nicely to personal interpretations. While it’s easy to imagine a solid colored afghan knit or crocheted in in a different shade, reworking multicolor schemes can be daunting. Here, the design focus on traditional textiles helps make choosing a new color-way easier. Quilt based patterns like Nordic Holiday and Bight Star are fun to recolor by surfing the web for similar quilts in colors you prefer. You could also get our your crayon box and color in you own quick sketches of the simple geometric shapes.

Many of the two color patterns, like Houndstooth and Meditate are interpretations of woven fabrics. Let textiles inspire and guide your color choices too. Try for a similar contrast in value. One hint for choosing new colors to fit your room and lifestyle: Co-ordinate with the colors in your room but you don’t try to match it perfectly. Related colors will be even more pleasing. Many of the afghans are make in squares that can be rearranged to form pattern variations and varying the number of squares makes it very easy change the finished size as well.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting about another new book that I’m particularly excited about, Knits Men Want.

Guest Post from the Berroco Design Team