Scrap Afghans, Color Choices, Plus the Beachy Baby Afghan

Let’s talk about scrap afghans. What exactly makes a successful scrap afghan? One that takes your breath away and looks cohesive. It is more than just using up all of the yarn in one blanket. You do need to have a plan. I like to use a neutral to tie the whole blanket together nicely, even if I need to buy one.

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Using Neutrals in Scrap Afghans

There are several different ways to use neutrals to tie scrap afghans together. Neutral colors are supremely useful in creating scrap afghans that make your friends say, “Oooh!” Think of the traditional granny square afghan such as this one:

With every square bordered in black, it makes quite a statement as it causes each colorful granny square to pop. The black allows our eyes to rest after all the colors. It frames all the colors like a gallery wall painted with neutral paint, or with same-color frames around each piece of artwork. This one uses Vanna’s choice from Lion Brand Yarns (link)

Neutrals as Borders

You can use other colors besides black to frame all those colors just as nicely.

White works great for setting off every different square like the gem it is!

Navy works as the background to the Flower Garden afghan.

Grey can also make a beautiful neutral when used in a granny square afghan. (This one was planned and not a scrap afghan but the gray sure gives you the idea of how beautiful it would look on a scrap afghan.)

Neutrals Within Scrap Blankets

Include the neutral as a part of the whole blanket as in these two ripple blankets or the large granny square blanket. You could achieve the same look using one color consistently throughout the blanket in a pattern. THis afghan uses scrap Vanna’s choice yarns (link) and also Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn (link)

Grey in one and black in the other; both used in a planned repetition to help tie the whole blanket together.

This giant granny square is simply lovely with the repetition of the oatmeal-colored wool every third row.

Striping Sequences in Scrap Afghans

Scrap afghans with successful striping rely on color theory to make them work.

The afghan in the above photo uses analogous colors to create a wonderful ombre effect with the color shading from one to another. Yes, this is a scrap afghan. It is also crocheted out of Vanna’s choice yarns (link) and also Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn (link).

This scrap afghan uses a variety of color schemes to pull off a successful scrap afghan. Starting at the bottom the colors go from purple to blue, which is analogous, then it jumps to yellow, which is a complementary color change. Yellow to red is analogous, and then it jumps again to the green which is complementary. Using the colors this way helps to keep the afghan in a rhythm so that our brains interpret it as organized even when we don’t realize it.

This one is the only knit afghan I have ever made. I made this for my daughter before she went to college. It is also a scrap afghan and uses the same color theories found in the one above it.

How do we take all this knowledge and use it in our scrap afghans?

5 Things to Remember About Color When Creating a Scrap Afghan

You don’t have to use every scrap yarn you have.
Use a Neutral to border it.
Think about stripes in sequence.
Try a neutral as a consistent stripe in your afghan.
Use analogous and complementary color schemes to give it rhythm.

Whew, I think this is just about everything I know about colors in yarn, right now. I am sure I will think of something else later.

Beachy Baby Stripe Pattern

Here is my newest pattern, The Beachy Baby Stripe, ready to go out into the world. I was reminded of beautiful beachy colors when I was crocheting it and it looks like a scrap baby afghan but I’ve taken all the work out of choosing colors. Like all my afghan patterns you can choose your own yarns and truly create a personalized work of art. Matching the nursery or choosing gender specific colors would be easy with this pattern. I do love how the striping works out to make this look like a beautiful scrap afghan.

It started like this…