Rectangular Wheel Stitch Afghan (progress)

Progress at 6 rounds: approximately 12 x 36 inches

I'm attempting to crochet an afghan in the round, but achieve a rectangular finished product. In my last post, the foundation round was twice as long as the length (approximately 2 x 4 inches). By the 5th round, the measurement was 8 x 10 inches, still 2 inches different between the width and the length. If I had continued to completion, the finished product would still have the short side 2 inches shorter than the long side. This is not what I had in mind.

A good online friend reminded me that in this type of project (working in the round), as you increase the rounds, the length grows at the same rate as the width, so if, at the beginning, the width is 2 inches shorter than the length, after x number of rounds, the width will still be 2 inches shorter than the length, which is not what I intended.

When working a project in the round, to insure the proper aspect ration, that is width to length, you have to know the desired measurements at the end of the project to enable you to start with the proper sized foundation round. Subtracting the width (short measurement) from the length (long measurement) will give you the proper size of the foundation round.

I sat on my couch with a measuring tape across my lap and decided I wanted the width of the afghan to be approximately 30 inches and the length to be approximately 60 inches, so subtracting the width from the length gave me 30 inches. I started with a foundation round of 30 inches. Since the width was only 2 inches, the start of the project looked more like a strip or scarf than an afghan. As you can see by the picture above, the piece is beginning to look more like I intended, with the current measurements approximately 12 x 36 inches.

OK! I know! The difference now is only 24 inches instead of 28 inches. But after 6 rounds it's starting to look more like what I wanted than the previous attempt.

My next post will have the instructions, and some more verbiage about how to start if your desired finished product isn't what I had in mind for my finished product.