That Square

Years ago, not too long after I learned to knit, I took a class where we made the Great American Afghan (GAA).  When I first started the class, I wanted to make every square in the GAA book. But as time went on, I was finding squares from the Great American Aran Afghan (GAAA) book and some other sources and I used them in my afghan instead of some of the GAA squares.  There was one square in the GAA book that was so complicated the course instructor would issue an Advanced Knitter Certificate if you could complete it.  That square is the knitted piece shown in the photo above.  Yep, I did it and it was so much fun!!!

Here are some close ups in black and white so you can see the details a bit better.

I think this looks like shafts of wheat.

This is just a rather cool cable; I think it resembles the cables folks knit to make owls.

This block looks like three dimensional blocks.

This one reminds me of flowers or buds on a tree limb.

I remember I gave up on this square when I was a new knitter; I felt like the pattern just needed more written instructions.  Now that I have more knitting experiences under my belt and I worked through this square, I get it.  This square is entrelac and is knit in 13 segments.  Below, you'll see a little diagram to show you the order in which the segments are knit.  First you make the bottom two triangles and then you knit the first side triangle on the right (labeled as #3).  Then you pick up stitches along the top side of triangle #2 so that you can knit the square labeled with a #4.  Pretty amazing, right?

The one thing that really boggled me about this square was the border around the square.  That is the 13th and final segment you knit.  I could not seem to pick up and knit as many stitches as directed along the top of the square.  Instead of following the pattern instructions, I winged it.  I used larger needles than what I used to knit the square, I used two strands of yarn held together, and picked up about 20 stitches less than what the pattern called for.  I also knit the border all at once on a circular needle instead of knitting the border in four separate sections.  I plan to use this square to make a throw pillow; I just need to figure out how to do that. 

The yarn I used for this is a mystery to me.  My best guess is that this is Plymouth Yarns Encore (worsted weight). 

I have not done much knitting this week.  I better get busy!

Finally... GAA on display!

Happy Christmas to me... I have been wanting to buy a quilt rack for a long time...

I did not have a rabbit motif in mind, but I kind of like it...

It's a shame that something that entailed so many hours of work... was sitting in a bag in a closet for so long...

Finally, my Great American Afghan is on display in my home.
This is not the spot where I planned to keep this quilt rack. Once Christmas is over, the rack and afghan will fill the space currently occupied by our Christmas tree.

My Great American Afghan is complete!

CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR ENLARGED VIEW

My Great American Afghan is complete! It took six months and I learned so much. I started the border on Thursday and completed it Sunday night. Would you believe it if I told you the border alone has nearly 8,000 stitches!? How crazy is that!!!! Since I finished the afghan at 11:00 pm Sunday night, I took these photos indoors (of course) with just artificial light. I would like to take photos of my afghan in natural light, but I couldn't wait until then to share these images with you! Here are a few good shots...

Anniversary Block

Son's Block

Squiggles Block

Tree of Life Block

Under the Sea Block

Another good shot!

GAA... Sneak Peek!

Okay, here it is... a little peek at what my Great American Afghan looks like all stitched together! It was a ton of work to get it stitched together. I started stitching it together Thursday afternoon (at my Thursday knitting group with the gals at Anne's knit shop) and by Friday night... I had all the squares together. Phew! What's left you ask???? I need to make the booties for my son's block. I need to weave in all the loose ends on the backside of the afghan... bad news, there are even more loose ends to weave in after stitching the blocks together! Argh!!!! I also need to knit the border. For the border, I am using the darkest purple yarn which you see in the very center of the afghan (flanking the Circling Squares block). I am using an eyelet border which I found on http://www.theraineysisters.com/. I found a really cute pattern for the baby booties on http://www.spudandchloe.com/. The pattern is called "Jelly Bean Baby Socks" and it calls for worsted weight yarn so I think it's a perfect match for my square. The "Jelly Bean Baby Socks" are a great, easy, and fun pattern. It will definitely be a pattern I want to make again in the future. In fact... I just learned the other day that a gal at work is expecting... time to knit baby things!

GAA final layout

I spent several hours working on my Great American Afghan last weekend... several hours! I really struggled to come up with the layout for my project. I decided I would probably never be totally happy with the layout so I decided to just finalize the layout and start stitching. I got ten... that's 10!!!! blocks stitched together... very tedious, very tiring, back breaking work. Took a break with my son to have some dinner and he kept glancing over at the afghan which was laid out on the floor near the dining room table.

Finally I asked, "What!? What is it?!" He said, "you should have listened to me mom!" I knew he was right because as I was stitching things together I noticed I had two really dark squares together... it looked terrible. I unstitched the two dark blocks and then I decided to unstitch all of them... did I tell you? That was 10 blocks to unstitch and hours of work! Argh!!!! I stacked them all up and, as I walked away, I told my son, "Go crazy! Figure it out! I am over it! I've looked at it too much and I just can't figure it out!" I took a shower, put on my jammies, and then sat in a chair as my son CAREFULLY and THOUGHTFULLY went to work.

He started with the Spiraling Square in the center and then made an "X" with the two diagonals reaching to the far four corners. The two blocks with duplicate stitch, Happy Anniversary square and Son's square, are opposite of each other on the diagonal. The colorful Under the Sea and Three Trees squares are also opposite one another on the diagonal. He proceeded to organize the squares by color. He set to work by alternating the blocks not only by color and value (light v.s. dark) but he also explained that some blocks had up and down (vertical) design elements while other blocks had designs which were more centered, so he arranged them so this element would alternate as well.

Yes! A thousand times YES! I should have listened to him! Sure hope I don't sound like one of "those moms"... who just go on and on about their brilliant children... but I tell ya, my son blew me away.

25 blocks complete!

I actually took these photos on Thursday before I did so much work (duplicate stitching) on the Happy Anniversary block and Son's block. I am still working on layout which is turning out to be much more difficult than I expected. I have been working on this project since October 2009. I am actually kind of sad it's coming to an end. I would like to get a quilt rack (like folks might put at the end of a bed) and this is actually the corner of our great room where I'd like to display the afghan once it's all done. If you click to enlarge either of these photos, you might see the purples and greens in the wallpaper in the background.

Son's block is nearly complete!

This is the "Socks, Socks, Socks, Socks" block from the Great American Afghan. It was my inspiration for my personalized blocks.

Son's name, date of birth, weight, and time of birth. Yep, he was a big baby!

Duplicate stitch was fun and pretty easy once I got going. It's a great way to add color or personalize a project. I am sure I'll use it again in the future. My plan is to make a pair of little socks or baby booties to stitch onto the block like you see in the "Socks" block pictured above. I'll be working on the socks/baby booties next... then it will be time to start stitching this afghan together. I am also exploring options for a border to go around the entire afghan to bring it all together.

Happy Anniversary block is complete!

Here is our Happy Anniversary block. Yep, we've been married for 19 years this month!


This week's knitting was pretty much consumed with learning and doing "duplicate stitch". It's used in the "Socks" block in the Great American Afghan, but I pretty much took the idea and ran with it. I've used this block to make two personalized blocks for my Great American Afghan. Like cross stitch and needle point, duplicate stitch is worrisome because you don't want the backside of the project to look cruddy. Some of my work looked good on the backside, but some really made me unhappy. Here was my solution:



Since the back side looked rather sloppy....



I made a small rectangle with matching yarn just large enough to cover the offending area...



Then stitched it down.

I can hear the ladies in my knitting group saying I am being way too fussy, but my fear is that when I launder this afghan, the duplicate stitching will unravel. I want this project to last for decades.

Happy Anniversary block is nearly complete!

I am really tickled to share this block with you. I came up with the inspiration for this block by myself... look at me, I'm a "designer"! Ha! On the Great American Afghan, you'll see a block which reads, "SOCKS, SOCKS, SOCKS, SOCKS" on the border and a tiny pair of socks are stitched onto the block. That block was my starting point for the block above. My plan for my afghan is to make this block two times actually; one to represent me and my husband and the second to represent our son. For the one pictured above, I plan to use duplicate stitch to put in our names and the date we were married in the brown border. For my son's block, I plan to put his name and the date he was born. I was not pleased with the transition between the lavender and brown on this block so I decided to do some kind of I-cord border. I waffled between using the lavendar and the brown. I was making the I-cords and thought to see what they looked like twisted and I was really happy with the result, although I have to tell you... it was a TON of work to sew that I-cord down and keep the twists sort of symmetrical. Do you recognize the hearts in the center of this block? They are from a previous block from my GAA. Click below to refresh your memory if you are interested:

http://kimsknittingkorner.blogspot.com/2009/11/14-scandinavian-square-is-complete.html

Just a note: The flowers above were from my hubby for our 19th anniversary earlier this week! They smell lovely especially when you first step into the house. Also, when I worked on this block, the colors in the block reminded me of... blueberries dipped in milk chocolate! :)

My Mom's Block is complete!

Whenever I look at the photo of this block in the Great American Aran Afghan (GAAA) book, I think of my mom. For some reason, it just reminds me of her. It's delicate and feminine and symmetrical (us Libras like balance and symmetry!) and I think it reminds me of my mom because I think she would really like this pattern. I also liked the delicate scallops which surround the center lace portion. What do you think, Mom?

I love the construction of this block. You start at the outside (cast on 212 stitches) and then join... and then work your way toward the center. This block started giving me major grief last night... I missed one two-stitch decrease in one corner on one row. I should have just put it down and looked at it with fresh eyes this morning. But NOOO. I kept back tracking and ripping back and stayed up too late. I was hard at it this morning before I went for a walk, then worked on it some more at the cafe', and then worked on it more at knitting class today. I am thankful to be done. The knit3togethers were a bear with my dull bamboo double pointed needles which were necessary for the center portion. I discovered a huge "flaw" in the lace portion near the center while blocking, but once it dried... I seemed to have successfully accomplished "damage control" on that flaw. Could have been a knitting katastrophe! If you were to compare my version of this design to that in the GAAA book, you'll see the original design has only five bobbles in the center. I think my block has 13 bobbles piled up in the center.... a ring of 8, then a ring of 4 and then one up high to top it off. When I got to the center, I just basically winged it. I felt as if I had a huge gaping hole to close... five bobbles just weren't going to cut it. I also did not understand the instructions... MB and MB dec. Make bobble? Make bobble decrease? All said and done, I am pleased with this block. I know I went a little Kodak Fever on this block posting so many pictures above, but I couldn't decide which picture best captured this block. The yarn is a lovely lavender color; it doesn't come through as nice as it really is in the photos.

Great American Afghan last class today

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE IN BETTER DETAIL...

We had our last Great American Afghan class today. I think all of the class participants are sad to see this all coming to an end; hard to believe our first class was nearly six months ago! It was fun to see everyone's completed squares at class today. One lady chose all Christmas colors for her afghan. Another gal used shades of rose, grey, pale green, peach, and others. Our course instructor used very bright colors including navy blue, bright red, bright yellow, teal green, white, and burgundy. The knit shop owner is making FIVE afghans if I am not mistaken. Today she showed us some of her completed squares; her colors have a nautical feel to me... navy blue, white, red, pale blue, and light brown. All are amazing color combinations... such creativity. Makes me wish I would have thought to bring my camera to class today! Darn it!


At class today, we spent some time discussing blocking techniques. Our course instructor, Marilyn, devised a clever way to knit two blocks together when they are different colors... brilliant! I'll post about that another day. We also discussed options for borders to knit or crochet around the perimeter of the entire afghan. If in the photo above, you can see my completed blocks. Looking at this photo, and considering I've completed two more blocks which are not in this photo, I think I just have one more block to go. Tonight I just finished a pale lavender block using a pattern from the Great American Aran Afghan. I really struggled with this block in the center portion (it is one of the blocks where you start at the outside and then worked your way to the center, working in the round the entire time). I discovered quite a flaw in the lace portion in the center... could not believe I did not notice it until I was stretching it on the blocking mat! ARRRGGGGH! Will post a photo of that tomorrow hopefully... hoping I can do some repair on the lace portion with some needle and yarn. Gosh, I sure hope so... wish me luck!

Button Hole Cables is complete!

This pattern is from the Great North American Afghan pattern book. This pattern was so fun I could hardly put it down. There are button holes inside the cables... very unexpected! I like the eyelet, too

Tree of Life is complete!

I really love this square. It's blocked and I am a bit happier with the size (it seemed a tad small before blocking). I think it will fit in nicely in my Great American Afghan. I especially love the texture in this square. There are two different textures around the base of the tree and there are clouds in the sky.... the tree, the cables... I just love every element of this design!

Tree of Life block in progress

This pattern is from the Great American Aran Afghan (GAAA) book. I was finding fewer and fewer blocks in the Great American Afghan (GAA) which really excited me so I am making a few blocks from the GAAA to include in my afghan. When I showed this pattern to my son, I said I wanted to make it in green, brown, or lavender, and asked him which color he thought would be best. He's grown accustomed to some of my multi-color GAA blocks so he suggested making the background one color, the bobbles in a second color, and the cables in a third color. I explained that the the design did not actually lend itself to that, but I realized he might be onto something. He suggested the background in green and the bobbles in lavender. I was a little skeptical but I loved the notion he was excited to have some input. It occurred to me that this project is intended to be a family heirloom and I went on to tell my son that some day, this afghan will be his... so green background and lavender bobbles it is! I think the result is fantastic. I love how the bobbles are really noticeable. I showed my son and he said, "If the bobbles were green then they wouldn't stand out!" What a smart cookie he is... pretty dang smart for a 13-year-old. Definitely plan to consult with him on subsequent blocks.

First photo shows where I was at on this block Friday morning. Second photo shows where I am now... Saturday evening (Row 57 of 73 on the pattern chart). This is one of those blocks where I wonder how many hours I've spent on this block. It's getting easier as I go. I am exclusively following the chart on this block and it's going great. I am really catching on to the meaning of the symbols and this time around, I did not have to color code the multitude of cable stitches. Yipee... progress!

Quick Post

Busy weekend with lots of cooking and baking projects, but here is a quick post. I added a border to the Entrelac with a Twist block. Also, I finished up a Basketweave pattern which was given to our class by our GAA instructor. Still difficult to get a good photo of the blocks completed in dark colors! Twenty blocks complete; five to go!

Under the Sea is complete!

Wow, I sure am glad to be done with this block! I had to go back to December 5th to see when I last posted about this block. Nothing about this block was particularly difficult but it was a ton of work. My goal for the week has been to finish up what I've started before starting any new projects and this was one of my goals. The rest of my completed blocks also need some finishing... namely a bunch of yarn ends to weave in. That sounds kind of boring. So far I have completed 18 blocks for my Great American Afghan (there are 25 blocks in the pattern book). There are some blocks I've decided NOT to complete and one of the blocks I have completed is from the book entitled The Great North American Afghan. I have a few more from the GAA book I'd like to try. I'll keep you posted!

Three Trees block is REALLY complete!

I posted a photo of this block a long time ago but the trees were not stitched down. I gained a little confidence in my sewing skills the other day working on my Squiggles Block, so I bit the bullet and stitched down these trees. I am pleased with how the block looks and am pleased I did not screw up my nicely knit block and trees with my crumby sewing! The trees have a puffy quality which I really like!

Entrelac with a Twist is complete!

I am not so sure what to make of this block. It turned out much smaller than the others in the GAA and it's a little "wonky" in a crooked/not good way. I am considering adding a border in the green color to make the size more similar to the other blocks. This block looks rather messy on the backside from all the color changes. Also, my technique for picking up and knitting stitches (which is essential in entrelac) needs some refining. I end up with lots of unattractive ridges on the backside. Much to learn. This entrelac pattern is nice since it includes cables in the green blocks. I'll add a photo of the block in progress so you can see how it came together. An interesting note on the construction of this block. After completing the bottom border, you leave three stitches on holders on both the right and left sides. When the entrelac portion is done, you go back to the the three stitches and stitch the sides in garter stitch. At my class the other day, our GAA instructor showed me how I could pick up a fourth stitch from the side and then after turning the work, I knit two together and then knit the two remaining single stitches. This way, I was knitting the border and attaching it at the same time. The instructions specify you should stitch the three stitch garter stitch borders and then sew them on. I was dreading the sewing so I was grateful to have gotten this "no sew" tip! In this next photo, you can see how entrelac looks while in progress. It's a slow, labor intensive process, but fun to learn and very cool to see how it comes together. Whoever dreamed up entrelac was a very bright, creative person!

Border for the Diagonal block

This block has concerned me as I am working away on my GAA. This block is stretchy (like garter stitch) but it's significantly smaller than the other blocks I've completed. We had our February GAA class yesterday and we discussed adding borders to blocks which turned out too small. Tonight I added a border. What do you think? I think it looks better and I think now it will be easier to sew this block into the afghan since it now has a garter stitch border as do most of

the blocks in the afghan. I still need to block this to square it up a bit, but you get the idea. I think the border is an improvement.