Apr 10 2018

Background…

I’ve been knitting up a storm of socks for various family members, but when I asked one of my daughters what type a sock she wanted, she said forget socks… how about an afghan!

I first heard about the “Learn-to-Knit” Afghan on the VeryPinkKnits Podcast. Casey mentioned it when she was listing her various WIPs. After tackling Suzanne Bryan’s sampler Scarf last winter, I started thinking that this might be a logical progression.

May 3, 2019

OK… so after looking at samples of various other sampler afghans we decided to just go monochrome. I also didn’t want to do any lacy squares because they won’t be as warm. So I’m going to be adding in other patterns, most notably from “Norah’s Vintage Afghan” (as demoed by Jana on YouTubes Purl Together), and the Cascade Kniteratti Gradient Lapghan, as well as anything else that catches my fancy.

A new LYS opened last fall, and they carry Cascade 220. I picked up a hank of the Aspen Heather and did a swatch using one of the patterns from the Cascade Gradient Lapgan Knitterati (#1) and she liked it. Hurray! I think we finally have a plan. Even went as far as ordering a bunch of yarn from the store.

May 15, 2019

When I was in the store to order the rest of the yarn, I noticed that the one sample (unblocked) was closer to 10 or 11 inches rather than the 12 inches that the pattern indicated… Yikes. I had done the sample on the recommended 4.5 mm needles, so I re-swatched on 5 mm and I think I’m on track. Restarted the square this week and I’ve done about 2 repeats of the pattern. Just called the yarn store and they still haven’t got the rest of the yarn in, so I’m repurposing the swatch yarn… don’t really like to do that… but desperate times.

1# May 21, 2019 Twists & Slips

Yey! Just finished & blocked & wove in ends for first block!

Based on Cascade Gradient Lapghan by Faina Goberstein. I made one small modification. I moved the slipped stitches in rows 13-24 over by one so have a more consistent transition between the 1-12 and 13-24 sections.

58 gm

#2 July 7, 2019 - Lattice with Seed Stitch ===================================
BGW’s LTKA - #4 - Lattice with Seed Stitch. Used size 5 needles. Adjusted for a 12” square by casting on 60 stitches and added 3 extra stitches on each side. 70 gm

July 13, 2019

I think I am a sucker for punishment. I compared the completed square of the Latice with Seed stitch that I did on 5mm needles to the swatch that I had done a while ago in burgundy on 4.5mm. The 4.5 looks firmer, and I though I might move to that. I did about 3” of a new square with the project yarn, but decided that the difference in the new yarn wasn’t enough to make me want to start over. Also, saves me about 20% fewer stitches to go with the bigger gauge.

#3 July 13, 2019 - Wavey waves

Started Square #1 from Norah’s Vintage Afghan. Trying to use the various methods that I found on YouTube to do the cables without a cable needle. Still made a bunch of mistakes and dropped a few stitches, so there was some tinking. Finished Aug 13.

#4 August 13, 2019 - Basketweave

After all the tinking on the previous square I’ve decided on gong back to something simpler: #3 Basketweave from the Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book.

It turns out I’m going to have to redo my first square, it was from a different dye lot, as I had only bought the one skein to test. Depending on the light, it is noticeably different. But I just might wait a until I have more done squares under my belt before I face that redux.

Finished Basketweave Aug 17

#1 Redux -August 21, 2019 - Twists & Slips

Redoing my first block, based on Cascade Gradient Lapghan by Faina Goberstein, because the dye lot was a little off. I just started the first few rows but I’m thinking of redoing the setup rows so use Suzanne Bryan’s technique to get rid of cable flare. It calls on a cast on of 66, so I will case on 58 and then increase 2 for each of the 4 cables. (And the reverse at the end.) I don’t think I’ll re-adjust between the sets of cables.

Finished knitting, including the adjustments for cable flare, on Sep 2, while out of town. Will block when we get back home.

Blocked Sep 11. Did notice that the cable flare is less pronounced, compared to the first version of this block. (Thank you Suzanne!)

#5 September 2, 2019 - Oscar & Natalia’s afghan.

While visiting my daughter I noticed a nice & easy stitch pattern on an Afghan in our AirBnb. Just knits & Purls. Started Sept 2 and knit about 6 inches. Decided to take a break and block what I’ve done when I get home. I want to make sure the width is OK, and also I need to be able to calculate how much more to do. In the unblocked state there are some waves in the vertical columns and I hope that is eliminated when I block it.

Finished, Sep 13. It blocked out fine.

#6 September 5, 2019 - Lacy Waves

In the mean time I’ll start my next square. Also from the Cascade Gradient Lapghan. I’m calling it Lacy Waves. By Galina Garroll. It went very quickly because I was able to binge knit on our drive home to Toronto from New York. Finished knitting Sept 9.

#7 September 14, 2019 - The Green Sweater

On August 23, the Home page of Ravelry featured a story about “Humans of Ravelry: Meet Lea, Knitdok!”. In it they describe a green sweater that was worn by a young girl when she was hiding from the Nazis. I was moved by the story, so decided to buy the pattern and use the stitch pattern as the basis for my next square. link text

Finished Sep 24. It’s a tiny bit big after blocking.

#8 Sept 15, 2019 - Moss stitch diamonds & cables

Blocking the Green sweater swatch, so starting my eighth square, once again based on the Cascade Gradient blanket. It calls for a smaller needle than the other ones, so I’m going down to a 4.5mm (size 7), which is still bigger than the 4mm in the pattern. Will swatch through one repeat and see how it goes.

Fine after swatching and finished Sep 27.

September 29, 2019

Taking a break for a few weeks while we travel. Will make some socks for friends en route, more portable.

#9 November 2, 2019 - Deco Chevrons

Back from travelling, and Sharon’s socks are done, so I’m back to making squares. Next on tap is Norah’s Vintage Afghan #6. Started off on 5mm needles, but after about 2 inches I realized that it was going to be too big, so I started a new one on 4.5mm and did about 2” of it. Am blocking now to verify that I’m right on that, before going too far.

Blocking was fine, so back on this one after finishing #10. I made one small change. I reversed the direction on the centre cross on one side so the two payers mirror each other. Finished blocking & weaving ends Nov 22.

#10 November 8, 2019 - Textures & Bobbles

While #9 is blocking, I’ll start Cascade Gradient Lapghan block #16. Yay, this one doesn’t have cables, just K & P, with a few rows of bobbles.

It was such an easy knit, that I did it in about 5 days. My only complaint is that the top row of bobbles kept popping to the back. The other two rows of bobbles didn’t do that. Maybe is was a function of the tension in the rows before or after? When I blocked it I stuck pins thru the affected bobbles to pull them up, and that seemed to work. Blocked & ends sewn on Nov 15.

#11 November 23, 2019 - Tiny Butterflies

Next square is Susan B. Anderson’s block #5 from the Cascade Gradient Knitterati Lapghan. It’s an easy knit for the most part except have to be really careful to get the “long stitches” made in the correct hole. After doing a few repeats it looks small, so I blocked it and it’s only about 11” wide.

I put this one aside until deciding on which squares I will ultimately do. Restarted March 28, 2020 with 8 more stitches for a total of 68, 8 repeats with 2 extra edge stitches on each side.

Finished April 19, 2020.

November 24, 2019 - Changes in project scope!

Erin was in town and we reviewed the set of squares that were done, and talked about overall size. We originally were going to do 5’ by 6’ --> 30 squares! We compared that to some blankets I had around the house, and decided that that may be too big, so we’re going to scale back to 4’ by 5’ --> 20 squares. I’ll add a little extra size by doing a few rows of crochet around each block, and join with an i-cord. Also i-cord edging. In order to accommodate some of our favourite choices of squares, we will actually be dropping 2 that I’ve already done… the Lacy Waves & Slip Stitch w Cables. (Ughhh, I’ve done 2 1/2 of that one, first the wrong gauge and then the wrong dye lot. I guess it was never meant to be. ) She sent me a mock up photo of all the squares she wants, either that I’ve already done, or cut & paste from the patterns.

November 25, 2019 - Big open Maw

Started Norah’s Vintage Afghan #3. A little tricky following all the various types of cables. Finally got smart and added in some life lines. Also took a bit of time off to work on a few other projects. Finished, blocked & ends woven Dec 12.

December 13, 2019 - Cables & Twists

Started Norah’s Vintage Afghan # 8 in Uber on way to airport to visit my daughter. Had lots of time to knit, especially with the 4 hr delay coming home. Came out a little small. 11.5 inches square instead of 12. Will decide later if adding a few crochet rows will fix it.

Not that it would have helped, but I noticed after it was too late that there were 3 stitches after the right column of twists, but only 2 on the left.

Blocked & ends woven Dec 22.

December 21, 2019 - Diamond lattice with moss stitch

Cast on Dec 21, another Norah’s Vintage Afghan. This time #14, which I call Diamonds with moss stitch. Not terribly difficult, or else I’m getting better at this. Finished Jan 1, and blocked and ends woven Jan 3.

January 1, 2020 - Snakes and Ladders

Decided to go back to doing squares from the Learn to Knit Afghan book, given that that was what this projects was originally going to be about. This time I’m doing #25, what she calls “Wave”, but I’ve been referring to is as “Snakes and Ladders”. Since I had done the basketweave & lattice squares on 5mm needles I cast on with that, doing 9 repeats, but it came out too big, and I don’t like the way the fabric looks. I think it’ll be better if the twists are a little tighter, so I’m switching to my 4.5mm needles. I’ll do a few inches and see how that measures.

Did a few inches and it’s still seems to be a tiny bit shy of the 12”, but I did a little test on part of it by doing single crochet around the edge and it looks OK, so that will be my go to technique for adjusting size. I’m thinking of doing 1 or more row around each square and then a crochet join between squares, or if I’m ambitions, an i-cord join.

Took a break to work on socks during a trip. Finished the square Jan 27, blocked and ends woven in Jan 29.

January 29, 2020 - Wickerwork

Square 27 from Barbara Walker’s Learn to Knit Afghan book. I don’t like that the pattern goes right to the edge, so I’m adding 2 garter stitches on each side, and doing 8 1/2 repeats of the pattern. This will give me 72 stitches on 4.5 mm needles. Hope that comes out the right size.

Finished Feb 12, and blocked and edges woven in Feb 15.

February 12, 2020 - Tiny twists, Big cables

One last square from Norah’s Vintage
Afghan -- number #19. This one has a large cable motif with the added “fun” of having twisted knits in the middle of each rope. Cast on Feb 12.

It was pretty tricky, with the the help of life lines every 6 rows or so in the harder parts I got through it fairly quickly. Finished knitting Feb 22. Blocked & ends woven in Feb 25.

February 24, 2020 - Linked

For the next few squares I’ll be adapting a number of patterns from Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. The first one is #91, Linked. Using her SSE (Stocking Stitch Equivalence) calculations I’m doing 5 full repeats of the 12-stitch repeat, plus the two extra 8-stitch sides. This works out to 76 actual stitches, with an SSE of 54. To all of this I added 3 purls and 2 garter stitches to the edges for a total of 86 stitches. I cast on 74, and added 2 stitches in each of the cable crosses on row 2.

Did what looked like about 11 inches and stopped on Mar 3 and blocked to see exactly how much is left to go. There is a little more cable flare at the start…I guess I should have cast on even fewer stitches, but I think I can live with it.

Added a few more rows after the first blocking, re-blocked and ends woven & done March 7.

March 3, 2020 - Chicken Wire

Starting Barbara Walters #28 - Twined Rib, but it reminds me of chicken wire. Cast on 72, but forgot to compensate for the cables.

Finished Mar 26.

March 7, 2020 - Swing Diamonds

Another one from Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. #90 Swing Diamonds. Trying to re-create the side edging that she uses throughout the book. I think it’s slip stitch on the edge, one garter column, one stockinette column, and one more garter column. Doing 2 repeats of the pattern plus 3 reverse stockinet stitches. So my SSE is 65, actual stitches is 83. I cast on 71 and did 2 increases at each of the first cable crossings, and one more increase in each field of 6 reverse fields. Did the corresponding decreases at the end.

Finished Mar 20 2020.

March 21, 2020 - Ogee X

From Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. #123 Ogee X. Doing 1 1/2 repeats of pattern. Had to do some cutting & pasting of a copy of the chart to make it work. SSE with 4 stitch edge border & 6 st reverse stockinette on each side is 63. Actual stitches is 86. Will Cast on 70 and do 16 increases in the reverse columns of the rib.

Finished April 4, 2020

Apr 4 2020 - Rib Braid Combo

This is also from Norah Gaughan’s knitted sourcebook, #86. The sample in the book was too narrow, so I’m adding in an extra cable (12 stitches) on each side, 8 stitches of reverse stockinette, and a 4 stitch border. Total 90 stitches in the body. Cast on 78 and added 12 in the first rows.

Decreased back to 78 in the last set of cables. Finished Apr 18.

April 19 2020 - Crochet Border

Now that 20 squares are done, the next step is to figure out what to use for the border between squares. I’m thinking a single crochet for a few rounds, done in the back loop of the stitch so that the front loop shows as a line. Need to do some swatching. But… in the mean time I have a few sets of the Daphne & Delilah monsters to make for some baby gifts, so I may take a break from the afghan for a while.

Jun 5, 2020

After much swatching of various borders, knit and crochet, I settled on a simple stockinette border of about 3/4” around each piece and then a 3 needle bind off with the chain on the outside. (Roxanne Richardson has a good video on this.) Finally, the plan is to do an attached i-cord in a darker grey around the outside.

I will first add the 6 rows of knitting and put the live stitches on scrap yarn to use for the 3-needle bind off.

So, even though I had blocked and measured all the pieces as I went, some of them must have relaxed and shrunk. Some pieces are just off by 1/4”, but a few are off by 1/2” or even 3/4”. Will have to make additional compensation for them, and in at least one case (cables & twists) I’ll frog back the ending and add a few rows of knitting.

Jun 8, 2020

Edging around first square (Linked) complete. This was one that was a full 12” x 12” so there was not extra compensation. The hardest part is picking up the correct number of stitches along each edge. I’ll be knitting on 4.5 mm needles and it works out to 5 sts/inch“. (I know, I’m mixing metric & standard measurements. )

June 17, 2020 more notes on borders

So, after reviewing the first real sample, my daughter & I agrees that the border section needs at least one row of purls to separate it from the square itself. Then for squares that need extra work I will put in an extra row of garter stitch. (So of course I have to redo the first one.)

Details for my own reference: The full size squares will have 60 stitches along each side, plus one extra stitch in the corner. When I pick up the original stitches, I’ll pick up 3 in the corner (KBFB). When I knit the garter stitch rows on the purl side, knit the corner stitches. Do the increases on the knit rows of garter, or every other row of stockinette using M1R, K the corner stitch, M1L. If the square is smaller, start with 58 or maybe even 56 stitches. When I get to 68 stitches / side, knit the last row after the increases, putting the stitches on scrap yarn.

July 18, 2020

On some of the squares I did the extra border rows in just stockinette rather than garter. Just seemed to look better that way.

A couple of the squares that were from Norah’s Vintage afghan needed extra length. For those I ripped out the 9 rows of garter border that were part of the edge embellishment, added a few rows of pattern and then added back the 9 rows. (Deco Chevrons and Cables & Twists).

July 31, 2020

Finished the borders on all the squares. Hooray. It was harder than I thought because not only were many of the squares less than the 12” that I’d hoped for, some of them were not square.

August 29, 2020

Decided to use a modified 3 needle bind off as demonstrated in Roxanne Richardson’s video Three-Needle Bind Off Finessing. It creates a nice chain down the join line. I used a 6mm needle (compared to 4.5mm for most of the rest of the project) but I still had to be careful not to pull it too tight.

With some time off for a cycling and canoeing adventure I finished the joins on Aug 29.

September 4, 2020

I used a 3 stitch i-cord for the border. Basically I binged this over the last 3 days. Final blocking, and then off to visit my daughter next week!