I'm Ready for Autumn!

The Great Canadian British American Aran Afghan (with a few squares from other sources) is finished!  Hurrah!

As Fleegle commented Aran blankets tend to be quite heavy  - and this is no exception - it is definitely one for cold nights.  21 skeins of Rowan Pure Wool Aran add up to a substantial afgahn! It's about 4.5 ft x 5.5 ft, perfect for wrapping up on the sofa.

After finishing up the 'squares' (as I commented previously they weren't square and they weren't the same size!) - I wet blocked them  - and hurrah - like magic suddenly I had 20 12 x 12 inch perfect-ish squares.

I used crochet to seam the blocks together into strips.  I then joined the strips together.

The original pattern has a cable border but I wanted to include the accent colours in mine so I opted for a simple garter stitch. 

The first obstacle with the border was finding a circular needle long enough to fit around the blanket.  A 120cm KnitPro needle was just a that bit too short - making the knitting a bit uncomfortable.  My second concern was running out of cream yarn.

Easily solved, I thought, that's what shops are for. 

I was wrong.

What should  have been a simple 1 to 1.5 hour shopping trip became a 6 hour epic journey as Transport for London, my local-ish yarn shop, and John Lewis conspired against me.  It ended well though with a visit to Loop in Islington where I got what I needed (and a bit more!)  I hadn't been to their new location and it's lovely. 

The endurance test passed I knit the garter stitch border, 4 rows of cream, 2 rows each of the colours and 10 rows of cream to finish.

I love the afghan and I loved making the afghan.  It is a really great project and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get into some cable work.  Beginners shouldn't be frightened away - there are some simpler blocks to give you some confidence and if you take each block one stitch at a time you will be fine.

16 of the squares are from the Great American Aran Afghan booklet - and four I sourced from other places.  I've compiled a list of the squares I used in the post below.

(Apologies for the picture above -- I tried to 'blur' out the messy bedside cabinets in Photoshop.  It would have been faster, easier and made a better picture if I'd just moved the books and odds and ends!)

The Squares I Used in the Great Canadian British American Afghan

The blanket was made up of the 20 squares below.  I've listed them in the order I used them in the blanket (ie the first 4 make up the first row left to right).

Great American Aran Afghan - Suzanne Atkinson

I omitted the sun -- because I forgot to put it in and decided not to go back and redo it!

Great American Aran Afgan - Ginette Belanger (some Canadian content!)

This motif in this square came from The Knitter magazine's first issue.  It's the centre of a pillow pattern.

Great American Aran Afghan - Jay Campbell - the only male designer in the book I think.

Another motif from The Knitter magazine's first issue pillow patterns. 

Great American Aran Afgan - Hanna Burns

Great American Aran Afghan - Dagmara Berztiss - a square from a German designer

Great American Aran Afghan - Barbara McIntire

Great American Aran Afghan - Janet Martin - I really like this fish square!

Great American Aran Afghan - Ann McCauley - I was pleased to see Ann's square in here.  She's a great designer I came across a couple of years ago - her books have timeless, classic patterns.

Great American Aran Afghan - Barbara Selesnick

I found this pattern on Ravelry - designed by Dorota Maria Kowalczyk as part of  her 'Snowflake Collection'.  I love the intricate cabling.

Great American Aran Afghan - Marian Tabler

Great American Aran Afghan - Susan Rainey - probably my favourite square!  What's an aran afghan without an aran sweater?

Great American Aran Afghan - Ada Fenick - I made a small change to the cables along the side continuing the cables instead of breaking them at the centre.

Great American Aran Afghan - Carol Adams (more Canadian content!) - I love that this square is reversible - it's the only one in the book that is.  Very cleverly designed.

Another square designed by Dorota Maria Kowalczyk as part of 'Snowflake Collection'.

Great American Aran Afghan -Georgia Vincent - a really pretty square and fun to knit.

Great American Aran Afghan - Dana Hart

Great American Aran Afghan - Julie H Levy - and the first square I made for the blanket!

You Make 16 Squares and Waddya Get?

Another (few) days older and closer to done.....( about 80% of the Great Canadian British American Afghan complete to be exact-ish).  (Hmmm....that doesn't quite fit the tune.)

I think I've mentioned before that one of the benefits of blogging is seeing evidence of progress on your projects during those dark middle days where the sunny excitement of a 'new project' is long gone, and the light at the end of the tunnel hasn't yet appeared.

That's certainly the case here.  When I sat down to blog today I was feeling that I hadn't really accomplished much in the last week - but when I compared the photos to last weeks -- well it seems I'm zooming along!

As a few people have commented - this pattern has become a firm favourite in the knitting world.  And I can see why.

First and foremost - the finished afghans that I've seen have all been pretty special.  It's one of those projects that you really can see being used for years and years.

Second - the sampler nature of the afghan means you get to try lots of different stitch combinations and techniques. There are cables and seed stitch and moss stitch and popcorn and bobbles and twisted stitches and seed stitch and..... I've doen lots of cable and texture work over the years - but I've definitely picked up a few tips and tricks already. 

Finally, just as a pattern starts to get a little dull - it's time to cast off and start a new very different block!  Most are knit pretty much as you'd expect (ie cast on 60 ish stitches, knit 70ish rows in pattern) - but some are knit in the round (outside edge in) some are knit in strips and others are knit with a centre square and then have an outer border knit separately.  (And one very special square has its own little sweater to wear -- but I'm saving that for the end!!) 

I usually (sort of)(most of the time) get round to it...

I think I've mentioned before how odd it is that some patterns you find and you immediately cast on, and others take a while to bubble up to the top of the knitting stack.  Maia, a few weeks ago was an example of one of the 'see, pick yarn, cast on NOW' variety -- my current project is clearly an example of the other!

It's the Great American Afghan (or in my case the Great Canadian British American Afghan).  I first saw the afghan over on the Rainey Sisters' blog -- in fact it was the very first time I stumbled on the blog that remains one of my favourites.  I thought the afghan was gorgeous and decided to make one.

A mere 3 years later and I've finally started! 

The afghan is made up of squares designed by readers of Knitters magazine as part of a contest a few years ago.  Theoretically each square is 12 inch square - but as you can see from this picture a bit of blocking and coaxing will be required to get these blocks to the same size!  Some research on Ravelry confirms that this is a common issue with the pattern so I've decided not to fret about it.

I'm using Rowan Pure Wool Aran (it's superwash) in 4 colours.  Cream will be the dominant colour making up a little over half the squares and the border  - while three shades of green will make up the rest.

I still waver with every square on whether I should have gone for a single colour or not - but for now I'm perservering with the different colours.

It's an enjoyable project - there is something very satisfying about knitting cables.   Blocks that can be picked up for a few minutes when I have the time are also perfect for me at the moment as knitting time is scarce.  (Work is currently very busy and will be for at least the next few weeks.)

So anyone out there who feels like they've been waiting forever for something to get knit by me - this project says there is hope!  (yes Caked Crusader that includes you and the very long overdue Lemur puppet sweater)