It's done and it's a good one. Here are the stats:
20 skeins of Caron's Simply Soft - Rasberry - on size 6 needle. Finished size is 54"x71"
I used the pattern called Summer Garden Coverlet out of the Quick Knitted Afghans. The pattern calls for 3 leaf panels and 2 'fence post' sections. I added one of each for a total of 289 stiches.
And here are the pix (large versions of each are a click away!).
Today we've got a closeup. Plus this photo is closer to the actual color (at least on my monitor!). And you get a feel for what the wrong side looks like (right side of photo). It has one of the nicer wrong sides I've seen a while!
It's warming up here again thus making afghan knitting a little uncomfortable. But, I think it's only going to last a day or two and I'm so close to the end.
This is the 32nd photo of this afghan. I'm sure all of you must be bored since it has looked the same for oh about the last 15 days, but it is a fun one to work on.
More inches added and more skeins gone. See why I think a weekly update rather than daily might be a bit more interesting?
I had plan to bind this off when I reached 18 skeins but I think I'm going to do at least 19 and maybe 20. It's currently 57" wide and I don't think 65" is going to be too long and I do have the extra two skeins...
Jake and Betty are giving the not-yet-finished afghan a ride. So far, they think it's a keeper.
I'm probably going to finish up this one this weekend. And, if the weather stays like it has been the past few days (lovely and cool), I'll probably start right in on the next one until it gets too hot to work on.
I'm also probably going to document the next project just once a week. I like posting every day but there just isn't that much to see day to day. So I'm going to try weekly instead.
Today's progress...
Nothing much to see, but there is progress, I promise.
The audience has spoken - hordes of you - well, 3 and one was my mother - raved about the draped photo so here's another. It's generally safe to go with your mother's wishes... so she tells me.
Today's shot is kind of cheating... it looks like it's a shot of the finished blanket... It's not but I'm tired fo the flat-on-the-floor-boring shot.
We're now at 56" long. It's really turning into a nice looking piece.
This is the really boring part as far as the journal is concerned. I have about 4 and a half more skeins to go - approximately 14" - hard to photograph interestingly, but, that's the way with a daily journal...
In looking back through this blog and my notes before I started the journal, I am amused to see that each of these afghans takes almost exactly 30 days to complete and after about day 20, I start seriously thinking about the next one. Last night (day 21) I figured out which pattern I would use with which yarn for the next one. Talk about predictable!
Often when I work an afghan from a pattern I've never used before, I think about ways I would do it differently next time. The problem is, when next time rolls around, I have totally forgotten. So last night, I figured out exactly how I would do this very pattern differently, complete with stitch count and pattern notes and wrote it down and attached the notes to the pattern! What a concept!
We have a total now of 42". Betty the cat approves.
How about a closeup today?
It's finally cooled down a little so knitting tonight will be a lot more comfortable!
Sorry about the lack of email (if you are seeing this, maybe it's fixed). It's too hot to knit so maybe it's too hot to email!
It's now measuring 35". The other day I was bragging about not having any errors in this one. Wrong. But, hey, that's how you know it's hand made, right?
We're having some very very hot weather in Seattle and this is slowing down the progress on this afghan.I thought about just setting it aside and taking up socks or something that isn't so heavy to work on but t's supposed to cool off next week so I'm plugging along.
How about a close up? This isn't the perfect shot but at least you can maybe get an idea of what the pattern really looks like.
So far, I've used up 8 skeins.
27 inches and I'm thinking it's about 1/3rd done. It's a nice pattern. I think the next time I do it, I will make the lattace section more narrow and add a couple more of the leaf panels. Maybe.
I think the skein works better at establishing perspective... 25 inches
This is sure not one of the greatest photos - sorry. We're right at 23 inches.
We're right at 18 inches.
It's Betty's turn. Generally, when I make an error, I leave it. But I recently saw an afghan I did last year and it had way too many mistakes in it. So this time, when I mess up, I rip out. I'm not after perfection but I would like to be able to hold my head up high.
The way this pattern works, I think I'm just going to keep on going until I run out of this raspberry yarn - unless it just gets too long. It's a pattern I can knit for a while without getting bored, I think.
Jake just had to be part of the action for today's shot.
Current length is 13 inches. It's looking nice. This turns out to be a nice 'into Summer' pattern.
I'm using one skein for every 3.5 inches which means that, once again, I've bought more yarn than I need. But, it's better than not having enough and this yarn is very inexpensive.
Here are the first 8 inches. It's going to be about 58" wide.
This is an interesting pattern. The bit that is the pineapples and looks the most difficult is actually the easiest. The bit that looks like garter stitch with holes is the hard part to keep up with.
Ahhh the start of a new project. Fun! This will likely be my last afghan until Labor Day. They just don't make good Summer projects. Fortunately, here in Seattle, we have until about the end of June before it gets too hot. This pattern is not the most challenging but should look really nice. I've cast on 279 stitches. It's basically two different strips. The instructions tell you to knit them individually. No way. I do not do sew ups. Here's the start!
