A dear and long-time friend is getting married in February. My customary wedding gift is a hand-knit afghan, and for this good friend, I wanted to “kick it up a notch” and knit a very special afghan.
I chose The Great American Aran Afghan, which is part of the Great American Afghan series by XRX Publishing. There are several in this series, and it seems to be a contest along a theme, and the winning entries are included in the published book.
Yarn is as recommended in the book: Encore (75% acrylic – 25% wool) from Plymouth Yarn Company. The model is knit in natural or white, but I chose Oatmeal as a more neutral color.
The afghan is a series of “sampler-like” squares which are knit together and then a border knit around the perimeter.
The squares are extremely challenging! I’m glad it’s knit a square at a time; I don’t think I would be able to cope if I had to knit something as challenging as this with a large “afghan-in-progress” on my lap.
Below is my first completed square – I think it’s likely the easiest in the book. My friend’s wedding is in February. For a 24-square afghan, that’s about 4 squares a month, with a month left for assembling and binding. Wish me luck!
I used a similar afghan block pattern book to learn new stitches. I put all the blocks together and made an afghan I have till this day.