Hue Shift Afghan

There haven't been a lot of blog posts this past year but it's not because I haven't been crafting. My daughter Sarah got married in July and both she and I crafted away for the event! The coming series of posts are about my handmade things for this milestone.

It's a tradition for me to make afghans for big life events like going off to college, first apartment and getting married. When I saw the Hue Shift Afghan pattern I knew that it was the perfect one to celebrate a wedding.

The Hue Shift Afghan pattern is addictive knitting . Each mitered square took about an hour to knit and every time I finished one square I had to start the next one --"just to get it going". It was often hard to stop. Even though it's a big and time intensive project, it doesn't feel that way while knitting it (until after the first 100 hours, that is).

There are major pros and cons to consider before starting this project. Consider them VERY carefully before starting , this is a reminder for me as well as a warning for you! Most of the time this pattern has to be purchased but Knit Picks occasionally offers it for free.

Pros:

• Stunning and gorgeous looking afghan.
• The yarn used in the pattern, Knit Picks Brava sport weight, is very economical. If the yarn is bought on sale the total cost for the afghan can be as low as $25.00.
• The afghan is worked in four panels of 25 mitered squares which break the knitting into manageable sections. There is a sense of accomplishment when each square and block are finished.
• Easy pattern. How a mitered square is made can be quickly understood and memorized. Also, how the color shifts occur isn't difficult to grasp.
• Minimal amount of seaming. The mitered squares are started by either casting on stitches or picking up stitches from other squares so the only seaming is stitching the four panels together.
• There are negligible amounts of yarn left over. Each color uses all but a few yards of the entire skein of yarn.

Cons:

• It will take a LOT of total time to knit.
• Gauge is important with this project. The amount of yarn left over for each color is only a few yards and if there is ANY variation in your gauge or if the amount of yarn in the skein is short by the slightest amount you will not have enough to finish. I ran short by about 10 yards on only one color but that particular color was backordered for months. Luckily, a kind knitter on Ravelry answered a plea for help and I was able to forge ahead.
• The techniques needed to make this afghan are not difficult but they are fiddly (getting corners just right, picking up stitches, seaming, stretchy bind-off.)
• Yarn is only available online from Knitpicks.
• While Brava is an inexpensive yarn, it has a few problems: The plies split easily and the yarn starts to shred if pulled apart and reworked. Some colors felt thinner than others but interestingly that did not translate to a change in gauge (go figure!)
• Because it's an acrylic yarn the afghan is washable but the ends don't want to stay tucked in after being woven in.

My Knitting Notes:

• I worked the sections in this order: #1, #2, #4, #3
• Swapped the colors C (wine) & D (fairy tale) because I have a preference for the light to dark shift over the red to purple.
• I started by using a marker for the center stitch but after a few mistakes I also double checked the stitch count before and after the three stitches of the center decrease. After a while, I stopped using the marker and just counted.
• Used the backwards loop cast-on and considered it the first row. This gave a clean edge when picking up the border stitches.
• Picked up and then knit stitches from the right side.
• When knitting the first two rows of each square, I worked the three stitches at the corner tightly . This helped keep the center of all the connected corners flat.
• Watch for a smooth connection between squares when picking up stitches, especially at the beginning of rows when casting on. It makes a difference when picking up stitches to knit the border.
• "If square 2 begins with the same color, consider this last remaining stitch the first picked-up stitch of the next square." This instruction from the pattern initially confused me because it only occurs at the first square of section 3. That's a pretty specific general instruction for something that happens just once in the pattern! However, each row has one color that runs its entire length and I carried that color.
• I knit the panels with size 5, the border with size 6 and bound off loosely with size 7 needles.
• After I knit the border I took needle and thread and with a few stitches straightened some crooked corner connections.

 Ravelry Project Page - Hue Shift Afghan

A Wedding Present Afghan

My niece got married this summer and a wedding is an afghan giving event! As soon as I heard the news I scoured through all of my saved blanket patterns and found one that I've been wanting to make for a long time --Floral Cables by Diane Poellot from the book Top Technique & Special Stitch Afghans.

The pattern was written for worsted weight yarn but when I was shopping for the yarn the two that spoke to me were Lion Brand Heartland (an aran weight yarn) and Lion Brand Tweed Stripes (a bulky weight yarn). Could I make these two completely different yarns work for this pattern? The only way to tell was to buy the yarn and give it a try!

After working a few samples I felt confident that they were going to be compatible but the pattern would need a few adjustments. In some areas it took a couple of tries to make things right (and a fair amount of ripping back) but ultimately I was able to tweak the pattern and make the two weights of yarn work.

The result is spectacular and I may very well be making this afghan again for me! I love how using the heavier weight yarn not only provides the contrasting color but also "pops" the details of the cables and flowers.

Here are the most important changes I made:

1. The pattern called for an I hook but after experimentation I settled on a K hook for both weights. The K hook is the recommended size for the Tweed Stripe yarn but I did make an effort to crochet tightly when working with it. The Heartland yarn is listed on Ravelry as an Aran weight yarn but it feels like a lightweight worsted (I found it similar to Caron Simply Soft) however, it worked well with the Tweed Stripes using the K hook.

2. I struggled with the given instructions for the star stitch so I switched to this DROPS version (including using a half double crochet (hdc) instead of a single crochet). It took a few attempts to make sure that the "stars" aligned because if a hdc was forgotten or the star stitch was incorrectly executed they didn't line up in the next row.

3. There were a couple of places where I added additional rows to balance the yarn weight differences:

I repeated row 4 of the center panel two more times.

I added a row of single crochets between rows 6 and 7 of the cable panel to balance the edges.

4. The pattern for the cables needed to be rewritten to accommodate the bulky weight of the Tweed Stripes and got changed to:

Ch 2, skip next 2 sts, sc in next st. TURN, work 3 sc in ch-2 space just made, TURN, holding cable to the front, sc in each of 2 skipped sc on last row.

Ravelry Project Page - Floral Cables Afghan
5. I worked three rows of single crochet for the border but turned each row (rather than the usual way of working in a round) to achieve the same look as the background behind the flowers.