Red Purl Afghan: December Block

Surprise! Today was the day we got together to start December's block. A week early this month since next week we'll be putting it all together.

I couldn't stay long but got a good start on Laura's lovely Slanting Rib Stitch pattern:
When I brought it out to work on at home, however, I couldn't leave it alone. Like last month's Alternating Broken Cable block, I didn't like how everything leaned to the right. I guess it doesn't look balanced to me. I don't know, but in any case, I did the same thing as I did in November: I changed the block so that the crossovers alternate between left and right instead of all leaning to the right.

I got about half of the block done since my knitting time was severely curtailed today:
I'm not sure this design is any better, but it satisfies me more for some reason. And it is my afghan so that's all the excuse-making I'm going to do!

Others making this afghan should note that the cable technique used in this block is very similar to the cable in August's crossover cable block.

The middle of this month's cable contains two purl stitches instead of three knit stitches, but the idea is the same: cross the outside two stitches while leaving the middle stitches in the middle. The big difference in the design is that August's block has the cables lined up vertically whereas this month's block does not. (It's amazing in knitting how small changes even in how you line up a design can make such huge differences in the final appearance.)

I like when very different blocks can play off of each other because they have similar designs or techniques.

And speaking of which, I redid a previous square that I wasn't very happy with. I found this Little Butterfly pattern on the web:
and got the square knit and edged last week. I think the design of long strands carried across the front plays off of my Snakes and Ladders design from July which has shorter strands.

This week I will need to finish my square, get it edged, and then get everything blocked so I can sew it together at the store next week.

Exciting times!