Red Purl Afghan Finished

When we left the Red Purl KAL afghan, it had been assembled, but not edged.

I was thinking about a fringed edge and gave it a try but didn't like how it turned out. I also had doubts about whether this blanket really needed more. Perhaps it was time to tell myself, "Enough already."

So I changed the plan to a simple crocheted slip stitch edging. I considered, and even tried out a "crab stitch" edging that I had read about. It's simply a slip stitch done backwards (hence, crab)--i.e. working to the right instead of to the left.

I found it a lot more awkward to do and saw no difference in the final result. Never one to do more work for the same outcome, I stuck with the regular slip stitch.

A slip stitch edging adds almost no width to the afghan, but provides a very nice finishing line to unify the perimeter. The most dramatic difference is at the intersections of the blocks.

Here are two sample intersections where the top picture is before edging and the bottom is after the edging is applied.

You can see how the edging just nicely fills any gaps and smooths out the outside line.

Now were you wondering about the fringed edging that I didn't think worked?

I read about it in some book (I would guess one of Nicky Epstein's, but I have no idea anymore) but had never tried it. Very simple to do, it could be a nice way to add a little pizazz to some lucky object.

I worked a sample separately, but you could also knit this along an edge attaching it as you go. If you don't attach as you go, obviously you will have to sew the edging on when it's done.

Knit to the length you need:

I chose to knit it seven stitches wide, but it could be worked over however many stitches you want. It just depends on how wide you want to make it.

Then I cast off four stitches. (Again you could experiment with how many you want to do.)
Then drop the three remaining stitches, and ravel them all the way down to the beginning.

The raveled stitches form a nice fringed loop:
Doesn't that look great? And much easier than tying a bunch of loops onto an edge. Recently I saw the same technique described in another book and they suggested using two strands--then the fringe would be twice a thick. (And would go a lot faster too!)

Although I chose not to use it for this piece, I will definitely keep it in mind next time I want a fringe.

Project Stats
Started: 11 Jan 09
Finished: 2 Jan 10
Pattern: monthly stitch patterns from the owner and patrons of the Red Purl
Materials: Malabrigo worsted
Red Mahogany, Blue Surf, Lettuce, Simply Taupe, Hollyhock, Glazed Carrot, Cadmium, approx. $80-$90

So this is the end of my writing about this afghan. I enjoyed the process very much. Although I can't imagine ever paying $100 for an afghan (even one I like this much) from a store or a craft sale, it was totally worth the price because of the experience.

I loved getting together with everyone at the Purl each month. I loved seeing everyone else's afghans with their individual choices of yarn and colours. And the "mystery" aspect was fun too--not knowing what you were going to do each month and really not knowing what the final result would be.

I will miss going this year's KAL meetings (the first one's tomorrow), but passing up this year's project will make room for other things.

Onward!

Red Purl Afghan: More Blocking and Assembly

Let's see...when we last left the afghan, half of it had been blocked and I was soon off to Red Purl to sew the thing together.

I blocked the second half of the squares on Saturday. (Nothing like waiting til the last minute.) To speed up the drying time, I set the blocking board in front of the heating stove in our kitchen. Troy was patient enough to walk around it all day.

But it was worth it (to me) because they were dry...and flat...and straight by Sunday. (Have I said it yet? Blocking's amazing!)

Off I went to Red Purl to join the other KAL-ers. Only the group was pretty thin. I think only one other person was actually seaming things together and even she only two of the three strips done. A couple others were knitting on blocks. And a lot of people were missing...holiday parties and other year end busy-ness I will assume.

We had a fun time, however. I had printed out an 8x10 picture of the layout I liked and followed it to make sure all the blocks ended up in the right place, enduring much ridicule as a much-too-organized person!

But following my pattern, I sewed blocks in pairs along the shorter seams and got all the short seams done that afternoon. Then my time was up and I carefully packed it up to take it home. Carefully because I wanted to make sure not to stretch out the threads which bridged the gap like so:
I didn't want to cut the working thread between blocks so I "chain-stitched" [quilting term] from one pair of blocks to the next.

This was especially effective as I was trying out a crochet seam instead of sewing it with a needle. One big advantage is that I can just work from the ball and don't have to cut lengths of wool--ta da! No ends to work in! Genius!! (I can say that because it's not like I thought this up on my own.)

When at home I finally got to joining the long seams. When I got to the intersections, I just seamed right over the previous stitching. It worked like a charm:

Here's a picture of how the crocheted seam looks:

(The crochet stitching is between the yellow lines.)

It looks like a set of chain stitches zig zagging up the seam. Which, I guess, is was it essentially is. I think the stitches would have been a little smaller and less noticeable if I had used a smaller crochet hook. But I started with that one (5.5mm--same as the knitting needles) and was not about to switch half way through.

And the back?
Well, I think the back is even less obvious than the front. Sometime I'll do this seam from the wrong side and I think it will be virtually invisible. It's also a very flat seam so it does not add a lot of bulk or change the size of the original article. All good things.

But before you think this is the last word on seaming, I should warn you that this method has one thing going against it: it's very slow! Or maybe I just am a slow crocheter?

Eventually, though, I slogged my way through it and got everything put together:
And all in the right position--thanks to my pattern! By the way, I so enjoyed the result so far that I left it displayed on the couch for the last few days and wouldn't let Troy sit on it. He's so tolerant!

Ready for a few details? The crochet seam is very easy to do. The short version is that you crochet the two sides together by slip stitching back and forth from one side to the other.

Want more details? Insert crochet hook through one loop of selvage stitch of left side. Wrap yarn around hook.

Pull yarn through all loops.

Insert crochet hook through one loop of selvage stitch of right side. Wrap yarn around hook.

Pull yarn through all loops.
And repeat ad nauseum. But remember...no ends to work in. That part is great. Plus I think it looks pretty good. This method was also made easier because the way I put the border on all the blocks ensured that each edge had the same number of stitches.

Alright, so this is the end of the Red Purl 2009 Afghan Block of the Month Knit-Along. Mine is not quite finished since I plan to do an edging around the outside. (I know, I know--I just don't know when to quit!) But I think I'll keep that under wraps until it's all done.

One last look will have to hold you until then:
It's so soft, snugly, and warmer than you would believe. Mmmm...cozy too.

Red Purl Afghan: Blocking and Assembly

I finished December's block this week and got the border knit on this morning.

I've also been working on blocking the other squares:
Half of them are done; I was waiting on the rest until I knit December's block so they'll all be done soon. The blocking worked its usual wonders and all the wonkiness has been transformed to straight edges and smooth lines. It's nice to see a nice set of actual squares come out.

To make things easy and consistent, I cut out a 12" square of cardboard to use as a template. I just laid it on the wet square and pinned it so the coloured center just showed around the cardboard. (So the center of the blocks are 12", but the whole block is larger because of the border.) Only the centers needed to be stretched or smoothed out because of the various stitches; the borders were already even.

Anyway, it worked pretty slick and I didn't have to worry about measuring and squaring up each block.

This Sunday we'll be putting them all together. I've been playing around with layouts:
I haven't quite decided yet, but it will have to be soon!

If I have time, I'll get started early because I think it's more seaming than I can do in one afternoon at the Purl. Most people knit the afghan in three strips of four blocks, so they only have to sew two seams. I, of course, didn't.

Now that we're at the end, this has given me a lot more flexibility in how to put it together, but certainly has left me with more work!

Trade-offs...

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!

Red Purl Afghan: November Block

Yesterday was my afghan KAL day. I got it started early by knitting the border onto my October block. I felt like enough people had voted in the poll I put up earlier and more than 7 out of 10 voters said: Use the back! So I did.

I got the border knit in some time before and after church and especially while listening to the first half of the Colts game. (Yes, that was me sitting in the parking lot listening to the radio. It made me arrive late to Red Purl, but worth it! Besides, it was warm and sunny and a wonderful afternoon to sit out.)

When I showed up at Red Purl, it was time for the new block. Amy designed the Alternating Broken Cable block:
As Troy noted when I got home, it's sort of like a basketweave because of the alternating blocks of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch, but with the addition of cables.

I got a good portion done at the shop and more at home in the evening. This morning I was knitting some more, thinking I was almost done, when I decided I could be happier with the block. Happier, I thought, if I changed the pattern so that the cables alternated between left and right cables.
Hmm...what do you think? Actually, this is not a poll because the block is already pulled out and reknit
and I'm not going back a second time!

Whereas the cables in the original design form lines that lead up and to the right and sit "on top" of the fabric, my modified design forms lines that go right and left and appear to weave in and out of each other. I had in mind the weaving style that has diagonal pieces as well as the horizontal and vertical ones (right).

I think it works. And even if it doesn't exactly look woven, I think the alternating cables give the block more movement and "excitement" as they say.

Hopefully I will get the block finished up sometime today and the border knit this week. (I can't completely ignore NaKniSweMo and Troy's cable sweater--more on them later. There have been set backs.)

Until then, keep the needles clicking!

Red Purl Afghan: October Block

I enjoyed another afternoon spent knitting at Red Purl yesterday. It was a more subdued group than normal until we started talking about crazy exes and how many of us own guns. Then things got lively!

But I will stick to reporting about knitting here. Amy designed a diamond tuck stitch pattern for this month's block. Every so often in the pattern, you knit through a stitch several rows back, thereby creating a "tuck" that pulls three rows together. It's quite a bit like smocking but done vertically instead of horizontally. (Well, did that help? Does anyone know what smocking is any more?)

After my time at the Purl, I went home and knit most of the evening away too. I even managed to finish my block before the Colts had time to finish their [night] game.

Someone at the Purl mentioned that she really liked the back of this block, maybe as much as the front. I wasn't sure at first, but the further I got along, the more I thought I just may agree with her. Here's the back:
I can't quite decide.

But I really need to decide so that I can knit on the border. So here is your mission: you must give me your opinion and help me to make a decision.

Here's a close up of the "real" front side:
And here's a close up of the back-which-could-be-front side:
What do you think? Click your choice on the poll below and let me know:

Really. Take your mouse/touchpad, move the cursor over your choice and click! Point to "Vote" and click!

Thank you!

Finishing up September's Block

I was able to finish my September block on Monday night. And the border was finished yesterday over lunch.

In all, the knitting itself went very smoothly. I did run into a couple weak spots in the wool while knitting in the shop Sunday afternoon.

I only noticed the first spot after I had knit it and came back it on the next row. I decided to run an extra strand along those stitches...like a duplicate stitch done while the stitches were still on the needle. It should work to reinforce the area, but it did make that cable rather thick.

On the next row there was a spot so weak that the wool actually pulled apart. Very irksome. I just treated it like a join and knit with two ends for five stitches. Later I realized I should have performed a spit wet join, but I think I was too distracted by all the chatter to think of it. (That's what I used to join a new ball that evening.) Oh well. The little ends that are left will felt into the fabric with use.

Another month down; only three more to go!

Red Purl Afghan KAL: September

Another Red Purl meeting today. We had a nice group of us, about a dozen sitting and knitting plus various shoppers and others just stopping by. ("Wow, you're busy today"...)

Before I could even pick up this month's block pattern, one of my students from Thursday night is showing me her finished slipper to see if I thought it was right before she started the next slipper. It looked great.

I got the pattern and as I sat down, another student asked me about picking up stitches. We got her going and she knit for the afternoon making great progress.

Then a third student showed me how she was doing (also great) and knit for part of the afternoon as well. By the end of our time, she had decided she was going to run out of yarn (she's using doubled sock yarn instead of worsted) so we picked out a third colour and decided where to place it in the slipper. They're going to turn out cute.

So, back to the afghan: this month's pattern was designed by Wendy. She claimed to have picked the cables because she thought I didn't like them and wanted to trip me up. Poor Wendy...I love cables! (hee hee hee)

The design is a honeycomb pattern (with an extra knit stitch between pattern repeats). It's thickly textured and lovely. Reminiscent of August's block, but with deeper texture and on a background of stocking stitch instead of reverse stocking stitch. I think the blocks will play off of each other nicely in the afghan as a whole.

One disadvantage of the cables is that they take up a lot of stitches (and yarn). For this square, for example, we had to add 18 stitches to the width just to make it measure the same as the other blocks. That's a lot of extra stitches on each row to knit. I wasn't even half way done the block by the time I left!

And, of course, just executing the cables takes a lot of extra time too. You only have to do them every fourth row, but there are a lot of them across that row. Excuses, excuses, I know. I have a meeting tomorrow night that I should be able to knit through so perhaps I'll have it done then. I'd hate to give Wendy the satisfaction of having her block take me the longest!

-Clickety Clack

PS I wore my Deep V Vest to the meet up today and it got unanimous approval. I loved wearing it too (even if it was 80 degrees out)!

Red Purl KAL Afghan: August

I spent another lovely afternoon knitting with everyone at Red Purl. Amy designed this month's block with a series of "cross over" cables. It's a cable I've never done before. (!) The basic idea is to cross the outside two stitches while leaving the centre three stitches alone in the centre.

Only one in six rows has any cabling or anything complicated in it; the rest are just knit and purl in a 3x5 rib. (A very awkward pattern for me. I had to watch my knitting more than I'm used to.) But the main point is that five out of six rows are pretty easy and the square just buzzed right along.

Wendy somehow got her block started early and was over half done by the time I showed up this afternoon. She was giving me a hard time all afternoon for not catching up. She then taunted me about finishing this evening. Well, Wendy, I got mine finished too...and I didn't give myself a head start! (Btw, I hope you had a fun time with Elvis. I would have went along if it weren't soooo hot!)

For those of you who are not done your blocks, I have a slightly different method of doing the cross over that you may find a little easier. The method given in the pattern involves holding one stitch on a cable needle at some point, and I find this very very awkward. The stitch wants to fall off the needle (part of that is because I just use a dpn, not a true cable needle) and/or the needle doesn't behave and flips all over the place, getting in my way.

So, if you want, you could try the following steps. The results of both methods are identical.

1. Ready to start. We're going to do the cross over cable on the five upcoming stitches:

2. Slip the next four stitches onto a cable needle and hold to the back of your work:

3. Knit one stitch from the left needle:

Here you are with the one stitch knit and the cable needle still being held in back. (The stitch you just knit is stretched in front of the four stitches you slipped to the cable needle.)

Here's where we start differing from the pattern as written.

4. Insert the tip of the left needle into the right-most stitch on the cable needle, and slip it off of the cable needle (off the right side) onto the left needle:

You now have the knit stitch on the right needle, the stitch you just slipped on the left needle, and three stitches being held on the cable needle in the back:

5. Now knit the three stitches from the cable needle:

So now you have four stitches knit onto the right needle, and the stitch that had been slipped to the left needle:

6. Knit the stitch off of the left needle:

7. Purl three stitches and you're ready to go again:
I won't lie to you: this method is probably not a huge improvement. Either way you do it, all those needles and crossed stitches are going to feel at least a little awkward. This is when I'm very happy to work on long straight needles where I can prop the end of one needle against my hip to hold it steady. It's almost as good as a third hand.

One final detail: did you notice the string tied on my block in the first picture? I was knitting along when I noticed the yarn in the previous row was compromised. One of the two plies was cut and the yarn was very thin for one stitch. Maybe I should have tinked back right then, but I didn't. I did, however, mark the spot so I could think about whether I needed to fix it later.

It might be fine. It's only one little stitch. Or it might give out and produce a growing hole. Chances are the wool will felt together nicely and keep it from becoming an issue. Or not. For now I have decided to duplicate stitch that part of the row to reinforce it. That should be enough to keep it from becoming a bigger problem.

I noticed another weak spot like that a few rows later but was able to catch it in time and just fold the wool over itself and felt it together (like a wet splice). Too bad I didn't notice the first one in time.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been racing with Wendy...

The Edge

Part I: The Overview

I have been consumed and obsessed with knitting the edging on my afghan squares this week. It’s been a very addicting part of the process.

I picked the colour out last week and couldn’t wait to try it out. I also wanted to see if I could figure out just how much I would need. So I hopped right to it:

I got just about six blocks edged with one skein. You know what that means, right? Amy gets to sell me three skeins instead of two. Lucky her. (And I was so close!) I try not to think about the fact that Malabrigo just recently switched from a 116 yd skein to a 110 yd skein (at the same price). Those 6 yds probably would have made all the difference. But, like a pink elephant, I am trying not to think about it.

[Edited to add: The skeins actually changed from 216 to 210, and more importantly, I actually bought the "old" longer skein. So I can no longer regret missing 6 yards because I'm not missing them.]

Back to more positive thinking: doesn’t the edging look great!? I am loving how it works with the other colours and how it will provide a unifying outline to everything. Just what I was looking for.

Part II: The Details

A. Applying the border

The border is a basic garter stitch applied in a sort of log cabin style. In other words, I picked up and knit stitches along the bottom edge of a block with the right side facing me. I knit 5 rows and then bind off in the same direction that I had picked up the stitches. (I.e. with the right side facing me.)

Why so particular about which side is facing? Because then when I’m done binding off, I am at the opposite end of where I started and can then start the next edge without breaking my yarn. (It really is delightful.) And how do I do that?

Well, picture the last stitch on your needle after binding off the rest of the row:

Now turn your work 90 degrees and pick up stitches for the next edge.

Knit the border for that side and continue around the remaining edges. It was really slick the way it worked out. And addicting. I was always either just finishing or just starting another edge, and I get compulsive about finishing each little bit. So [almost] six blocks just flew off the needles this week.

B. Finding and fixing errors

Putting your work to close scrutiny will sometimes lead to unfortunate discoveries. Like the fact that I hadn’t decreased the extra stitches on my blue bramble block before doing the upper garter edge.

I picked up stitches for the border, counted them, and then realized I had 10 extra. I had to rip back the border on two sides, rip out the last four rows of the block itself, reknit them (remembering to decrease the stitches on the first row this time), bind off, and then set to the border again.

The second mistake was on my Simply Taupe mock cable block. I had known about it for a while, but had to go through all the stages.

Stage one: Ignorance. (I mean if I had known it was a mistake, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.)

Stage two: Doubt. (Suspecting something is wrong but not actually investigating. That way the mistake is not yet fact.)

Stage three: Denial. (Knowing it is wrong, but not being willing to admit it.)

Stage four: Acknowledgement. (Finally recognizing the problem for what it is.)

Stage five: Accountability and Action. (Seizing responsibility for the problem and taking action to correct it.)

All that is to say, I had known for a while that my cable block was too short when it was stretched out to the right width. But once I reach stage five, I am a freight train that will not be stopped. I believe I was in the parking lot after doing groceries when I finally took out the top border rows, added one more repeat of the pattern, reknit the top border and got on with it! The time had come to fix a problem, and nothing was going to stop me from tackling it right then.

Part III: The Very Minute Details

A. Picking up stitches

I tried a new way of picking up the stitches. I’m something of a purist (I know, this is shocking to some of you) and so I have always picked up stitches through both loops of the edge stitch:

(I’ve traced over the stitch being picked up to make it more obvious.)

I mean, if you’re going to pick up a stitch, pick up the whole stitch, right? After reading a recent post of the Yarn Harlot, I was theoretically convinced to pick up just the front half of the stitch, and had to try it out for myself.

It completely worked, lies flatter and smoother, and I am converted.

So with this new method, you pick up just the front loop—ignoring the back loop—and knit it through the front or back depending on how it presents itself.

You can also chose to pick up a series of loops:

instead of doing one at a time. Some knitters will even do a whole row, but I find this awkward. This also works better on yarns with a bit more give or stretch to them. Using a smaller diameter needle will also give you a little more ease if you need it.

Here’s a picture of both methods from a different [super top-secret] project:

On the left, the blue stitches are picked up through both loops of the yellow edge stitches. You can see a rather thick line of stitches making a column of yellow Vs. It’s bulky and doesn't lie very flat. On the right, the blue stitches are picked up through just one loop and the blue “bumps” lie in between the two halves of the yellow Vs. It’s much flatter and smoother.

B. How many stitches do I pick up?

Another tip I got from the Yarn Harlot: don’t worry about how many stitches you need to end up with, just pick up one stitch for every edge stitch* and then adjust the number on your next row. Very sound advice. It keeps the first row very neat and even and saves you a lot of ripping out if you haven’t perfectly figured out exactly what ratio of stitches to pick up.

In this particular case, I knew I needed 52 stitches on all sides of the block (not counting the stitches on the border). This was easy on the top and bottom because they had 52 stitches already. Along the sides, however, the number of rows in a block varied a lot depending on the block pattern.

But it was very simple to pick up the stitches along the edge, count them (they varied from 42 to 65!) and then increase or decrease so that I had 52 stitches. Easy peasy! And by doing this I ensured that every side of the block would be the same size and have the same number of stitches so that I can seam them together easily later on.

Since I've run out of this colour of wool, I am stalled on this project until I get more. The big debate: buy before Amy runs out of the dye lot, or wait and see if I can hit another surprise Red Purl Baglady sale. Hmm...always a conumdrum.

_________________________

* I slip the first stitch of every row, so I have one edge stitch for every two rows. If you knit every stitch, you'll want to pick up a stitch for every two edge stitches.