It's finished! Yay! What a relief. I completed it before Christmas (on Christmas Eve), but mom wasn't home for the holidays, so she told me not to send her package until after Christmas. Whew!
Here are my comments on each square:
Square 1 was pretty cool to knit. The center square (where the hearts are and the socks end up being) is knit back and forth, and then stitches are picked up all around the square so that the larger square is knit in the round with increases in the corners. This square was knit on size US6, and I really like Cascade 220 on this size of needle; it makes a very nice fabric.
The socks were fun to knit too. I didn't use the separated Cascade 220; instead I used a fine fingering/laceweight yarn with 0000 needles, so my socks turned out tiny (and adorable). Also, I didn't do the color pattern. The heel is marked with a piece of waste yarn and then added later (I think EZ calls this an afterthought heel?). And these are probably my favorite toes.
This square (along with several others) had lots of post-knitting finishing work. As you can see, I didn't do all the extra needlework called for in the pattern (I'm here to knit, not needlepoint).
Square 2
The interesting thing about this afghan was that many of the squares were done with techniques or in ways that I'd never done before. To make the center square here, you cast off in the middle of a row, and then pick up stitches in the cast off on the way back. Very interesting to knit.
Square 3 is really pretty and straightforward to knit. Just watch out for the yarn overs between the purl and knit stitches. Also, cabling is of course easier without a cable needle.
Square 4 is, in my opinion, badly designed. The row gauge is so vastly different between the moss stitch (on the left) and the cable pattern (on the right) that the designer tells you to do short rows in the moss stitch section. She recommends three sets of short rows, but that of course depends on your own row gauge. I had to do six sets of short rows to get it to come out squarish. I get that the patterns are supposed to look like sand and sea, but ugh. The little critters were OK to make, but I didn't appreciate all the extra finishing work. I used Noro Silk Garden to make the crab and the shell. The fish are made with other colors of Cascade 220 used in the afghan.
Square 5 is awesome! OK, row 41 took about two hours to finish, but the pattern held my interest and I was able to finish this one pretty quickly. The bobbles are easier and faster if you knit back backwards.
Square 6 is my own design taken from stitch patterns in one of Nicky Epstien's books. I just couldn't stand to do the square 6 in the book. All that embroidery would require either lots of ends to weave in or lots of thread running across the back of the work, which is of course a huge no-no. I'll save my embroidery for my embroidery projects.
Square 7 was very enjoyable to knit. It's listed as one of the most difficult to knit, and I think that's because you have to knit from three different charts at the same time. I renumbered the leaf chart to include rows 27-52 so that I knew where I was in relation to the main chart. It's really a beautiful pattern.
Square 8 is by one of my favorite designers: Kathy Zimmerman. I used highlighter tape to keep track of my rows. Can't you just see that pattern on a sweater?
Square 9 was fun to knit. It's knit from corner to corner, on the diagonal. Again, the bobbles are a lot easier if you knit (or purl) back backwards. I love the purl-in-the-row-below pattern. It looks great.
I've included two photos of square 10 'cause Chelsea looks really cute of course while she's assisting with the blocking and because while the photo on the left shows the stitch pattern, the color is weird. The tuck stitch was not enjoyable. Viewed up close, it doesn't do much for me, but it looks good in the photos (i.e., from a distance).
Of course I had to knit the kitty, square 11. It was fun and easy. I don't like the gauge of Cascade 220 on size US 8 needles though.
Square 12 was my first try at entrelac. The pattern calls for extra finishing work (chain stitch in two of the corners to make them match the other two corners), but I realized part of the way through that if I just picked up the stitches *behind* the slip-stitch edge, the line of stitches will be there and the extra chain stitches aren't necessary. Anyway, this was a fun one to knit.
Yawn. Square 13 is good knitting for a road trip during which you have to serve as navigator as well as resident knitter. It's a stand-out square, though, visually speaking.
Square 14 was nice to knit. My only trouble came from not reading the instructions thoroughly. I jumped right into the graph after the garter stitch border and couldn't figure out why my stitch count was wrong. Turns out there's also a stockinette stitch border, too!
Oy, square 15. Life is too short (much less the time that was left before Christmas) for making those "leaves" and then stitching them on. And how do they stay puffed up like they are in the photo in the book? If I had to do this again, I wouldn't do the "stamens" either. They don't look like stamens, and this square doesn't look like a flower, even with the "leaves." But I really like the stitch pattern.
Square 16 is gorgeous! I had to use a cable needle for the cables on rows 18 and 24, etc., and row 9 threw me for a loop (no pun intended) at first--I wasn't using my tape to track my rows and missed the new knit stitch to start the first full leaf. This pattern is really, really beautiful.
I don't know what I did wrong on square 17. I'm pretty sure I followed the instructions, but I had to pick up WAY more that 35 stitches to complete the center, which tells me that I join the little rectangles together correctly (or something). I did not enjoy knitting this one. If I'm really bored some day, I'll try this one again just to see what I did wrong.
Square 18 looks really cool, but save it for knitting in public or in the car. It was really boring to knit. It's knit in the round from the center out. I think it would make a nice hat if it's kept round (no corner increases) and a rib border is added. I had a really hard time blocking this to a square. The one photographed on page 44 in the book looks perfect, but when it's shown stitched into the afghan, it's crooked like mine.
I just couldn't bring myself to make square 19 as written. All those ends to weave in on top of having to stitch two (two!) sections of three-stitch wide garter stitch and then sew them to the entrelac. No thanks. So I came up with this design using stitch patterns in Barbara Walker's
Second Treasury. I think it would make a great panel on a sweater.
All I can say about square 20 is that it's done. I don't really like it. It was pretty easy to knit once I figured out the tension on the leaf stitches (make the loops really loose!). Also, instead of going under the bars between the stitches, I went into the middle of the center stitch so that the two leaves are exiting from the center rather than to each side of the center. Knitting back backwards helps the bud stitch to go faster.
Square 21 was great. I really like the cable pattern on the right. I don't know why I don't have a better photo of this square. It was a very entertaining knit.
Heather Lodinsky is doing what she does best here: creating rich, dense fabric. The cable is a bit boring (over and over and over), but it looks great. This is yet another square with more finishing work, but it's too plain without the addition of the I-cord chain stitch. The (umm, er) "instructions" for chain stitch are on page 31 of the book, not in the back with the rest.
I like the idea of I-cord intarsia, but I don't like this square. The instructions don't say this, but the increases should continue all the way to the very last row. I had to rip this one out and redo it. Also, I don't like the gauge on size 8 needles.
Ah, Eugene Beugler, the lace mastermind designed square 24. Very cool square. Feather and Fan is always a nice stitch pattern.
Last but not least, square 25 by the fabulous Nancy Bush. This stitch was so much fun, and I can hardly wait to try it in other projects (with beads?). I forgot to do one of the wraps in the last row, and I didn't notice the omission until after I had cast off. But it was easy to use the tail to weave back and insert the wraps about the appropriate stitches.
Overall, this was an OK project. I didn't like all the extra finishing work (not very knitterly). I'm also making the Great Aran Afghan (is that the right name?), and I'm hoping it does not follow suit. I think I'm on square 6 or 7, and so far, there's no extra finishing work (i.e., sewing on extra do dads).
Piecing was not a problem. The crochet border would have been faster, but as I found myself with a couple extra days to finish, I chose to knit on the border as called for since I had never before done that border.
