Introduction and a Question

Hi everyone! I've been signed up for this blog for a while now though I (finally) just started my afghan. Had to finish up a few projects and save up for the yarn. Better late than never I guess. :) My name is April and I've been knitting for a little over two years now. I haven't tackled a knitting project of this size before but I wanted a challenge.


My question though has to do with blocking. I've never actually had to block anything before and I'm wondering how much of a differance it makes to the squares. I'm about halfway through the Julie H. Levy square and I'm noticing some of my stitches are a bit larger than others. Also, some areas where the cables join the background are a tad loose. Will I be able to tighten this up when I block? Also can you shape the cables to get the nice points like it has in the picture when you block? I'm not sure if I should just rip it out and start over or if these are just minor things that blocking will fix. Lastly...if I try blocking it and it doesn't fix these things can you frog and re-knit yarn that's been blocked or will it effect the wool to much? I'm using Knitpicks Wool of the Andeas in natural if that helps.

Nice to meet you all and can't wait to see more pictures of your afghans. Also thanks in advance to anyone who can help out with my questions.

Finished

After knitting my way through the Steelers vs Colts game, 5 episodes of Babylon 5, You've got Mail and Australian Open my Great American Aran Afghan was completed very late last night. It has been 13 months, 17 skeins of Cascade, numerous hours and been great fun most of the time. Here is a picture from late last night hence the bad quality, it will be replaced by a better one later.

Here is a better picture of the squares before the border.

I really enjoyed this project and been in a happy mood all day. A group of Danish knitters just started an Afghan along and several are knitting GAAA. FYI some have had problems getting the pattern, it seems to be out of print now.
It will be a while before I use white wool again, unless it is homespun, and I have signed up for a cabling without a cable needle class. Oh yes, I have to sew the squares for a baby afghan together next week ;-)

My Last Square

Finally, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I very early on in the project decided to design my own square. There are several squares in the book that do not appeal to me. Moreover, I wanted something personal as well. Initially, it was just going to be a "normal" square with cables found in various knitting books. Later on I decided somehow to incorporate my name or initials as well as the year in that square, to date and sign my work. However, that would just be too obvious with latin letters. The intricate cables in aran knitting have many similarities to the decorations on jewellery, weapons and stones from the Viking Age. So I chose runes (Futhark alphabet), a tribute to my Danish heritage. I have employed the Faith, Love and Hope charts from the Sever square with my runes.

The upper line reads Ulla and the lower MMVI (2006), a more discret way of signing ones work. I used the pattern charts and translation in Elsebeth Lavolds "Vikingemonster i Stickar" (Viking Patterns for Knitting?). I think there may be an English translation, it is not the book featuring silky wool. Visit the designers viking knit home page for more information. I am going to start knitting the border tonight.

Blocking and finishing?

It is time to give an update, but first a questions:

I am comtemplating crocheting the squares together instead of sewing, would that be possible?

The Salpekar square is one tough one. I really like the square except there is too much finishing and ends to weave in for my taste. It was a challenge.

Campbell, 3rd time is a charm, the first attempt ended with the cast on being 4 inch too short, the 2nd went well except I joined the cast on twisted. You will get a very cool Moebius square, unfortunately unsuitable for an afghan. For picture see my blog on Jan 5th.


Two more squares remain, well they are actually knitted and currently being blocked, but it is too dark to post pictures. Thus, it is time for blocking the other 18 squares and knitting the border... I am using a 2x4 foot cork board (floor tile?) from Target as a blocking board. It allows me to block 4-6 squares at a time.

Bad KnitAlonger!

I haven't posted in ages!! shame on me! I will admit that I put the afghan down for a bit. But I have been working on it for the last couple of weeks. I'm on my 3rd last block now, the Carty block. LOVED knitting that block :)

The last two that I've picked to do are the Smith block and the Rainey block.

I'm thinking I may widen the afghan by a column and do up the last 4 blocks and then design a block of my own. We'll see.

The only block that I've had trouble with so far is the Salpekar block! I've tried to start it once already and failed ... I think I will try that one again. Going to look through the archives and see if any of you posted about this block. If you have any hints for me .... please please please comment *lol*

No pics of my blocks ... I'm cameraless for a couple more weeks :(

Happy Knitting!

Squares 13 to 16

Happy New Year.
I have just returned from 2 weeks visting my parents in Denmark and have had time to knit another 3 squares. Well, the first square is Georgia Vincent and was knitted in November in part during a trip to the Bay Area. It is classified as one of the 5 difficult ones. I did not find it very challenging.

The next square is designed by Ginger Smith and was fun to knit. Each pattern section is knitted separately and attached to the neighbour as you knit. It was nice to get some variation.

The Kathleen T Carty was the most challenging square so far. The design is brilliant and uses short rows to create the corners of the frame. Moreover, the assembling and grafting is tedious, but worth the effort.

Finally, the Barbara McIntire square one of the most beautiful, true aran squares in the book. It is one of my favourites.

I had time to knit a square or two more, but ran out of yarn and did not bring the right needles, doooooh!
A Danish online group has launched an afghan along for this year, quite a few are knitting the GAAA. Thus, 2006 may actually be the year I finish GAAA. I have decided not to buy any yarn before I have finished the afghan. Moreover, a certain, purple mermaid is trying to get my attention.

Next up, maybe the Betty Salpeka square?

Hello!

I am so glad to find other people who love this Afghan. I have only knitted two squares but I am looking forward to knitting more. I have knitted Carol Adams and Dana Hurt. I believe I want to try Barbara McIntire's square anybody want to take this on with me?

Claudiam

Finally started!

After 2 false starts, I finally got my gauge right on the Meredith K. Morioka Square:



I am foreseeing a lot of starting and ripping to find the right needle sizes for the various squares. Luckily, I am using Lion Brand Wool-Ease ... not the best quality, but the yarn stays new even after several ripping. Besides, it is machine washable!

I am still undecided on which to start next.

Administrative Stuff

Hey guys, just popping in to say that I just now realized how much spam we've had on here, and am turning on word verification in the comments to try to head that off.

Also, if you have status updates or links for me to put in the sidebar, let me know, and I'll get those added. You can reach me at pixiegrrl24 AT yahoo DOT com.

Thanks, and happy knitting!
Amy

Another two squares finished

Thanks for your comments on the size variation of the squares, the two new ones are more normal. The chilly Autumn in Estonia has resulted in another two squares finished. First one is the Dana Hurts square. It is easy to spot the two obvious mistakes in that square.

Quiet frankly, I did not bother to fix it as the square remains symmetric and it gives a cool effect. I am obsessed with symmetry, an occupational hazard from being a chemist by training.

This is the Dagmara Berztiss square and was knitted enroute from Amsterdam to JFK this Wednesday. What else to do stuck in economy for 8 hrs?
It is one of the prettiest squares in the book, a simple, but elegant pattern. There are a couple of squares which I find too crowded. My current favorites in an unprioritized order and subject to change are:
1. Carol Adams, because it is simple and reversible.
2. Barbara McIntire, I looooove the intricate cables.
3. Betty Salpeka. It will be a challenging knit and beautiful cables.
4. Dagmara Berztiss, scientific design :-)
What are you favorites?

Greetings from Estonia

It is amazing what one week away from home and only local TV channels in Russian, Estonian and Finnish along with BBC world and a Danish! sports channel can do to your productivity. I have not knitted on my GAAA squares since August but have now finished two squares in a 10 days. That's 10 down :-)
I am halfway through a two week visit to Estonia, a wonderful country with strong knitting traditions. They sell yarn in the tourist shops along with beatifulful knitted garments. There is more about that on my blog.

The Barbara Selesnick Square, which came out to 11"x11"

Meridith Morioka which almost measures 13" by 13". Sorry about the bad quality of the pictures, but the light is not the greatest in my hotel room.
I have used the recommended European needle sizes and is somewhat puzzled about the large difference in size for the two squares. Any one else had the same experience?
Oh well, maybe I just picked the largest and the smallest of them to knit. On the needles is the Dana Hurt Square, which is about 20% done.

5th square

I'm not sure that I've posted at all since joining, since I dropped off the face of the knitting world for a few months. However! I am back, and I have completed my fifth square for the GAAA.

That's the Hurt square.

I'm a newbie too

Hey there. I thought I would introduce myself too. Glad others did it first, I was feeling kinda shy about doing it without any progress. Thanks for letting me join.

I am a reader of Carissa's blog and saw all the beautiful squares she was doing. And so I checked out the book and had to get it. I am doing the Rogue and am now in love with cables. This was my first time doing them.

Hopefully I can do it justice.

Another newbie to the group

Hello all,
I am another new member to the group. I haven't started on the GAAA yet because I am busy finishing my second afghan now. It is also a sampler afghan whose pattern was from Family Circle Easy Afghan. However, I have already decided to use Lion Brand Wool-Ease for GAAA because of its price and easy care ... and also I don't have to keep the stash at home. I can just go to Jo-Ann or Michael's when I run out of yarns! :)
You can have a look at the afghan I am working on now here. Once I start on the GAAA I'll post again. Thanks.

A square in a day, too

Last Sunday, a hot, and humid LI summer's day I camped in the room with AC and knitted all day. So I finished the Ada Fenick square, which is a fairly easy one. The designer actually live in the area. It shows the tree of life, though I also see some similarities to a menorah (sp?). That's 8 down and 12 to go.

Sharing my good news....

The Ohio State Fair started Wednesday, so yesterday after work my friend and I rushed to get up to the fair and check out my results. I had heard a rumor of the afghan category results, but I wasn't going to believe it until I saw it myself:



That's first place in the knitted afghans class, and Best in Show in the Afghans division!! I'm absolutely thrilled. The second and first place afghans were really stunning as well, so I'm very proud of my achievement! It was worth the frantic finish at the end to get it done.

I have to admit I find it funny that the worst square in the whole afghan is so prominently displayed. I did something seriously weird to that in the round square at the bottom of the rosette and didn't have time to fix it via blocking! I guess they gave me the benefit of the doubt.

I also placed third in the Original Design class for a fair isle capelet, so I'm really happy with that too!

Has anyone else entered their knitting into county or state fairs?

I finished my first square!

I'm very excited to join GAAAA and to finally post my first square. It took me only a couple weeks to complete it with knitting in the evenings and trying to knit on the weekends. It was so much fun to do and challenging at the same time. My husband helped me pick out the yarn color and helps with motivation: "Honey, that is going to look so cool when your done . . ."

I added the picture of the Levy square here on my blog: http://www.mannmadecrafts.com/blog/index.php?category=1

My 7th Square and an Introduction

Thanks for the invitiation to join this knit-along. Well, I have been obsessed with GAAA ever since I saw a live version in Cascade 220 at Knit, New York last Autumn. Shortly after, I was the happy owner of the pattern and 30 skeins of Cascade 220 (100 % wool) bought at Webs with a 40% discount. Once in a while I wonder how I am going to use the 15 skeins or so that will be leftover... My unambitious plan is to knit a square a month, so far I am on track. It is the 7th monh and I have 7 squares. The current bet with bf is whether the afghan will be done or I have a permanent position first. I currently live on Long Island, New York and work as a post doc at Stony Brook University.
My 7th square is Marion Tabler, which was one of funniest ones so far. I love the tipsy cables.

You can see my knitting projects in my blog strikkeforsker (knitting scientist), where I write about knitting and life as a Dane in the US. The strange language is Danish :-)

I made it!!

My GAAA has been delivered to Ohio State Fair judging. A mere one hour before the deadline, but it's there. Next time I see it will be when it's on display at the fair.

I started sewing up the squares on Sunday, and after taking off a day and a half from work, knitting from basically 9:30 am Monday until 3:30 am Tuesday and then sewing on the border as I was knitting it to get it sized right (I'd actually recommend this, because my corners would not have been in the right place otherwise) I finished it up about 4:45 on Tuesday. That left me enough time to get the entry tags on it, find my other two entries and hop into the car to drop it off, which was a strangely uneventful process.

I didn't get a chance to get any great photos, because I basically had to stand on my couch and shoot them while the afghan was on the floor, but here's a decent attempt:



My wrists are so swollen I'm not sure I'll be able to knit for the rest of this week. Which is a shame because I am absolutely *dying* to start something new. Something colorful, and not in cream colored yarn. :-)

Typing is making me a bit sore now, so I'll post more of my technical caveats here later. This was such a fun project -- I wish you all luck as you continue!

Down to the wire

I've had 3 hours of sleep, but I'm at work today. I have about 2 more feet of border to knit and attach. I know it's been said already, but allow me to repeat: the sewing up takes relatively little time, but DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE LENGTH OF TIME IT WILL TAKE TO KNIT THE BORDER. I've figured out it takes me 8 - 10 minutes to knit one repeat of the border chart. Multiply that by 108 + corners and .... well, now you know why I've had three hours of sleep.

I have at least been sewing it to the afghan as I've been knitting a section of it, so I know exactly how much is left to go pretty accurately.

Am going home to knit at lunch, then will take off a bit early this afternoon from work. Hopefully this will be finished in time to get to the fair dropoff by 7 pm. Luckily, I live a mere 20 minutes from the fairgrounds. I have actually considered having a friend pick me up and drive me there so I can weave in ends in the car if need be.

I am happy to report though, that the afghan's looks multiply exponentially once you get it sewn together. It really is gorgeous if I do say so myself. I'll post some photos tonight after I drop it off.