The Great American Aran Afghan

I never got around to showing you the full blanket.

I managed to snag a quick picture today.

Yes, that's my Mum - *sigh*

The Great American Aran Afghan

I started the Great American Aran Afghan in September 2008.

It was supposed to be for Christmas that year for my Mum.

I was doing well and averaging about a day a square. Then I got fed up with it and started a few other projects and just never went back to it.

I finally finished it today!

I didn't do the border in the book. I just did a simple border of crochet trebles.

It looks fabulous.

I took pictures. Wrapped it in Christmas wrapping, stuck it on a shelf, then I put the card in my card reader.

The pictures haven't come out!

So, I'm afraid you are going to have to wait until Christmas to see it now!

Great American Aran Afghan

I've been working on the Great American Aran Afghan for over a year now.

Today I finally knit the 20th square.

Now I've just got to sew it together!

Project Basket

Look what Mel gave me! I showed her a picture of one of these in the catalogue, I thought it'd be ideal to use as a basket to carry my current WIP's around in. She gave me this one today, said it was sitting in her loft doing nothing. It's not really my colour, but hey - pink and black go well together lol!

The shawl I'm making for my mother is coming along well. She's seen the yarn and that pattern, but not the work and she's not going to until her birthday - I have to keep hiding it quickly when I think I hear her coming!

I've got so many projects on the go and so many more I want to make, it's so unfair.

I've also just bought the pattern for the Queen Ring Shawl - cost me £25 - just for the pattern! I think it's a rip off, but I said I'd making a wedding ring shawl for somebody…I'm sworn to secrecy on who I'm making it for so from now on, I shall just call her Mrs R! I've already told her that if she doesn't like it, it's cool cos I like the pattern and will make it for myself and keep hunting for her. I've got 11 months to make this shawl in apparently, I think that'll be enough as soon as I know this is the pattern, I'll get hold of Joy and tell her to order me some yarn and dye it to the colour we want!

I've never made anything so fine!

I must get on with the GAAA as well - I've done nothing to that since well before Christmas because I was so caught up in MD/AN *sigh* so much knitting, not enough hours in the day!

Squares 9 & 10

I finally finished Square 9 by Jay Campbell - I hated it!! I frogged it twice before I got the jist of the pattern - I really need to find an alternative to DPN's, I just can't be bothered to learn a new method, although I think I might try two circulars for the square by Georgia Vincent! Then I steamed ahead and did Square 10 by Dana Hurt in an afternoon!

Square 7

Here's square 7 by Ginette Belanger, my hands hurt now - they usually do if I have to do a lot of knitting/purling stitches together.

Square 5…finally

I did NOT enjoy this square by Kathleen T. Carty! It was really hard work and felt like it took AGES! I'd never knitted a corner before and it took me a while to work out the instructions, but here it is!

Square 4

:Sigh: My aim to do a square a day died last night, I had a migraine attack and couldn't finish square 4 by Meredith K. Morioko. I got up (off the floor!) this morning and decided to go on Ravelry before starting today's knitting - WHY do I do that?? Ravelry wastes soooooo much time LOL.

I didn't get around to picking up my needles until lunchtime, finished the square and I am now fighting with square 5, I've never worked a square in this way before and it definitely isn't going to be finished today :sighagain:

Square 3, Kyle @ college, on the floor...

Here's Square 3 by Marian Tabler, took me a while longer this one, couldn't get the gist of the pattern and had to rip back every now and then. But, I finally finished it about 2 o'clock this morning. I'm aiming for a square a day -- I have no life lol.

Kyle started college proper this week, he seems to be enjoying it although we have had some backlash tantrums at home. This is nothing unusual, just his way of venting due to the huge change he's gone through with his routine this year. Leaving high school and starting college must be pretty scary for him!

I've started sleeping on the floor, I've been doing so since Monday night to see if it helps at all with my back…I must be totally honest and say that I do think there's a slight improvement, although I was bloody cold the first night - but I added an extra duvet and I've been fine since…as you can see Isis (who has had all her coat chopped) loves going to bed!

The Great American Aran Afghan

My new project is the Great American Aran Afghan, now to be known as GAAA! It's a large blanket made up from all different squares - Google it - there are loads of pics on the web.

I've done two squares already - the Judy Sumner (Square 1) and Julie H Levy (Square 2) squares, good thing I love cabling or it'd take me forever!