My First Afghan

When I learned to knit about 2 years ago, I asked my oldest son what he would like for me to make for him. He doesn't like sweaters, and I had already made him a knit hat, so he asked for an afghan. An afghan! That's huge!

But, I determined to have a go at it. I decided to make it a small afghan that he could use while sitting at his computer, since he LOVES to sit at his computer.

I started looking through patterns, and was getting frustrated, because they all looked so complicated. I asked Josh what colors did he want me to use. He chose Black and Blue, his favorite colors to wear. I looked through my stash of worsted weight yarn, and found several skeins of blue and black. I then decided to add some white to the afghan to add some contrast to those dark shades.

I found one pattern that looked interesting, but I would need to make about 25 squares and stitch them all together. Stitching seams is not my favorite thing to do, and I really didn't want to do it for 25 squares, so I decided to make my own design. I decided to make 5 continuous strips of knitted squares, then I would only need to stitch 5 strips together! It was still a pain, but better than the first option.

Here is the finished product! It turned out pretty good.

I made the first strip by knitting a square using Harris Tweed stitch in blue, then changed to black and did a square in garter stitch, then changed to white and used moss stitch. Then I added another black square, and blue square. Then I bound off those stitches.

Then, I made a little chart of how my squares would be arranged on a slip of paper. I then continued to make strips, using the chart as my guide.

I laid out the strips on my bed to make sure I had made them right, then I attached them side by side with easy crochet stitches. After that, I took this photo, because I was so proud to finally finish! (I started making this afghan about a year ago!)

After taking the photo, I looked at the afghan again, and decided to add a border around the edge. I used a different yarn for that - Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick. That yarn was so soft, and the color black really enhanced the whole afghan.