In October 2010, I managed to knit two blocks of the Great American Aran Afghan in a week of holidaying around Northern NSW and QLD: the Ann Strong block and the Hanna Burns block. In October 2011, in about the same amount of time, I managed to mangle, rip out, and knit one block; the Jay Campbell block. I have to tell you, this is really testing my abilities and my confidence and while I deeply love knitting, I'm having my doubts folks. I'm actually getting worse at this instead of better. And according to the manual - I haven't even hit the hard blocks yet.
Here sits Jay Campbell with one corner ripped back. Then after I examined it carefully, I realised I couldn't fix it without starting over as I am knitting in the round and so the mistake is carried all through the round. Sigh.
So, I cut it off and started again. This was the third time I started again. It was that notation on the decrease. It said S2KP2O - which means, slip two stitches without knitting them, then knit the next stitch, then pass 2 stitches over. This results in a single decrease. And then the next notation is to K1. It wasn't until the fourth time through that I worked out that by doing the K1, I was repeating the Knit in the middle of the S2KP2O. OK. Breathe. I've spent hours and hours of knitting and have nothing to show for it. It's meant to challenge. It's complex. I wanted a challenge. Remember, this is a voluntary activity. And other mantras encouraging me to cope.
Then, about 20 hours later of knitting in the round; round and round we go, cable this, slip that, decrease here, blah blah, I think its looking pretty good.
And then check it out. I cast off last night and lo and behold IT IS TOO BIG. (Sorry about the caps lock). Each block is meant to be 12 inches by 12 inches. Ann Strong is. Hanna Burns is. But not this one. Maybe when I block it, I can get it to fit. Or maybe I can use it as a cushion? Moving along folks. There are other things I can do.
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Great American Aran Afghan (September 2011)