Rowan's Mystery Afghan KAL - Week 1

Let the knitting commence!

The hardest part about any colourful project...is deciding on what shades to use.

With the choice of 50 shades in the Rowan Pure Wool Worsted line,

there are enough shades to make it interesting, but not difficult....

because they all are lovely...

I love the shades of Autumn, so it wasn't hard for me to choose 5....

I loved the idea of the original 16 shades + border shade 

(thinking it was obviously going to be a multi-hued extravaganza....)

but my inner reserved self came out at the last moment

to pick shades that were strictly my style...

laughing....one of these days I really must just let go!!!

I am actually using all 5 shades in the body of the afghan....

and will decide on the border once I see how that all works...

see...I just can't leave anything alone!

Inspired by my favourite Scottish woollen blanket, I decided to mimic

tartan in the layout of my afghan squares....

A little bit of playing on the computer and I came up with this.....

see how the bands of colour weave under and over each other where they meet?

Well, I hope when it is all sewn up it is may be a little more obvious LOL!!!

I have numbered each square as to the weekly pattern...breaking up the earlier ones with the later ones as I believe they will be progressing as the weeks go along......

So, I've completed week 1 and as per my chart - that's 4 Apple, 1 Seville and 1 Gold square.....

These shades do look lovely with my decor -- and I'm now thinking

.....looking at this photo

....that I may have to switch out Clove for Redcurrant

.....ooohhh, Redcurrant!

Want to see all of the shades?  Check on the on-line shade card here.

With the original design being for a full complement of 17 shades

 (16 plus one for the trim),

there has been quite a bit of discussion on Ravelry

about square placement when doing the 5 or 9 shade combo.....  

So I played around on Numbers and came up with these...

So for the 4+1 colour option - I placed them 1 2 3 4 and repeated across the row....
After two rows, it naturally repeated....
I sort of like this....

For the 8+1 colour option I placed the shades on the diagonal......in order.....
so that all 8 shades are used for 6 squares total.  
I like this one too!

Edited to add ANOTHER arrangements for 8 Colours +1....

This one you lay them out in order... shades 1-6 across the top row,
7, 8 and 1-4 on the second row,
5-8, 1 and 2 on the third row and
3-8 on the fourth row - repeat! 

I hope these examples help you to visualize your completed afghan!
Of course, if you are doing the 16+1 original version, you are all set!

'Til next week, time to get on with my summer knitting....because you know what is just around the corner.....the release of the Fall/Winter Collection!  Yup, just like the department stores, us knitters have to be one season ahead.....so keep knitting folks....summer hasn't even arrived yet and I'm already talking Fall/Winter :)

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