Life LackaDaisiCal

It's coming up to Week 7 of the +RowanYarns  Pure Wool Worsted Mystery Afghan KAL.  Whew, that is a long title!  So far we have had six patterns, knit each one six times....that's 36 blocks so far! How are you doing?  There are only two more weekly pattern releases to go, that's 12 more knitted blocks before you will be able to get on with the finishing! You've probably heard the term....Hitting the Wall.  It is when runners feel like they have no energy left and can't take another step. Do you ever feel like that with your knitting? That gorgeous pattern, the perfect yarn....but you hit the wall, you lose interest, you feel like you just can't knit another stitch. By week 7 of the KAL you might feel like you have hit the wall, but the finish line is in sight! Just two more weeks of block knitting, then it will be time for sewing it up and then comes the edging!  (This may prove to be another "wall" for some of us, grinning here! ) Runners ha...

I can hear you now...oh no! She's on about GAUGE again! Yes, there has been quite a lot of discussion on the Mystery Afghan Threads on Ravelry about gauge...do I have to get gauge...does it matter? Weeks 1 and 2, my "off the needles" squares were wider than 8" and shorter than 8"....but with a wash and a block, they happily stretched up, and therefore in...to make the required 8" square (or 40 cm). Week 3 threw me for a loop! Using my 4.5mm needles (as per Week 1 and 2) I cast on and finished a block in Apple!  It came out absolutely  square...and seemed to me to be somehow "large". So, being the intrepid knitter that I am, I immediately worked another square in Buttercup with 4mm needles...some somehow it seemed to be "small" Both came out totally square! Shown here on my blocking mat which is marked in 1" increments - the Apple block is 8" square right off of the needles! the Buttercup square is 7" squa...

Progress on the Rowan Yarns Mystery Afghan has stalled a bit.....but with the addition of a new shade..... And a slightly modified layout plan..... But I should be back on track in time for the week 5 clue! Anyone else out there participating? How are you doing? You have to come as close to the stated gauge as possible. If you are close, usually judicious blocking does the final tweaking. But, if you are wildly off size, an adjustment in needle size will be required. Is your square way too wide....go down a needle size.....think of a block as a swatch. Are your squares a little too wide and not tall enough? Blocking can fix that! Wash your block, give it a little tug up...pin it down to a 20 cm square....pat down gently to tame any unruliness, let it dry...you will be amazed! Until next time, Happy Knitting! Anne Daisy says....This one is mine! (Yes, it is the new shade - 117 Raspberry that has been added to the mix!)

Look at this simple row of turquoise stranded stitches....they look a bit topsy-turvey, a bit wonky, some are up, some are down..... Let me help you get your stranding on the "straight and narrow"! When I say "the straight and narrow", I am talking about the position of your background and pattern yarns. Some stranded knitters call this yarn dominance....but yarn is very docile, it follows you wherever you ask it to go!  Look at this example of two rows of simple stranded knitting - this photo of the "back side" shows you perfectly what I am referring to....the pink is going along it's "straight and narrow" path...while that red, hmmm, it does a little turn and switches position half way across the row.  Did it do that on it's own?  NO! It just did what the knitter told it to! To keep things simple here, I have used the cream yarn as the background,  and a variety of colours for the pattern stitches in my photos! The yarn used...