Dread No More

I am not pessimistic by nature; more often than not, I tend to see the glass as half full. I’ve even been accused (in jest) of being “Little Miss Sunshine” because of my optimistic way of viewing life. Having said that, I have to admit that when looking ahead to certain situations I can’t help but allow dread to take over. As you might have guessed, the sewing up of the Great American Afghan was one of them. The whole time I was knitting the squares I was thinking about how much of a chore it would be to put them all together, especially considering how they were all different colours, were slightly different sizes, and had several different edgings (cast on, bound off, garter stitch). However, like so many things we dread, the job didn’t turn out to be nearly as bad as I feared. In fact, it was rather satisfying to see all the various blocks come together, square by square and row by row. I quickly developed a system and was amazed at how little time and effort it took to join each edge. I had planned to spread the sewing out over a couple of weeks but instead I finished in only three days. It was kind of like eating Lay's—I couldn't stop at just one.

Here’s a taste of how it looks. I wish it were possible to capture the colours as they truly are--believe me, they look way better in real life.

The original pattern calls for a narrow 2-colour garter stitch edging around the entire afghan, which frankly, didn’t do a lot for me. After seeing Jared Flood’s I-cord edging on his Garter Stitch Blanket I thought it would be a better choice—I liked how the smooth cording gave his afghan a simple but polished finish. But as I was sewing all the squares together I realized that such strongly coloured and textured blocks needed an equally strong edging and have instead decided to finish the afghan with the cabled edging from the Great American Aran Afghan (which, by the way, I have decided to knit for my mom).

I think the dark brown cables will frame the piece much more effectively than either the garter stitch or the I-cord.

So, my next task? To cast on 13 stitches and knit 20’ of cabled edging. That’s 120, 14-row repeats, plus 4, 28-row corner sections for a grand total of 23, 296 stitches. I know I should be filled with dread at the enormity of the task but right now all I feel is anticipation. I can’t wait to see how it will look when it is all done.