This square was the most difficult for me. I’d never knitted leaves before and when reading the chart, I cast on a stitch for yo, so I ended up with the wrong number of stitches a couple of times in a row before it hit me like a bolt of lightning and I was able to complete it. In hindsight, I have to wonder what I was thinking, but am happy to have figured it out.


This square is made up of cables from the Great American Aran Afghan (GAAA) book. The leaves by Judy Sumner (Chart B) are framed with Ann Strong’s Double Texture Cables (Chart A).

I plan to try leaves again soon using wool…..in green, I think. :)

Laughter is the best medicine or so the saying goes….but for knitters and crocheters, a new hank of yarn comes darn close.

Sometimes life gives us small challenges and sometimes it gives us large challenges. Sometimes, a day in our life seems like a large challenge, but looking back, it really was a small challenge. However, when I am in the moment, and something is really getting me down, I find that nothing heals my soul like a trip to the LYS (local yarn shop) with a good friend. You walk in and see all the color, feel all the soft yarn, dream of all the things you can knit. Soon, the challenge has decreased in size without you even realizing. Because after all, if you can knit, you can triumph.

I have always felt that God speaks in small ways and everything happens for a reason….and so it was that I discovered a hank of yarn that spoke to me. Lovely blue Malabrigo yarn. I’ve been dreaming of working with Malabrigo since I learned to knit a couple of years ago. But somehow, the right opportunity had not presented itself. The shop only had one hank so the budget was not in jeapardy and it felt like a slice of Heaven. I bought it.


I do not yet know what this little ball of encouragement will grow up to be, but it sure perked up my day.

Stripes are lovely. I have now decided that I prefer to knit horizontal ones rather than vertical since I found them less difficult and was just as pleased with the result.

The vertical stripes were easy to design. You just pick which colors you prefer where and cast on.
The cast on does seem slightly complicated, but I tried several methods and then just decided to cast-on each color at the beginning and weave in the tails upon completion.

In an effort not to get everything too tangled, I did not use entire skeins, but had long strands for each stripe. If you would like to learn from my mistakes, you’ll want to make sure your long strands are actually long enough to complete your square. I had more than a few ends to weave in before the square was finished.

The horizontal stripes are just a color modification of a pattern in 100 more afghan squares to knit by Debbi Abrahams…. square 76 on page 93. The color conversion was so close, that I almost felt like I was cheating, but then I decided, I’m hand knitting a blanket, so I guess there’s really no such thing as cheating. :)

I substituted white for cream, dusty rose for yellow, antique rose for blue, and espresso for brown.