2009: The Year of the Afghan (May)

As many of you already know, this year we’ll be switching from scarves to afghan squares. While we will be using yarn from our shop to make each square, the patterns will be written for any worsted weight yarn that gets approximately 4.5 stitches/inch on a US 8. So feel free to substitute anything you have in your stash (please note that due to the cables in May, which pull in, you should try for more like 5 sts/inch)! At the end of the year you will have twelve squares (more, if you do some of them twice) and while the squares will be interesting enough to keep even advanced knitters interested, it would also be a good project for the new or intermediate knitter who is interested in learning some new skills throughout the year.

The May Square!

New to cables? Be not afraid! They are infinately easier than they appear, and if you’re like all the people we’ve taught cables to in our shop, you’ll quickly become addicted. While there are not detailed instructions in the pattern on how to do cables, you can find an excellent video about halfway down this page at KnittingHelp.com and of course the ever-helpful Knitty.com has a fantastic article here.

There was a bit of a confunction with the May Square; both test knit samples came out just a bit smaller than we wanted. We decided at the last minute to re-write the pattern to incorporate a fourth set of cables in order to match (as closely as possible) the width of the other squares. Thus two of the samples in the photo above only have three sets of cables - the actual finished pattern has four sets.

While we welcome feedback on our free patterns and we try to answer all questions as quickly as possible, we ask that you be patient with us this weekend if we are unable to answer your questions immediately - we have a large, three-plaza wide Art Show tonight, and tomorrow we have three full classes going on in the shop. So if we don’t get back to you with any questions until Sunday or Monday, please don’t feel ignored!

You can download the pattern from our website here, and the Ravelry page for the square is here.

Enjoy!