Knitting the Great American Afghan

I just realized that I've never posted photos of the Great American Aran Afghan I'm working on for my Mother. I started knitting it a long time ago. So long ago that I'm not sure I want to admit when I first started it. My original deadline for finishing it was 2010. I thought that there was no way on earth it would take me that long to knit. Well, wave to that deadline as it flies on by.

My new goal is to have at least four blocks done this year. That's a reasonable goal. When I do work on the blocks, they knit up relatively quickly. The problem is that I just have so many great things to work on! There's the swap project I'm embroidering, yggdrasil, my owl quilt, and I still need to finish the lettering on my pirate santa. I'm sure that there will be a whole host of new projects started this year as well. One of my biggest resolutions for 2011 is to do more crafting, and I guess that's a good thing considering all the WIP's I need to make some significant progress on!

So far, I have completed two blocks of the Great American Aran Afghan. The Great American Aran Afghan is an intensely cabled (aran) afghan from the Best of Knitter's Magazine. It is definitely an heirloom afghan. The afghan was the result of a design contest open to all Knitter's Magazine readers. Each knitter submitted an aran block design to the magazine, who then chose 24 blocks to make the Great American Aran Afghan and matching pillows. The afghan itself is comprised of 2o blocks from 20 different knit designers. Each square is 12" x 12".

The yarn I'm using is Rowan Cashsoft DK in creme. It is absolutely heavenly. A little splitty in parts, but for the most part I'm pretty happy with it.

So far I have finished the square designed by Dana Hurt (square K63). I really enjoyed knitting this square, and it was fairly straightforward. My favorite part has to be the honeycomb-like cables capping each end.

The second square I finished is Ginger Smith's square (square K64). Very easy, even easier than the square previously mentioned. I love how cables can look so incredibly complicated but still be extremely easy to knit.

I'm now a quarter of the way done with Suzanne Atkinson's square (K65). I don't know how on earth she came up with this really unique design, but I think my mom will love it.