Long weekend in May

I am finding that my days go by entirely too quickly. After all, it is the long weekend in May, which is the traditional kick-off to summer. Summer. Wasn't it just yesterday that we celebrated Easter?

In any event, I have been working diligently on the Great American Aran Afghan for my knit-along. In the past 10 days or so, I've finished another two squares -- the Judy Sumner square and the Susan Rainey square.

The Rainsey square was the square that made me lust to make this project. A miniature aran sweater on an afghan square! How cool!
Now, I'm not saying that I am disappointed in the entire project. I am just gonna say that I found this square to be a let-down. The square is knitted first ... 10.5 inches of mostly stockinette stitch. What a yawner! Then comes the tiny sweater. Following the directions, I used 3.75mm needles and knit the sweater front and one sleeve. Sewed the sleeve to the front. Lovingly placed the sweater onto the square.

I admit that I had been thinking all along as I knit the sweater "This is kind of big;" and "this doesn't look like it's going to fit;" and "Yowza! This is looking pretty large!" Seeing in real life that the sweater wasn't going to fit -- no how, no way -- well, there just aren't enough polite words that can express my emotions.

I ripped the sweater back and started up again on 3.25mm needles. As you can see, the sweater fits as the designer intended. But doing the trinity stitch on 3.25mm needles with knitting worsted? Not a chance. I switched to a double moss stitch and decreased the centre panel by 2 stitches to accommodate the design change. Unless you look carefully, you won't see the alteration. This had the added benefit of making the sweater fit the square ... otherwise I'd have been ripping yet again.

The Judy Sumner square didn't really catch my eye, nor my imagination. In fact, it was a square that I had thought of not doing. Spider? On my afghan? I squash every spider I come across inside my house. So to put a spider on my afghan just seemed sort of sacreligious.

When the knit-along group decided to make this square I was less than enthused. In keeping with the spirit of the knit-along, I grabbed my needles and wool and started.

To my surprise, I found that I quite enjoyed it. Seeing the spider emerge was fun. Putting the wings on the bugs in the spider web was way too much fun. That part happened during a weekly knitting group meeting here at the store, and everyone was entranced. Myself included.

I guess it just goes to show that you can't be certain about the things you will like, or won't like, to knit. Keeping an open mind will lead to plenty of surprises ... in knitting as well as life.