Knit Project from My Early Days

In the early 80s, my aunt bought a booklet with plans to make a crochet blanket back in the early 80s.  In those days my mom and her sister and lots of others I met were learning to crochet.  Afghans were all the rage.  One thing that attracted me to afghans is the fact that the finished object is flat and requires no shaping and whatever size it ends up being is acceptable.  I had taught myself to knit, but I don't remember any knit projects I might have made.  There was a picture in this booklet of a knitted blanket called "Knit Aran".  From the word "Aran" you can infer correctly that cables and other textural techniques were employed.  I was fascinated.

I bought the orlon yarn I used at KMart in Waycross, GA.  My mom used to work there--she probably worked there at the time.  I obsessively purchased many skeins of this white-with-a-hint-of yellow yarn knowing that the project would be massive.  I worked it on silvery size 10 needles that were about 13 inches long.  I used a crochet hook in place of double pointed needles to do the cables, etc.

I was not an experienced knitter at the time, but with a few episodes of frogging, a bit of tinking now and then, and picking up dropped stitches here and there, I worked on these panels.  When I was feeling lonely or isolated, which was a common feeling for me in my younger days, I would take up my knitting.  I was very pleased with what was coming off those needles and everyone who saw it was pretty impressed.  I didn't have any friends or family who could knit.  One of the things I liked about knitting over crochet was that stockinette panels were so much thinner than crochet panels.

I began attending Valdosta State College (now it's a university) in 1981 and I took my knit Aran project with me.  I was a theater major and didn't make a lot of friends at first.  I would take my knitting with me on campus--I must have been in a compulsive knitting phase--and the toggles and twists impressed my friends enough to ask me to teach them a few of the stitches.  I wonder if any of these girls are still knitting at all.  I know as for myself, that I have gone y
ears without doing any projects but it's always on my mind.

I didn't finish that blanket very quickly--it took years since I frequently put it down and then worried that I wouldn't be able to start it again.  I finished college and relocated to Atlanta.  I was a little aggravated at the hugeness of this project.  I did not want a blanket of its size--it was way past the afghan dimensions!  I also fretted over the connecting process, but once again when the time came, I used a crochet hook to stitch them together.  The project has a fringe in the picture, but I have never mustered up the energy to attempt the fringe, so the edges are a bit rough.  Funnily enough, I still have a full skein of this yarn at the ready to finally put a fringe on this blanket which is still in my possession and is quite a comfort to snuggle under.

Once I completed this project--even before--I felt I had mastered the Aran style of knitting.  I would happily make another project using this technique.  In my mind, I see a beautiful Aran sweater and an Aran purse.  Will these items ever become a reality?

Granny Square Afghan: My first "Finished Object"

All my life I have enjoyed crafting.  I taught myself how to crochet when I was about 10.  Later I taught myself to knit.
Although I experimented with crocheting doll clothes and different little items as a kid, I don't recall any finished items before my first afghan.  At that time in my life, my sister had left our home to live with my dad. My mother and I moved to a neighboring community where I began attending a new high school.  I didn't make a lot of friends and felt pretty isolated for a time.   I turned to poetry writing, journaling and crafting to fill lonely hours.
A strip mall opened within walking and bicycling distance from my home. There was a discount department store called Roses in this mall, and that's where I purchased the red and white yarn with which I made my first finished item with the help of my mother.  The yarn was a heathery rosey red with a hint of sparkle or white fibers.  The white was a buff tone with similar qualities to the red.  They were orlon acrylics made by the same manufacturer and sold together.  I purchased quite a few skeins as I did not want to be short of yarn in the midst of the project.  Eventually the store shuttered, so I felt fortunate to have obtained all the yarn I needed to make a good sized afghan.
The  afghan consists of simple granny squares I learned to make from a little booklet you buy in a yarn department. I would make several rounds in one of the colors and then make a few rounds with the contrasting color.  I taught my mom to make the squares too, and together we filled a laundry basket with the squares.  Neither of us had ever made an afghan nor had we ever connected squares.  Those finished pieces languished for a year or two.  Then I went to college and experienced being broke when it was time to purchase Christmas presents.  I decided to put the squares together and make a border to give my mom the finished object for Christmas.  I connected them all together using a crochet hook technique I envisioned a long time before trying it.  I did not use a pattern design to make this afghan:  I learned to make classic granny squares, attached them the best I could, then made a border with what was left of the yarn.  I will make a photo of this FO as it is even to this day on display in Mom's living room.  It has held up surprisingly well!  It was my stepfather's favorite throw.  He a frequently remarked that something full of holes was so warm.  This project was begun in 1975, languished for a few years, and was finished in the fall of 1976.