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?