CKCA5 Bright Star

The next pattern in the Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans book, Bright Star by Norah Gaughan, is the reason I bought the book. I found it very attractive as it is based on a patchwork pattern, and I was intrigued to see how the pieces were fitted together.

I was disappointed when I read the pattern to find that it involved a lot of seaming. But since my objective was to knit some version of all patterns in the book I persevered.

My second problem was working out the instructions. My hands can follow knitting instructions but my brain gets in the way. Here I had no idea of how Square A was supposed to look. The diagram was little help because the same type of line denoted edges of blocks, divisions of shades and mitres, and the same letters blocks and shades. A few words of explanation would have been very helpful. Garterstitch intarsia was new to me too. I got there with the help of Ravelry.

Once I had worked out how to knit Square A it was easy. I quite enjoyed the knitting. The yarn was lovely. I decided to use my store of Rowan Pure Wool Aran. It felt so much nicer than its replacement, Worsted Aran. I was limited to the shades I had bought in the sale. I ran out of the green, and as I was reluctant to pay full price plus postage for a discontinued yarn from an internet retailer I did the remainder in a pale grey.

The seaming was a chore. My brain couldn’t stop working out ways of reducing the numbers of seams. I did the corner squares and the side rectangles from picked up stitches. For edging I did my favourite three ridges of garterstitch.

I am quite pleased with the result. I like the way the red and brown stars really stand out. It is a shame about the grey substitution yarn. When I took the pictures I inadvertently stretched the blanket lengthwise – easily done with garterstitch – so in reality it is shorter than it looks. It does not quite cover a single bed.

It took me more than six months to finish the blanket, but this is misleading because I set it aside for the three months that life got in the way. The blocks took two months and the fastening ends and seaming about seven weeks.

Bright Star

Pattern: Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans Norah Gaughan
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aranl 100% wool
Needles: 5.0 mm
Size: 135 cm by 160 cm
Weight: 1880 gr

22 November 2017 to 2 June 1018 

The next blanket

The next blanket, #194, is unremarkable, with stripes in red, brown and green.  The boucle yarn is a Cuschendale mohair yarn, a bit awkward to knit, possibly because bigger needles would be better.  I like including mohair because of the softness it gives.