or buy at Payhip or LoveCrafts

Believe it or not, this afghan started its life as a worksheet for pupils in a mathematics classroom. Some pupils were having difficulty identifying the properties of four-sided shapes so we devised a colouring-in sheet for them. Every shape in the patchwork has four sides.

The sheet became an afghan so that it could be used over and over to show the differences between the shapes. Then came the booklet of instructions so that you can knit your own. You don’t need to know, or care, about the shapes. The afghan is spectacular whether you know its original purpose or not.

We had a particular colour coding at work in the original though you might see this as an ideal way to use up lots of oddments of different coloured yarn. It was worked in Aran weight yarn but you can use any weight, provided you use similar weights throughout.

It is entirely in garter stitch so extremely easy to make. Many of the pieces are knitted directly onto existing shapes. This means the work eventually gets quite large but you are only ever working with one yarn at a time and only ever in a small area.

The colouring-in sheet is included in the booklet so you can try out your own colours before you begin.

The original was made using Aran yarns and is approximately 125 cm (50 inches) by 175 cm (69 inches). Other yarns could be used to give a larger or smaller afghan.

Read the story of this afghan on Ravelry or on Woolly Thoughts web site.

We also have cushion version, called Meta4. It has different designs front and back.

You can buy the cushion pattern as an individual pattern or as one of 12 patterns in 12 Pillows of Wisdom.