A mention of an afghan square swap, on the Afghans & Blankets group, sent me looking for these old photos. (I scanned them so the quality is not as good as I would like.)

The squares came from round the world. The only rules were that they should be 12 inch squares in natural colours. Some are knit, some are crochet and one is woven. I edged them all with terracotta and cream, to separate them and to help make them all exactly the same size.

The afghan was made in the days of the CompuServe Fibercrafts Forum. I still have it; it is stashed away somewhere. I think some of the people who made these squares are now on Ravelry but, without finding the afghan to check, I can’t remember who.

When I received the squares, I embroidered a ribbon for the back of each one with the name and location of the maker. This proved to be an inspired decision. When I took the completed afghan into school my students were keen to know where the squares came from. I made a chart to go alongside, giving all the information I had.

The response was a revelation. Many of the students thought that France was further away than USA and further than Pakistan or Bangladesh, where most of them originated (This was in a UK school). They had been on a day trip to France and knew it took a long time to get there. To get to the other places they went to the airport, which was about five miles away, and got on a plane which went straight to US or Pakistan. We had to get a globe before they had any concept of the relative positions.

We spent many Maths lessons working out distances, which led to time zones, currencies and many other topics.

I had not intended to use the afghan for this but I’m sure they learned more than they ever would in a conventional lesson.

The Christmas afghan, in the last picture, was made the following year.