Part of year long Afghan KAL with the Woman’s Weekly Ravelry group.

I’m knitting a strip afghan using Boys Afghan by Anne V. Gallentine and Fisherman Sampler Afghan as inspiration.

I’m using it as a chance to knit up all the cable and cable and lace patterns that have caught my eye recently. I’m using stash 8 ply (DK) essentially recycled wool sourced from op shops.

Strip 1: January
Essentially making the Everstar Scarf by Josie Mercier from Interweave Holiday Gifts 2013. Completed and blocked 28th January 2014

Strip 2: February
Another scarf. Falling Water by Bonnie Sennott. Began 28th January 2014. The ball of recycled op shop stash wool I am using is extremely dodgy with multiple knots. At one stage the back of the scarf almost looked like an Ood’s face with about 20 sets of ends in about 10 cm of knitting. Sewing in ends as I go though and as long as I’m careful about hiding them by sewing them in vertically along the knit stitches in the back, it looks good.

Strip 3: March Cast on object for February COM in VHOC. Began 4th Feb 2014. Pretzel Scarf by Margie Mitchell from Interweave Holiday Gifts 2013. Completed 19th March 2014. Very satisfied with the finished strip / scarf.

Strip 4: April Cast on 23rd March. Victorian Lace Scarf by Rachel Leverton. I like this one. It’s sort of the same lace pattern as my Tribute socks. And I finished before the end of March. I’m officially one strip ahead now.

Strip 5: April as well Cast on April 4th. This is a hybrid cable and lace pattern using Twisted Ribbons Scarf and Cowl. I’m going to need more yarn though. It’s eating through it. I estimate I’ll get about 35 cm of pattern per ball. Ran out of yarn late April and ordered some more. Whilst I was waiting I cast on Strip 6. New yarn doesn’t match colourwise. I knitted about half a pattern repeat but it offended my sensibilities. The colour change was that dramatic! So frogged on 1st June 2014. I’ll bought two more balls and began again in the new cream machinewash. This will now be the June strip! That was probably a little ambitious. Actually I cast this back on on the 22rd of August! I was finishing up all the the other WIPs (Two jumpers for various children being the biggest of them). Completed on 15th September. The irony was that after blocking this ended up about 2 pattern repeats too long so in early October I frogged a bit of it and redid the garter stitch edge so it fitted with the rest of the strips.

Strip 6: May Cast on 30th April. I have a cold and everything else I am working on is too complicated for my brain to cope with. Cables again. This one is Bernadette Cable Scarf by SmarieK Knits. Finished 18th May 2014.

Strip 7: September Cast on September 16th. This one is based on Eagle Feathers. Started with a provisional cast on as it is worked out from each end. Reusing the yarn from Arundel which I frogged during the Ravellenics. Had some fun unpicking the provisional cast on and getting the correct amount of stitches to work the other way. This was a really run pattern to knit and I especially love the feathers section on each of the edges. Finished October 11th 2014. Small modification made on 25th October 2014. It ended up too long after blocking. It’s always hard to judge just how much a lace pattern will open up. Took off one pattern repeat on each end and redid the moss stitch borders.

Strip 8: October: We’re back to cables. The pattern this time is Beaumonde. The yarn is some cream 12% angora, 48% viscose and 40% acrylic in a buttery cream colour I bought for $2 a ball in an end of season sale. This pattern is a combination of cable and dropped stitches - looks like fun. It’s awesome to drop stitches on purpose.

Strip 9: December Lace and leaves. The pattern is a free scarf with a leafy tendril winding up the middle - Daphne. I’m using the same brown yarn as the Victorian Lace scarf. I really, really, really love knitting lace leaves…. Finished 3rd January 2014

Strip 10: January The end is in sight. This is officially the last strip. This one is Double-knotted Lattice Cabled Scarf - again a free pattern. I’m using the quicksilver grey yarn again. I really love this and I’m going to miss it when it’s all gone! Cast on on 21st January when I couldn’t resist the urge to cast on something new any longer….