New Mystery Afghan KAL. . .

 I love participating in mystery knit-a-longs so when Rowan announced a free afghan KAL designed by Martin Storey, I was itching to join in (we'll just ignore the ongoing hexi-puff and mitred square blankets that are also in the works).  There will be eight different square patterns released over the next eight weeks and then some trim. You knit six squares of each clue, ideally in two different colours. The design is meant to showcase Rowan's new Pure Wool Worsted,  a lovely line of wool that comes in some really amazing colours.   However, I'm still committed to just knitting from my stash this year so I can't use the recommended yarn.

This has posed some interesting challenges for me as most of my stash is fingering weight, so I will either end up with a smaller blanket or have to knit a lot more squares.  Digging around in my stash, I came across two skeins of Jillybeans wool that I picked up at Woolfest and really want to use. However, both are variegated (in lovely shades of hazy purples, greens, blues and grays)  and when I tried knitting Week 1's square, the pattern and texture were completely lost.  Undaunted, I found a lovely dark purple that makes those muted colours pop.  So I've done some colourwork instead.  I'm really happy with the result and plan to line the back of the blanket with fabric to hide all the stranding. 

My square measures 5 x 5,  quite a bit smaller than the worsted wool 7.5 x 7.5 squares but I'm going to wait for a few more clues before deciding whether to knit more squares or perhaps to do a larger trim.  There's a great group on ravelry knitting this blanket and it's not too late to join. I'm having fun with this already and what a great stashbuster!  Now off to knit five more squares before the next clue comes. . .