Friday, 16 May 2014

All Squared Up. . .

The downside of doing a multi-week knit-a-long is the pressure I inevitably and inexplicably put on myself to keep up. I've been doing fairly well so far but this week I know I won't finish all my squares in time and it's making me anxious for no good reason. I know it's not a race, I know there will be ample time to catch up at the end, I know I will finish this afghan at some point and since I'm knitting it just for me, there's no real deadline. And yet. . . and yet. . . 

Yesterday it felt as if these squares were taking over my life.  I have three unfinished cardigans that just need sleeves and some button bands and I've been so neglectful of them. I have a crocheted shawl pattern that I'm keen to start and some granny squares to attach into a cushion.  There are so many other patterns I'm itching to cast on.  And I'm in the middle of three really good books.

So today, I took a deep breath and acknowledged that no, I won't be finishing all my squares before the next clue comes out, but I will have done some and that's just fine because I'm really enjoying this KAL and I really want to enjoy my knitting however long it takes.  Whew - glad to have that out. 

So here are four out of the eight squares for the fourth clue.  When I saw the pretty lace pattern, I immediately wanted to do it just in white and so I added my variegated yarn as a border with highlighted squares.  Don't look too closely - each square has at least one mistake and in one of them, I even forgot to knit an entire row of the pattern (hurrying too much - another reason to slow down and enjoy).  But I'm really pleased with them and I like the colour changes on the sides of the variegated squares which are giving me some ideas about designing a few squares of my own for this afghan;  I'll definitely need some extra ones to make it big enough.  So new goals - knit at least a couple of squares for each new clue and finish the rest up whenever.  And pick up some different knitting soon. 


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