The Bohemian Afghan

I grew up in upstate New York and now live in Michigan. As you can imagine staying warm is a top priority for me in the winter. I am always looking for a warmer mitten pattern or making double-knit hats for that added bit of warmth.

Last winter I got the urge to make the warmest afghan ever while also using up my scrap yarn. What I did not anticipate is how much fun I would have knitting this afghan. The afghan does not contain a single purl stich which I am sure would make Elizabeth Zimmerman happy. Knitting the Bohemian Afghan has been very meditative and also makes great knitting for watching TV or reading.

Last winter I knit about half of this afghan. When I picked it back up this fall I was so happy to have it cover my toes as I worked. The biggest problem I had was that my dog kept laying on the bottom end so that it was impossible to flip it over and knit in the round without disturbing her. At other times the cat and dog would fight over who got the blanket.

The Bohemian Afghan is worked in the round and sealed on both ends to create a double layer of fabric. If you are particular about such things you can weave in the ends. If you hate weaving in ends (like me) you can just tuck them between the layers and forget them.

While I am sure the more experienced among you can knit up a similar design, I am releasing the pattern in my Ravelry Store for those knitters who don’t want to reinvent the wheel or for those who would like some tips on the techniques used.

A photo from the cast-on tutorial.

The pattern includes 5 pages of instructions and photo tutorials so that it can be knit by a beginning knitter.

In addition, I have also release a large print version of the pattern on Ravelry. My reading vision is rapidly getting worse. The settings on most of my devices are set to large print and I really enjoy my e-reader for reading because I can make the words as big as I want.

Page 2 of large print version

It occured to me that I would be wonderful to have a large print version of knitting patterns as well. The large print version of the pattern is expanded from 5 pages to 13. In the days of magazines, making patterns in large print would have been expensive but in the days of downloadable files this convenience is of no consequence.

With the many color options for the Bohemian Afghan I am very excited to see how other afghans turn out. With this pattern no two will be alike!

___ of the Month

When knitting started taking off on the Internet Sock of the Month clubs and other knitted item of the month clubs soon followed. It was a great idea. I started designing in the Six Socks Knitalong which gave knitters a new, exclusive sock pattern to knit every two months. What is better than something new to knit on a regular schedule?

This concept, of course, was not new. Elizabeth Zimmerman did the same thing in 1974 with her Knitter’s Almanac.

Recently I got the urge to look through the Knitter’s Almanac again. There is something so appealing about a different pattern to knit each month. I also just love Elizabeth’s style of writing. It is like she is sitting in your living room talking you through the pattern.

Not only did she create a pattern of the month club but she also blogged long before knitting blogs were a thing. The book describes her writing chapters while out canoeing and how to teach children to knit. Even if you never knit a thing in the Almanac, the book is a fun read.

One of my favorite quotes by Elizabeth Zimmerman explains why purling is so much more difficult than knitting:

“Why do so many of us object to purling? Is it because as children we are taught to knit first, and then presented with purling as the second and more difficult option. Who knows. Who is willing to take a little innocent child and teach it to purl first? You must admit it is the trickier of the two.” -Elizabether Zimmerman, Knitting Without Tears

I have often thought, sometime when I have a year to spare, I will knit through her whole almanac. Elizabeth lists the patterns under the best month to knit each as follows:

January: An Aran Sweater

February: Some Babies’ Things

March: Difficult Sweater

April: Mystery Blanket

May: Mittens for Next Winter

June: Three Hats

July: A Shawl

August: Christmas Fiddle-Faddle in the Wilds

September: Nether garments

October: Pullover

Novmeber: Moccasin Socks

December: Last-Minute Sweater

Of these projects, the one that intrigues me most is the nether garments. By nether garments, Elizabether is referring to knit leggings. A picture of wonderful fair isle leggings is included in the book. In her true fashion, you will not find line by line instructions but rather instructions on how to go about creating leggings that will fit your body. This is the advantage of knitting ones own clothes. You can create items that fit and are not one size fits all. The results are beautiful. I definitely recommend checking out the finished projects on Ravelry.

A couple other projects found in this Almanac that have gone viral, one might say, are the Feburary Lady Sweater and the Pi Shawl. The February Lady Sweater was adapted from the baby sweater to be knit in February. The Pi Shawl really includes instructions on how to knit your own circular shawl your own way in July.

While this book does not do the line by line handholding of most patterns, I think it has made many knitters more couragous. As written in her dedication to this book:

The Journey of a Sweater Front

I finally finished the front of my Fulmar sweater. All 292 rows of it. And since I cast on 216 stitches, the front consists of around 63,000 stitches in total. To make the pattern even more difficult, the sweater is knit using a light worsted weight yarn but size 1 needles. It is a very dense sweater and certainly not a quick knit. 

How long did this take me, you might ask? This is the most embarassing part. When I checked on Ravelry I found that it took me 12 years. At this rate, I will be 71 years old when I finish the sweater. It might be time to step up the pace.

When I think about my journey knitting this sweater a lot of memories emerge. I bought this yarn at my local yarn store and used to work on it during a weekly knitting group there. The yarn store closed around 10 years ago. My friend whom I met at this knitting group, Trish, really loved this sweater. Sadly she died from breast cancer around 5 years ago. I am sure she would love for me to finish knitting Fulmar.

One of the biggest problems that relegated this sweater to hibernation has been an issue of weight. Some time ago I lost a lot of weight and then was not sure what to do with my half finished sweaters that would no longer fit. Since then I have gained some of the weight back. The up side is that these sweaters will probably be wearable again.

Dear Younger Self,

Yes, that sweater is beautiful and a piece of art. But it will take you forever to knit and you will want to knit something else. Maybe you should chose a quicker project.

Sincerely, Me

Sadly many people do not listen to me, including my past self.

Fulmar comes from the book, Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore. Not only does this book have lovely patterns but it also has excellent instructions on aran stitches and designing your own aran sweaters. Even if you do not intend to ever knit an aran sweater, the book is worth checking out to read about the history of aran knitting. In particular, Ms. Starmore debunks the myth that aran sweaters included family patterns to help identify fishermen lost at sea.

While you are looking at the book, I would also recommend checking out my other favorite patterns. St. Brigid has a particularly intriguing colar with a cable going around the neck. The Irish Moss pattern is suitable for men and women. The cable pattern on this sweater lies fairly flat and does not make the sweater look bulky.

Fun Feet: The Como Te Llama Socks

Intarsia seems to be the Cinderella of the colorwork knitting world. It comes out beautifully but no one really wants anything to do with it. Stripes, fair isle, stranded knitting, and mosaic knitting all seem much more appealing to knitters. I do like intarsia for a few reasons, however.

1. Intarsia maintains the elasticity of the knitting. Particularly when knitting socks, I like my knitting to be stretchy. There is nothing worse than having a sock that will not stretch enough to fit over your heel or that sags because it does not conform to your calf. Stranded knitting has very little elasticity so I generally avoid it for socks. (And yes, I have frogged entire socks because I could not get them over my heel. A sad thing indeed.)
2. Intarsia is the easiest way to make pictures in your knitting. The number of colors or designs you can make are only limited by your imagination and a grid.
3. Intarsia only requires carrying your yarn in one hand. While I am fine knitting stranded projects with both hands, carrying the yarn in one hand leaves me with one less thing to worry about.
4. Intarsia can be worked both in the round and flat. Yes, intarsia in the round does exist although counter-intuitively you still need to knit back and forth. Peta Penguin is a small project that introduces this technique.

I do admit that there is a downside to intarsia which may account for it’s bad reputation. If you are using a number of colors it is not uncommon for the bobbins to get tangled in each other. Obviously no one likes to spend precious knitting time untangling yarn. My recommendation is to keep your yarn short on your bobbins and tangling will be less of a problem.

Recently my kids have become passionate about fun socks. They have bought socks with pictures of everything from avocados to hedgehogs, from Mackinac Island to Mammouth Caves. It seems about anything you can imagine has been printed on a sock. As a result, I decided it was time to start making my own fun socks. Since knitters everywhere love fiber-bearing animals I started by designing a llama sock. I opted for intarsia to preserve the elasticity of the fabric. I also decided to knit the leg back and forth with a seam because the invisible seam generally looks neater than intarsia in the round.

However, I used semi-solid yarn for the contrasting color so the seam is somewhat visible where the color changes occur. The seam also should not cause any chaffing or blisters since travels down the back of the leg but does not extend to the heel or foot.

While I usually knit socks from the top down, this pattern made more sense to me when knit from the toe up. Again I used an elastic heel because nothing bothers me more than knitting a sock and not being able to get it over my ankle.

The Come Te Llama Sock pattern is now available in my Ravelry Store. I hope you enjoy it!