The Great American Afghan

Several weeks ago, my two best knitting buddies and I were at a local yarn store. As we were browsing the magazine wall, one of my friends came across this book:

(Click on image to see larger version.)

As we stood in the store, the wheels started turning in our heads and we thought about how much fun it would be to each buy a book and work on this afghan together. So Michelle and Alyce each bought a book and I had mine ordered since they only had two in stock.

We have spent quite a bit of time planning our afghans. Together we went through the book and picked out the patterns we liked and the patterns we did not want to include. I'm not sure who would want a crab on their afghan, but the three of us for sure do not. And the one that looks like the wooden shoe forms was a definite no as well. There were several others we omitted. I am very happy with the squares I chose for my afghan.

After I had decided which squares I was going to include, I needed to decide how to lay it all out. Here is my planning sheet:

(Click on image to see larger version.)

I felt the need to roughly sketch the pattern for each block to make sure my "fallish" patterns were spread out and also to make sure I didn't have all my heavily cabled squares clumped together. This step was also important because I wanted to plan my colors.

The yarn I chose for this project is Cascade 220 Superwash. I love the feel of this wool. Plus, I can wash and dry it!

Here is my color palette for this project:

Extra Creme Cafe

Vinci

Cordovan

Emerald City

Aporto

Moss

Turtle

Gray

Sandalwood

Japanese Maple

I ordered a couple skeins from Jimmy Beans Wool yesterday and they have already shipped. Looking foward to casting on and beginning our first square next week. We plan to work on each square at the same time so we can work through any issues we are having. I have never cabled before or made a bobble, so our first square will be a challenge. So glad that we are going to be working on this together!