Photos of BEAUTIFUL Great American Afghans

Sally D

Sally D
Sally chose to make her Great American Afghan in all white squares. It turned out beautifully, as you can see in the photo.

Mary T

Mary T
Mary had a lot of fun with color, as you can see in the photo above. The class looked forward to seeing Mary's designs each month.

Kathy R

Kathy R
Kathy made this afghan for her son. The red, burgundy, and persimmon colorway she chose is great. Instead of the cat, Kathy designed a bear.

Great American ARAN Afghan - March 2009

We held our classes for the first two squares of the Great American ARAN Afghan in March. This year about 50 participants are taking these fun and educational classes.

During the class we covered:

Format of the Classes

• Generally, we will not begin work on actual square. Instead, we will practice stitches on SWATCHES.
• Teachers are Carole, Pam, Shelly, Maryann and, sometimes, Pat and Janet. Different teachers will teach each square and that person is the “expert” on that particular square.
• Many weeks will begin class with “Show and Tell”, which is voluntary.
• Each square uses different techniques. Remember, there are many ways to do each stitch, but square designers designate their favorite (usually for a reason).

Format of the Pattern

• Overview
• Picture of square
• “in other words”
• Chart(s)
• Legend – standardized for book
• Knitting school – Mark these pages

Tips and Tricks

• Copy (and enlarge) pattern
• Highlight different stitches in colored marker
• Use stitch markers liberally
• Edge stitches usually are not shown on charts
• Attach dental floss to marker
• Use LIFELINES
• Take “Baby Steps”
• Don’t be afraid to FROG (ripit, ripit)
• RIGHT means REAR
• Use “Sticky Notes” liberally to keep track of stitches, rows or use sticky note as a “ruler”
• Use a magnetic board

Chart Reading Tips

• The chart shows the “public” side (right side-RS) of the work. Since the squares are worked back and forth, every other row will be on the “wrong” side (WS) of your work.
• Note row numbers in the margin.
  If the number is on the right side of the chart, the row is worked from right-to-left across chart.
  If the number is on the left side of the chart, the row is worked from left-to-right across chart.

Square designed by Judy Sumner - Page 2

We worked on a swatch that included the X's and O's cable pattern (chart A), the SPIDER with bobbles (chart C), and the leaves (chart B). This stitches in this "challenging" square will take a bit of time to master.

Square designed by Julie H. Levy on Page 4
We worked on a swatch that included the "Aran Diamond and Bobble". The featured stitches included the unusual 2/1/2 RPC and the bobble, as well as three stitch cables going left and right. The other cables had been covered in the "Square 2 - (square on page 2 of book)" class.

HELP for Michigan National Guard-Project Linus

As some of you may know, Nautical Yarn is the "clearing house" for the Ludington Chapter of Project Linus. We typically collect te 100-200 blankets each year and deliver them to our local hospital for children who have been ill or injured.

This week we received a request from the Michigan National Guard.

Camp Grayling, Engineering Company, Unit 1434 is requesting the help of Blanketeers from the Ludington Chapter of Project Linus.

Two-hundred fifty (250) Michigan soldiers are being deployed this spring. Blankets must be delivered to Nautical Yarn by May 1 so they can be delivered to the soldiers prior to their deployment.

These soldiers would like to give Project Linus blankets to their children for safety, security, and remembrance while Mom or Dad is gone for one or more years.

A total of 500 blankets are needed. We would like to assist with blankets for the more vulnerable age group, children between the ages of 4 and 10.

Please help with this endeavor to help provide security for the children of our Michigan volunteer soldiers.

Nautical Yarn and several yarn companies, especially Plymouth and Berroco, have generously provided FREE kits to help with this blanket drive. Stop by Nautical Yarn to pick up your free kit (while supplies last).

If you are able to make a blanket for this endeavor to help provide security for the children of our Michigan volunteer soldiers, it would be greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions, please email linus@nauticalyarn.com or call Nautical Yarn at 231-845-9868.