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Traveling Knit Afghan – Square Eleven by Gorilla Knits
Square Eleven of the Traveling Knit Afghan, designed by Gorilla Knits is here and it’s all about the waffles!
The Traveling Knit Afghan is finishing its tour around California. After dropping in on Designs by Phanessa, then on Whistle & Wool and now Gorilla Knits, our lovely afghan is ready to move to another state.
Read how this all started in this post here!
Inspiration
The eleventh square of the knit afghan is designed by Jane Tsou of Gorilla Knits.
Jane is the maker being Gorilla Knits and her design style is all about simple, laid back, modern and easy to wear garments. Just by looking at her page and especially the sweaters she designed, I felt I wanted all of those in my wardrobe!
The inspiration for her square came from the first stitch pattern she ever learned, but there’s more to it than what meets the waffle. Jane tried to learn how to knit when she was younger but failed at it. It was years before she picked it up again and actually succeed it. But once she did, she found her happy place!
Read in her blog all the details of her journey!
Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s more or less how it happened over here. I too tried to learn how to knit and failed utterly. I could not a knit row without having to rip it. Twice! Yes, that’s how bad it was. 🙁 I tried it again just a few years ago, and this time, with a calmer and more present attitude it definitely clicked. And now I can’t go a day without my yarn and needles and I’m totally addicted to learning more and more!
Jane says she felt nostalgic working up this square. I too felt nostalgic while reading her post as I remembered my own struggle trying to knit up a scarf and not being able to make a single row. And then I felt so happy that I tried again because this bumpy beginning just makes me more proud of every stitch I knit and makes me appreciate the journey even more! 😀
Project
For the eleventh square of my afghan, I’m back to the Beige of my Norway 10 ply yarn from Morris & Sons.
As with the previous square, this pattern creates a denser fabric than a simple stockinette stitch, but my stitches didn’t look as if they couldn’t breathe and the drape was good so I used with my lovely 4.0 mm knitting needles.
I will never ever go without blocking another project, so to finish up I needed my also lovely blocking mats.
Aren’t these squares just absolutely wonderful?
Pattern
All the materials and other information needed for the pattern are listed in Gorilla Knits’ blog post.
Traveling Knit Afghan – Square Eleven by Gorilla Knits
Here is the pattern for Square Eleven of the Traveling Knit Afghan.
This square features the Waffle Stitch. Curiously enough, I know of its crochet counterpart, but I did not know about the knit version. So thumbs up for a new stitch. And even more points for being all about the knits and purls! And boy oh boy, won’t you get a squishy texture out of this easy 4-row repeat!
As best practices say, you should confirm your gauge. These squishy textures tend to have a different gauge from less textured ones. So make sure you find out your gauge for this pattern so that you can cast on the correct number of stitches. I had to cast on a few more than mentioned in the pattern to get the right measures. (Truth time: I was a few rows in – as in close to 50 – when I realized my square needed more stitches if it ever ambitioned to be a square…)
Jane doesn’t mention it, but don’t forget to block your square to ensure the correct size and perfect lined sizes! Find out more about blocking in this post here!
Final thoughts on Square Eleven
Another squishy fabric that you can make with the basic stitches!
To me, this square is a homage to persistence. So many times, we find ourselves in a situation where it seems like you can’t do something. The obstacles are simply too big. But then you step away from things (sometimes 10 minutes are enough, you don’t have to wait years! 😉 ) and you give them another look, find a new perspective and you just… do it! 😀 And it feels so rewarding.
So a big shout out to everyone who has been resilient and has overcome obstacles and a big cheer to everyone who is still in the process of doing it! Thank you for the reminder, Jane.
See you in the next square!
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