Quite a while ago, I saw a pattern on Knit Picks for a mitred-square afghan. To be honest, mitred square projects haven't really appealed to me very much, in the past, but the colours and design of this afghan really drew me in, and I was immediately determined to make it.Also good news - the website allows you to put together a kit for this project that uses their acrylic blend yarn, which means the yarn only costs around $35, which is pretty awesome for an afghan. This is the first time I've used this yarn, and while it was a bit squeaky on my acrylic needles, once I switched to wooden needles, it's not squeaky at all and more like just any soft synthetic yarn. Of course if I had my druthers (why oh why do I so rarely have my druthers) I'd be making it in wool, but obviously that would be both more expensive and not machine washable (or even more expensive, to get machine washable wool.)
I ordered this kit thinking that I would knit it up in the end of May, when my mom & my sisters & I are taking a little girls' vacation to the mountains, but when I realized that each square will take about an hour to knit, I had to face the sad fact that I won't be able to fit 100+ hours of knitting into a 5-day trip. So I decided to start it early, and leave myself the last panel of 25 squares, plus the sewing and the border, for the trip. That's pretty reasonable, I'm sure. I might even have to bring a pair of socks, just to make sure I don't run out of knitting. Or two.
