Pennants

Afghan
Pennants Afghan is inspired by a very colourful quilt design by Kaffe Fassett, also
called Pennants, published in Glorious Patchwork. The design departs from the
inspiration in many ways, but the result is still striking and colourful!

Knitting this afghan was a tonne of fun. Each square combined two different self-
striping yarns, or at the very least one self-striping with one variegated. Sometimes
I used small amounts of handspun for just part of a block (e.g. one or two wedges).
After finishing each block, I couldn't wait to cast on for another!

Size: Large lap afghan, theoretically 56 inches by 64 or a little less, if you knit 42
squares at 4 st/in and use one of the suggested edgings.

Materials
These are the materials I used. All you need is a big bag of yarns of different colours,
probably at least half of them self-striping, in nearly the same weight -- e.g. 4 to 4.5
st/in.
Noro Taiyo, four skeins in dominant colourway. In my afghan, the yellows,
greens and pinks in this colourway affected what other yarns I chose to
contrast or complement.
Noro Taiyo, 2 skeins in other colourways.

Noro Silk Garden, 3 skeins in different colourways.

Noro Yuzen, 2 skeins.
Noro Chirimen held with some handspun green sock yarn.
Handspun, 500 yards in shades of blue, worsted weight.
Art Fibers Anime, 400 yards
Coloratura Stream mohair merino, 1 skein

Yarn weight, gauge and needles
The garter-based block pattern should be square regardless of what yarn weight
you choose. I chose worsted weight, 4 to 4.5 st/in, resulting in blocks 7" to 8"
square. Yarn of another gauge will make squares of a different size, possibly leading
to a different size blanket. Worsted gauge is nice because the blocks are not too big
for overall pattern. Choose a needle size that's pleasant to use and small enough for
garter stitch to be crisp and sproingy. This will help hide yarn wraps and tails
woven in.

The Blocks

Each block is made with a simple kind

of intarsia and any two colours A and
B. Each colour stays on its own side of
the block relative to the other colour,
and the yarns wrap around each other
so there's no hole when switching
yarns. The block is easiest done on
circular needles, because the knitting
is not turned around between row 10
and 11. Instead, slide all the stitches to
the other end of the circulars.

Special instruction "K3B, K3A
wrapping": This is used on most odd
rows. It's how the diagonals are
formed, moving the colour change six
stitches from right to left, without leaving floats.

How to do it: Knit 1 stitch with B, while A is at the back of the knitting. Bring yarn A
either up behind B, or to the front of the knitting, so that yarn A is caught with the
second stitch in B. Bring yarn A either down or back for the third stitch in B. Leave
yarn B in the front of the work. Switch to A, and do the same thing for three stitches
with A, catching yarn B in the back or in the middle of the knitting. After completing
"K3B, K3A wrapping", it should be possible to finish the row in A, knitting into yarn
A in the row below. Garter stitch is rather forgiving of how the wrapping is done, I
used two different ways in different blocks and it can't really be detected.

Special instruction "Twist yarns": This is used on every even row, twisting A and
B together so there's no gap when switching yarns.

Cast on 32 stitches in A. Join in yarn B. (I did a long-tail cast-on, then tied the tails
of A and B together to join in B.)

Row 1 (right side): K1 B. K3B, K3A wrapping. K in A to end.
Row 2 (wrong side): K25 A. Twist yarns. K7 B.
Row 3: K7 B. K3B, K3A wrapping. K in A to end.
Row 4: K19 A. Twist yarns. K13 B.
Row 5: K13 B. K3B, K3A wrapping. K in A to end.
Row 6: K13 A. Twist yarns. K19 B.
Row 7: K19 B. K3B, K3A wrapping. K in A to end.
Row 8: K7 A. Twist yarns. K25 B.
Row 9: K25B. K3B, K3A wrapping. K1 A.
Row 10: Sl 1. Twist yarns. K31 B. Don't turn the knitting.
Row 11: Slide all stitches to the other end of the circular needle. K31 A, Sl 1.

This forms one wedge in each colour. Continue until there are six wedges in each
colour. Bind off.

Some yarns don't form perfectly square blocks with six complete wedge repeats. A
block that's a little longer than it is wide is OK. It's also OK to do five repeats or to
do five and a half repeats. The overall pattern is very forgiving of these variations!

The Assembly
How many blocks are you going to
make? I nearly stopped at 30 (five
blocks by six) but I was having so much
fun knitting blocks I kept going to 42.

How are you going to arrange them?
The Kaffe Fassett quilt pattern that I
was inspired by arranges each block at
right angles to its neighbours

With the whole 42 blocks, this flip-
flopped orientation was very exciting
but perhaps a little dizzying!

Another arrangement I worked

on with a friend used mirroring
(you can see I hadn't quite
finished knitting the 42nd block,
but we couldn't wait). In this
arrangement, we oriented the
brighter side of each block into
"spines" running vertically. The
center spine with most of the
pinks is the clearest to see.

Tip: If you have a cat that likes
taking running leaps onto your
block layout, scattering blocks all
over the hardwood floor, do it in
a room where you can close the
door with her outside!





Finally (and enjoying the help
of two more friends) I settled
on a non-symmetric layout.
Every block is oriented the
same way; there are clusters of
yellows and oranges, and a
diagonal swath of pinks. We
were inspired by the thought of
a bay of water by a forest at
sunset, reflecting the greens
and yellows of trees mixed
with the reflected sunset
colours.

Now sew all the blocks
together. I used "invisible
vertical seaming on garter
stitch" as shown in Techniques
with Theresa in Knitty
(http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html), and "horizontal seam on
stockinette" as shown in knit.1 (http://www.knit1mag.com/how_seaming.php).

Tip: In order to keep the blocks as we'd arranged them but still be able to
sew comfortably on the couch, I basted them together roughly and quickly
while all squares were laid out on the floor. Instead of basting everything
together, I left three separate sections; left, middle and right columns,
labeled with pinned scraps of paper. Then I could fold up each column and
put two of them away while seaming at my leisure, watching episodes of
Burn Notice. Tip for the tip: Don't watch something with as many visual
hints and jokes as Burn Notice! I had to rewind many times when I missed
a critical plot point because I was peering at my garter edges.

The Edging

The edging I decided to use is moderately complicated. If it doesn't tickle your
fancy, don't use it, or use the straight edging. A really simple self-striping edging,
just 15 stitches wide and one yarn at a time, would be lovely too.

It is nice to have some kind of garter-stitch edging seamed around the entire
blanket. It gives the blanket almost a shawl collar when I wrap it around myself!

Straight edging
This edging is a straight edge containing wedges like the blocks. The wedges on the
edging are blunter than in the squares so the stitch pattern is not quite the same.

Edge repeat
CO 15 stitches in A.
Row 1: Join B. K2 B, wrapping A once so it doesn't float. K A to end.
Row 2: K12 A. Twist yarns. K3B.
Row 3: K3B. K2B, wrapping A. K A to end.
Row 4: K9 A. Twist yarns. K6 B.
Row 5: K6 B. K2B, wrapping A. K A to end.
Row 6: K6 A. Twist yarns. K9 B.
Row 7: K9B. K2B, wrapping A. K A to end.
Row 8: K3 A. Twist yarns. K12 B.

Row 9: K12 B. K2B, wrapping A. K1 A.

Row 10: Sl1, K14 B.
Row 11: Slide all stitches to the other end of the circular. Sl1, K14 A.

When finished one edge repeat, start another without casting off. When you run out
of yarn, join another yarn (I tried to find a colour that continued similarly to the one
I'd just finished).

Keep knitting these wedges until you reach a corner. Turn the corner by knitting 4
corner wedges. The first and third wedges are knit with A, the second and fourth
corner wedges with B.

Corner Wedge
Row 1: Sl1, K to outside of edging.
Row 2: K2, turn
Row 3: Sl1, K to outside of edging.
Row 4: K4, turn
Row 5: Sl1, K to outside of edging.
Row 6: K6...
Continue adding 2 stitches on each even row, until all stitches get knit again.

Wavy Edging
I'm not going to give complete instructions for the wavy edging. If you've gotten this
far, you can figure it out! Here's the basic idea.

Wedge 1: 18 stitches wide, follow the same basic instructions for a repeat in the
simple edging, except you'll need two more rows to get the complete wedges.

Wedge 2: Decrease three stitches on the outside of the edging while doing this
wedge. I kept colour A on the inside of the edging with the same number of stitches
as if the wedge was done without decreases -- each odd row still has "K2 B,
wrapping" and each even row brings colour B one stitch closer to A's side. The
decreases are all placed one stitch away from the outer edge, in the area of colour B.
End with 15 stitches.

Wedge 3: Decrease another three stitches on the outside of the edging while doing
this wedge. Decreases happen in the area of colour B again. End with 12 stitches.

Wedge 4: 12 stitches wide; follow the same basic rows as in the simple edging,
except you'll need two fewer rows to get complete wedges.

Wedge 5: Increase three stitches on the outside of the edging while doing this
wedge. Keep the increases within the area of colour B.

Wedge 6: Increase three more stitches during this wedge.

Repeat wedges 1 through 6. One full curve should line up with one block of the
afghan when it's sewed on, so do as many repeats of wedges 1 through 6 as you have
squares on that side of the afghan. The corner wedges are done just like the corner
wedges in the straight edging instructions, except 18 stitches wide.

Finishing the edging

Either cast off or graft the end of the edging to the beginning. Sew the edging onto
the afghan. I used the technique described in Techniques with Theresa
(http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATspr06TT.html) to join the edging to cast-
off or cast-on edges, and on the sides I used the same invisible vertical garter
seaming I used between blocks. Weave in ends!

The Designer
Lisa Dusseault lives in Palo Alto and programs during the day, knitting and spinning
on evenings and weekends. Her model and assistant photographer (with guidance)
is almost 5 and is being indoctrinated as a knitting afficionado. Find Lisa as 'milele'
on Ravelry!

Pennants Afghan by Lisa Dusseault is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.