March 07: The Sampler

Nope - It's not a cross stitch sampler, but the Leisure Arts knitted Sampler Afghan. I bought the book ages ago with the intention of learning some really great patterns. It contains 60 stitch patterns that you can mix and match to create your own afghan design. Each block is 12 inches and the final piece takes 20 blocks. I finished my first block on the return flight from Houston - the Double Parallelogram. Now I'm on to a pretty Shell Stitch block. If you look closely at the pic below, there are some really great patterns in the booklet. My downfall is that I started using stash yarn. Yes - it's acrylic ; OMG it's baby blue; and there's soooooo much of it! In my own defense: (1) I didn't buy the yarn, it came by way of the yarn fairy; and (2) I didn't expect to like the finished pieces, just wanted something to do to soak up all the excess travel time. So to remedy the situation, I jumped online to the Little Knits site and ordered the Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme in Cornflower Blue (really soft & beautiful).
My first time using the site (saw it on another blog). The 10-skein bundles are a nice option. While I wait for my new (better) stash to arrive, I'll go ahead & use up the baby blue skin-irritant as practice pattern pieces. In the end, maybe I can give it away on my local FreeCycle.