The Afghan

check it out.
isn't my mother-in-law amazing?
untold number of skeins of noro silk garden, jo sharp 8-ply wool, and rowan organic wool, with a smattering of cascade 220 and ella rae wool. the ella rae wasn't quite yellow/brown enough of an off-white, so she tea-dyed the strips to match the rest of the afghan. you can't tell at all - they're the strips around the center square.
look - she even knitted a backing for those squares whose reverse sides might be slightly unsightly.

one of my favorites is the fish square - this is a single fish from a lucy neatby hanging, which features tessellated fish in graduated colors. an incredibly difficult pattern. also note the swedish runes underneath the center square - they translate to "Kiss Me." the central square with the intertwined dragons, as well as the surrounding cable/rune strips, are from elsebeth lavold's viking patterns, reflecting their nordic ancestry.


i did just a few of the squares:
tree of life - symbolizing the intertwining family trees. pattern is taken from a lion brand afghan pattern.

waves - symbolizing arielle's water sport history.

grapevines - to commemorate the vineyard wedding site. this was my introduction to alice starmore. turns out that she is so coveted among knitters, and her books out of print, so her books go for $100-300 on the internet. i was searching high and low for this grapevine pattern - i'd seen a swatch of it on ravelry - and finally found the book at the milwaukee public library. it's the hardest pattern i've done - there's even cabling on the wrong side of the pattern.

a "twirly whirly" square just because it was fun with the varigated noro yarn.