Woven Crochet Afghan (a lesson on tension!)

Sharing my shame!

My afghan's finished at last, but not without a bit of angst in the final stage.

I'd been doing the weaving part on the floor because the dining table has a massive jigsaw in progress.  During the last couple of weeks my neck has been bothering me so much that I decided to try doing it with the afghan draped over the back of the settee.  This worked brilliantly and I finally got it finished.

I laid it out on the floor again to finish off the ends and to my horror I'd was 4 cm shorter at one end - the end I'd been doing on the settee.  NOOOOooooooooooooooo!

Look, feel my pain -

A tension disaster!

Hey ho, it wasn't the end of the world as I'd left long ends at each side so I was able to ease the threads along until it was the correct size.  Not ideal and very frustrating but it all worked out well in the end.

The moral of this embarrassing tale is to take great care with your tension.  It's the same if you stop working on a project for a while and then start it up again - your tension can vary if you're tired, in a bad mood, have aches and pains or for any number of reasons.

Mine was such a silly mistake that I'd hate anyone else to have the same problem.

It all worked out in the end.

Having got over the tension debacle I then finished it by knotting each end of the fringe - ie 4 strands of the yarn used in weaving.   I then joined 2 strands of each to 2 threads of the adjoining yarn which created a nice decorative pattern.

Then I trimmed it to my chosen length.  I didn't want a long dangly fringe as that's just a cat magnet!

Knotted and trimmed fringe

Now it will be stored away until the Spring when the thick Winter blankies are put away to make way for something a little lighter.

Details of the project are as follows:

Pattern:
The Woven Scotch Plaid Afghan from freevintagecrochet.com

Yarn:
Rowan Summer Tweed, 70% silk 30% cotton. Aran weight. 50g skeins/balls 110m.
- Swirl (pale blue) x 5.25 skeins
- Sour (pale green) x 5 skeins
- Summer Berry (red) x 1.25 skeins
- Oats (cream) x 10 skeins

Hook:
4.5mm metal

Finished dimensions excluding the fringe:
150cm x 145cm (I omitted one repeat on the length)

Baking news

We treated ourselves to a new crepe pan, not for making pancakes but for cooking flatbreads such as naan and tortillas.  Of course I had to try it out and so  whilst the bread was proving I rustled up some yummy Welsh cakes using a Nigella Lawson recipe.  They were scrummy!

Welsh cakes

Today's bread is a sourdough loaf made with 50% white flour and 50% spelt flour.  Just right for with the roasted tomato soup I made yesterday.

Sourdough with spelt

Running stuff

I've had a comparatively relaxing November to allow my body to recover properly after the 5 marathons I've run this year.  My maximum weekly mileage has been 30 miles but that's all about to change.

This week I start preparing for 2013 and so I've just started a pretty gruelling schedule to help me rise to the challenge I've set myself.

Here I go again!

Knitted Brain

Yes, you did read that correctly!  Psychiatrist Karen Norberg of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts has knitted an anatomically correct model of the human brain.

Check out the article in the Daily Mail.  Amazing work.