(Re)starting lots of things

Starting things up again

Starting up the blog again.  A lot has happened in the last year. I've been getting the house ready to sell (it's on the market) and I've been teaching a bunch of knitting classes at Hillsborough Yarn Shop.  Here's what I'll be covering in the blog: 

• Working on TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level II
• Knitting classes
• A lace patchwork afghan I'm designing
• The move

The Lace Patchwork Afghan

I found out recently that Mission Falls yarn has closed its doors, and so Anne Derby, the owner of Hillsborough Yarn shop, put bunches of Mission Falls yarn up for sale.  I bought 39 balls of 1824 Wool in four different colors, a chocolate brown, a rusty red, a dark green and a light green.  I've decided to create a bunch of 9" x 9" squares with a garter stitch border surrounding a lace pattern.  I'll then sew the squares together.

I've been swatching the last couple of nights.  It looks like using a size 8 needle, I can get a 9"x 9" square with 41 stitches across and 55 rows. I have a six row garter stitch border on the bottom and a seven row garter stitch border on the top (the extra row and the bind off balance the top and bottom) as well as a 5 stitch garter stitch border on each side (one of the five stitches is a stockinette selvedge stitch). It looks like one square will take approximately 40 grams of yarn.  That's about 71 yards. 

The blank chart looks like this: 

Here's a picture of the unblocked blank square. I'm not going to bother to block it because I want to frog this swatch for the yarn.