Let me begin by making my apologies! The break between Part 1 and Part 2 of this block has been too long. My only excuse is a family wedding. Got carried away with the excitement of it all. But now I’m back and the KAL will proceed on a regular weekly schedule henceforth.

Now back to the KAL. Did you enjoy knitting your first block of the Afghan? Doesn’t the design look beautiful? It’s called the Argyle pattern made famous by Pringle Sweaters. I hope all of you managed to carry your two yarns and trap your floats successfully. If not, I’m still here to help you out. Ask me, ask me, pretty please!!

For those of you who have finished the first half of the block, the second half is the same – a mirror image of the first half. The chart for the next 15 rows (i.e. R33 to R47) is below –

Once you’re done with Row 47, knit the next 9 rows in Stockinette Stitch using your Main Colour i.e. Colour D, which means alternate knit and purl rows starting with a purl row. Your pattern for the last 9 rows (i.e. R48 to R56) will be

R48 – K1, Purl the remaining 36 stitches
R49 – Knit all
R50 – K1, Purl the remaining 36 stitches
R51 – Knit all
R52 – K1, Purl the remaining 36 stitches
R53 – Knit all
R54 – K1, Purl the remaining 36 stitches
R55 – Knit all
R56 – K1, Purl the remaining 36 stitches

And voila, your block is complete! Now you just need to bind off your stitches.

Bind Off

We are going to do a very special kind of bind-off for our blocks in this KAL. I wanted to use a bind-off which would give an edge that would look similar to the long-tail cast-on edge. The bind-off we are going to do today is an invention of Ms Elizabeth Zimmerman – the Grand Dame of Knitting. It’s called the EZ Sewn Bind-Off, and it is exactly what the name suggests, easy and sewn. I have made a video to help you out with the EZ Sewn Bind-Off. Watch it and let me know if it helps. Let’s go for it then.

Once you reach the row where you want to bind off, cut off the yarn attached to the yarn ball, leaving a long, long tail. Since this is your first time, I suggest you be extra cautious and cut off a longer than usual tail of yarn. Now follow these steps one by one

A. Thread the yarn you have cut through the eye of a blunt tapestry needle. (In the video, I’m using a different coloured yarn only for demonstration)

B. Insert the tapestry needle in the first 2 stitches purlwise and pull the yarn tight.

C. Then, insert the needle in only the first stitch as if to knit, pull the yarn tight and take this first stitch off your knitting needle. The first stitch is now bound off.

D. Repeat steps B and C for the next two stitches and continue doing that until all stitches except the last stitch have been bound off.

E. Once only one stitch is left on the needle, insert your tapestry needle in this stitch purlwise and take the stitch off your knitting needle. All your stitches are bound off.

F. Now weave in your yarn tail like you would weave in all your other tail ends.

You can access the video demonstration here.

If you think the EZ Sewn Bind Off is too hard or you don’t want to try it right now, then go for any bind-off that you are comfortable with. For a refresher, you can check out my post on binding-off here.

That’s all for today, folks! So hurry and finish your first block. The original pattern of the Afghan asks that you make two more blocks in the same pattern. You can do that if you like using the same two colours. Or else, you can make one more block in the same pattern and invert the colours – use Colour A as the Main Colour and Colour D as the Contrast Colour. Or else, don’t repeat the pattern; we are going to discuss a lot of patterns in this KAL and there can be a unique pattern for each block. In fact, I’m ready with the second block and I’m dying to reveal it to you, so let those fingers fly.

~P

Download chart for Block 1 from here

Buy tapestry needles from here if you don’t have any