A-Quilting We Will Loom

I've always been fascinated with quilts. Everything about their size, artistry, and home-made comfort just appealed to me. I started a quilt many years ago, designing and hand stitching each block, but life got in the way and into a box those blocks went, packed away for "someday." I will finish that quilt, when the Time Gods grant me my wish for a day-stretcher.

But in the meantime, I have discovered loom knitting. And with that discovery I found that I could create afghans that filled that quilt-shaped hole in my soul. I stopped lusting after quilts, and started lusting after yarns and looms. My looms allow me to experiment with size, with color, and with pattern, and slowly but surely I am teaching myself how to recreate the "feel" of the home-made quilts I love.

Yes, even I remember asking on a loom-knitting board, "Can anyone tell me how big to make an afghan?" That was when I thought there were rules to looming, rules that confined you and guided every stitch. But I've learned a lot since then, and learning is good. I've learned that I can make an afghan any size I darn well feel like. I've learned that it's okay to let my kids pick the colors (with just a wee bit of guidance), help with the design, and even knit a couple of rows, and it will still be beautiful. And I've learned that it's the process as much as the project — the journey sometimes is the destination.

The afghan pictured here is one I started on our traditional Mother's Day camping and fishing trip. Eldest Daughter chose the colors, and helped me work out the window pane design. I'm an early riser, and so as not to disturb the rest of the family's sleep, I would gather my yarn, loom and clipboard, and sit on the front porch of our cabin overlooking Blackhawk Lake. With only the birds for company, and even with an occasional stop to watch the mist rise off the lake, I could get at least an hour of quiet looming in before anyone else woke up.

Eldest Daughter loves her afghan. She sleeps with her afghan, reads with her afghan, and would probably adopt it as a "blankie," if she wasn't about to start the sixth grade. Her younger sister also has a loomed afghan, but is already picking the colors for her next one.

My quilt blocks will probably stay in their box for a little longer, I'm afraid. I have more afghans to loom.

[Finished afghan size approx. 54" square. Lion Brand Homespun in Cobalt, Deco and Waterfall. Four panels (two 35-pegs wide, two 20-pegs wide) on a Knifty Knitter round green loom.]