Squares 21 to 23

I'm fairly close to finish the Great American (Aran) Afghan. I managed to finish knitting squares 21 - 24 (though 24 still needs blocking) and started on the border (of which I'll need to knit 6 or 7 meters *gulp*). After that all I need to do is sew the thing together and I'm done (excuse me for a moment as I leave the room to laugh hysterically at the idea of 'just' needing it to sew together - don't expect results this side of the century)

- Block 21: GAAA, designed by Dagmara Berztiss: nothing much to say about this one. Fairly straight forward. Like the knotwork pattern

- Block 22: GAA #12: Another entrelac. This one I enjoyed more than the other one, maybe because the entrelac goes over more stitches - less turning around the work.

- Block 23: GAA #16: oak leaves and acorns. Fun to do


On the other side, I finished knitting Hanami. Below is the shawl pre-blocking and all scrunched up. It looks to be 30 x 110cm - which is waaaaay too small.


I started to block the living daylight out of it though, and now I'm at 40 x 140cm - which is better, but still, I think a bit on the smallish side. I'll need to do some deep meditations (maybe while a sew together the monster afghan) to decide if I do it again with more repeats / different yarn / larger needles.

For blocking I used welding rods in lieu of blocking wires and it seems to work pretty well, though the threating of the stole on the wires is a bit painful. The matte is one of those puzzles things for kids, which I bought two packs of last week when they were on sale. One of my better buys I think.