Re-Starting The Great North American Afghan

I believe I originally finished this first square (designed by Susan Levin) for The Great North American Afghan back in January. When I decided to start on the second square, I cast on the 240 stitches (arrrrrgh--that's a LOT of stitches!) with the size 7 needles the pattern stated and dived right in.

I got about 5 rounds into that second square, and as I kept looking at it and at the previously completed first square, I was not liking the way things were looking. I knitted the first square with size 8 needles (what that pattern stated), but it seemed like the difference in density of stitches between the first square and early rounds of the second square was more than could be accounted for by a difference of just one needle size.

With afghans I'm generally not all that particular about gauge because if the finished product comes out a little bigger or smaller, it's not as big a deal as it would be with clothing that definitely needs to fit properly, but of course, when making an afghan out of components like these squares, the squares do need to be as close to the same size as possible in order to get them to fit together well during joining and to have uniformity throughout the finished afghan.

Since it had been a while since I had knitted that first square, I couldn't remember for sure if I had done any gauge swatching. The patterns in this book (like most patterns) do state the usual "size ___ needles or size to obtain gauge". Since I kept having that uncomfortable feeling as I was knitting the second square, I made the decision to stop working on that second square and instead do a gauge swatch for the first square to hopefully ease my discomfort.

In the case of this square, the gauge is over the pattern's mosaic stitch, so I cast on with size 8 needles, and that first swatch was too big. I then did the same with size 6 needles--still too big--ack! Finally, size 5 needles produced the right measurements, so I must really knit loosely! Size 5 needles feel really small for worsted-weight yarn, but the measurements don't lie.

At that point I made the difficult decision to frog the first square, so I bit the bullet and did it. I then re-started it with the size 5 needles and got this far (below). So far the width is measuring right, but the mosaic stitch part has just begun, so it will be a lot more rows before I'll be able to tell if the length is staying true to gauge.

For the time being, I'm going to leave the second square on the size 7 needles where I left off. When I'm done re-knitting the first square and it hopefully turns out to be a keeper, I'll then be sure to do some swatching for the second square before continuing just in case I need to change needle size and re-start that one as well.

Since the first square is worked back and forth from bottom to top and the second square is knit in the round from the outside to the center, comparing their sizes respective to each other probably won't be possible until both are totally completed and off the needles. I sure do hope they end up close to the same size. With this afghan and the other afghans in this series, I'm going to continue to pay very close attention to gauge from now on!