I finished the last seam this afternoon. I think I let out a hoot. Jake was excited for me until he realized that we weren’t going outside to play and I didn’t have any treats for him.
Since I finished this afghan before the deadline to enter Lion Brand Yarn Slideshow Contest, I entered it. Vote for me! There are 400+ entries already, so I have no illusions of winning. Yet, this contest provided good motivation to complete the afghan early. Now I can take 6 zillion pictures before I have to mail it off early next month. It’s headed to the International Fiber Collaborative.
Although, I had originally planned to add a border around the whole afghan, I hesitate to add one now. I think it would detract from the blocks. What do you think?
On a side note, I can now boldly proclaim that I am a Master of Seaming. This project has taught me much about seaming.
As mentioned to both Knitsy Bitsy Spider and Mr. Puffy, I plan to compile all 9 block patterns into one downloadable PDF pattern. Please don’t expect to find it listed on my blog by tomorrow morning. It is going to take me some time to compile everything together. Additionally, I will be adding schematics, charts, and a seaming tutorial. Hopefully, I can pass some of my tips to you before you attempt to seam the blocks together.
One of my tips will be to not wait until the end to seam everything together. Jumping off a bridge will seem like a better idea. Ditto for weaving in your ends; the back side should Not look like a shag carpet.
OK, I’m going to shut up now and let the pictures say the rest.

The Back

Want more pictures? You can find the whole pictorial story from beginning to end in my Flickr album.



Even with the dark light (the weather consisted of cloudy skies, snow squalls and howling winds), I think my mistake is fairly obvious.
You see it, don’t you? At first, I thought I could leave it. Surely, nobody would notice. Who looks at a scarf to see if the pattern is the same on both sides? Then it occurred to me. I do that.
I never thought to invert the striped pattern at the halfway point. I was too busy patting my own back, giddy that the block was knitting up so quickly. What did the Yarn Harlot always quote in her first book? Pride goeth before a fall? Yes, that was it. Apparently, someone should sell those t-shirts.
Now that I am officially more humble than a week ago, allow me to present to you my final Ode to Quilting block.
I won’t tell you that I was so darn proud with the way this final block came out, because I am determined to stay humble. I will tell you that the free pattern will be published in tomorrow’s post.
After finishing this block, I pulled out the other 8 blocks and laid them on my dining room table. I shuffled and reshuffled the blocks. This was the final resting point for them.
What do you think?

It looks an awful lot like Jake, doesn’t it? Well, I thought I could fool you with his cuteness. It always works on me.
I made a stupid error while knitting the last block and didn’t notice it until I was piecing everything together. So, now I have to knit it over again. Since I wanted the block to be a surprise, I’m not even showing you a picture of my mistake. I’ll let you see Monday of next week what I did wrong. Dan noticed my error right away. I didn’t notice it until I had worked on it for over 2 days. I think I had my “I’m almost Finished” glasses on. They never see any errors.
Since Jake is now my Guest of Honor on the blog today, let me share with you his new trick that he learned. The past two times that Dan and I have poured ourselves a beer after dinner, I gave Jake a treat, thinking we’ll all have a treat. Yesterday, when we were pouring beers, Jake sat right in front of my feet, tail wagging, waiting for his treat. I laughed, patted him on the head and promptly went and got him his treat. Does that mean I trained him or he has trained me?
This block is perhaps the easiest of all the blocks in the Ode to Quilting series. Only Stocking Stitch is used to knit the squares and rectangles.
In color A, make 4 small corner squares.
Finishing Instructions:
Make 1 i-cord.
Placement of i-cord
In Color A, make 1 square.
In Color A, make 2 right-angled triangles.
In Color C, make 2 ribbed squares.
In Color C, make 2 ribbed triangles.
Finishing Instructions:
es facing up, line the diagonal edges of the triangles together. The points of the triangles should meet. Secure with several safety pins. Using a mattress stitch, sew the triangles together. Remove pins.
table. Move them around until you have obtained the Hourglass design (the Color A square should be in the center with the two Color A triangles meeting at the top right and bottom left of the Color A square). 
Pattern for Angled Nesting Squares Block:
Recommended Knitting skill level: Easy
Yarn: Lion’s Wool by Lion Brand or substitute any wool yarn from your stash that meets the below gauge specifications.
1. Color A = Rose
2. Color B = Autumn Sunset, divided into 2 balls
3. Color C = Sage
Needles: Lion’s Wool recommends size 8 (I used size 5)
Gauge: 4 stitches and 6 rows is 1 inch in Stocking Stitch
Stocking Stitch Pattern: Knit all stitches on the RS; Purl all stitches on the WS
Knitting Instructions:
In Color A, cast on 19 sts.
Row 1 (RS): K3, (P1, K1) 6 times, P1, K3.
Row 2 (WS) and all even rows: Knit the K stitches and Purl the P stitches.
Row 3: K4, (P1, K1) 5 times, P1, K4.
Row 5: K5, (P1, K1) 4 times, P1, K5.
Row 7: K6, (P1, K1) 3 times, P1, K6.
Row 9: K7, (P1, K1) 2 times, P1, K7.
Row 11: K8, P1, K1, P1, K8.
Row 13: K9, P1, K9.
Row 15: Repeat row 11.
Row 17: Repeat row 9.
Row 19: Repeat row 7.
Row 21: Repeat row 5.
Row 23: Repeat row 3.
Row 25: Repeat row 1.
Row 27: Bind off.
In Color B, cast on 36 sts. Work in stocking stitch for 14 rows. Row 15 (RS): K10. Join new ball of yarn. Holding both strands of yarn (from the new and old balls), K1. With the strand from the new ball of yarn, bind off 14 sts. K11. Working both sides at once, continue in stocking stitch until 40 rows have been completed since the beginning. Row 41 (RS): K11. Cast on 14 sts at beginning of left-hand side of block. Holding both strands of yarn together, K the 1st of the cast-on sts. Switch to only one strand of yarn, K the remaining cast-on stitches. K11. Work in stocking stitch for 13 more rows (54 rows since beginning). Bind off all sts.
In Color C, make two triangles.
Triangles: Cast on 26 stitches. Knit three rows in stocking stitch.
Row 4(WS): P3tog, Purl to end.
Knit two more rows in stocking stitch.
Row 7(RS): K5, P12, K4, SK2P.
Row 8: Knit the K stitches and Purl the P stitches.
Row 9: K5, P11, K6.
Row 10: P3tog, P4, K10, P5.
Row 11: K5, P10, K5.
Row 12: P6, K9, P5.
Row 13: K5, P8, K4, SK2P.
Row 14: P5, K8, P5.
Row 15: K5, P7, K6.
Row 16: P3tog, P4, K6, P5.
Row 17: K5, P6, K5.
Row 18: P6, K5, P5.
Row 19: K5, P4, K4, SK2P.
Row 20: P5, K4, P5.
Row 21: K5, P3, K6.
Row 22: P3tog, P4, K2, P5.
Row 23: K5, P2, K5.
Row 24: P6, K1, P5.
Row 25: K9, SK2P.
Row 26-27: StSt the 10 stitches.
Row 28: P3tog, P to end.
Row 29-30: StSt the 8 stitches.
Row 31: K5, SK2P.
Row 32-33: StSt the 6 stitches.
Row 34: P3tog, P to end.
Row 35-36: StSt the 4 stitches.
Bind off.
In Color C, make two mirror-image triangles.
Mirror Image: Cast on 26 stitches. Knit three rows in stocking stitch.
Row 4(WS): P23, P3tog.
Knit two more rows in stocking stitch.
Row 7: K3tog, K4, P12, K5.
Row 8: Knit the K stitches and Purl the P stitches.
Row 9: K6, P11, K5.
Row 10: P5, K10, P4, P3tog.
Row 11: K5, P10, K5.
Row 12: P5, K9, P6.
Row 13: K3tog, K4, P8, K5.
Row 14: P5, K8, P5.
Row 15: K6, P7, K5.
Row 16: P5, K6, P4, P3tog.
Row 17: K5, P6, K5.
Row 18: P5, K5, P6.
Row 19: K3tog, K4, P4, K5.
Row 20: P5, K4, P5.
Row 21: K6, P3, K5.
Row 22: P5, K2, P4, P3tog.
Row 23: K5, P2, K5.
Row 24: P5, K1, P6.
Row 25: K3tog, K to end.
Row 26-27: StSt the 10 sts.
Row 28: P7, P3tog.
Row 29-30: StSt the 8 sts.
Row 31: K3tog, K to end.
Row 32-33: StSt the 6 sts.
Row 34: P3, P3tog.
Row 35-36: StSt the 4 sts.
Bind off.
Abbreviations:
P3tog: Purl 3 stitches together
SK2P: Slide 1 stitch. K2 together. Pass slipped stitch over K2tog stitch.
K2tog: Knit 2 stitches together.
K3tog: Knit 3 stitches together.
StSt: Knit in Stocking Stitch pattern
Finishing Instructions:
Place the Color A square inside the Color B square. Using safety pins, match the corners of the Color A square with the inside corners of the Color B square. Starting on the right side and using the mattress stitch, weave the two sides together. Next, weave the top of the A square to the cast-on row of the B square. Continue around in this fashion until the entire A square is weaved together with the B square.
Turn the AB square 90 degrees. Place the triangles on each side of the AB square. Be sure that the triangles are situated so that the stocking stitch runs parallel to the outside of the block. In other words, your block should look similar to the picture on the left.
Use safety pins to hold the triangles in place while you seam the them to the AB square.
Finally, seams the points of the triangles together.
Weave in any loose ends.