Needlework Tuesday - Done with Days to Spare

I'm on vacation, but wanted to leave an update on a few projects. Feel free to add a link to your current needlework project in the comments section.   I have a few quilting projects that I want to continue  with this summer, though I do think I'll try and take a break from knitting for a while, or at least, stick to some smaller projects.

I have had these fabrics sitting around for for several years.  I think that I must have bought them with the plan of making boxer shorts for my dad.  I wanted to get them made and give them to him at Father's Day, and knew that boxer's were just not going to happen.  Instead I made pillow cases.  I wrapped them up and gave them to dad and told him to save them for when he was having a bad day.  He is undergoing treatment for Multiple Myeloma, a type of bone cancer.  They were still sitting in their wrapping over a week later.  I bet he' pondering what they might be....

I finished the main of the knitting of the mosaic afghan on Wednesday.  This first photo shows the cast on edge of the motifs.  They are nice and neat.

In this photo you can see the top end with all the cast off edges.  They are all curled and not very pretty at all.  I decided that it needed and edge that was more like the earlier photo.  With the right side facing me, and the same size needles, I picked up 19 stitches along the edge of each motif, one stitch at the top point, and one stitch in the bottom of each valley.  That was 317 stitches.  With the back size facing, I knit each stitch.  Row 3, with the right side facing.  I knit each stitch, and at each point I increased both before and atter the point.  At each valley I decreased by 2 stitches. I knit one more row from the wrong side and then cast off.

I have just started picking up stitches, starting at the bottom right of the lower orange/red square.  I was surprised at how quickly this went.  As you can see in the next photo, this is a much nicer finish. The afghan finished at 52 by 60 inches.  A bit smaller than the pattern stated, but it also too 12 balls of mosaic yarn as opposed to the 10 that the pattern called for.

I am looking forward to giving this to my friend on Thursday.