Title: Gorgeous Knitted Afghans
Author: Fatema Habibur-Rahman
Date: 2004
Publisher: Lark
ISBN: 978-1579903534
Illustrations: full-color photos
“Gorgeous” is the word for this book. The influence of Indian art is conspicuous. Very bright, clear colors, jewel tones and actual jewels, tiny sewn-on mirrors, make Indian textiles “gorgeous”...and that’s the look of many of these afghans.
Not all of them are bright-colored. There are some subtle effects worked in soft-colored yarns too...but there are enough jewel tones, beads, mirrors, paisleys, and mandalas to make it clear that the three sisters from Bengal are celebrating their artistic heritage.
That’s not the only Islamic Indian influence I see in this book. Why afghans rather than sweaters or shawls? Two cultural factors are involved. One is that, when people learned to knit “in the old way,” they didn’t buy and store a lot of fancy pattern books; they memorized simple “rules” for knitting whatever they wanted to knit, and learned patterns from “samplers,” which might be used as blankets, table runners, rugs...or afghans. The other factor is Muslim modesty. You can recycle these patterns into shawls or sweaters if you want to, but nobody is demeaned by having to pose for a picture in this book. The photos show afghans draped across chairs.
Then there’s the way the sisters write. Their use of English words, including knitting terms, is not incorrect; it’s foreign. Gorgeous Knitted Afghans was edited by its American publisher so that the directions are easy for Americans to use, but some of the discussion is...well...easier to follow than Salman Rushdie. “Ply refers to the number of strands that make up the yarn’s thread”? Technically that’s an allowable way to use those words; it’s just not a way an American would ever use them. .
There’s also the emphasis on family life. The sisters Habibur-Rahman tell us about their family, not about where they live, where they went to school, what they or even their husbands do (apart from knitting). Typical of Indian Muslims as distinct from Muslims in some other countries, however, they do use their own individual names rather than honorific “Mother of...” titles.
Perhaps easiest for some Americans to appreciate is the concept of afghans for all seasons. Some of these afghans are heavy snowproof blankets, and some of them are light and lacy.
Others will love just looking at the ways the sisters play with colors and novelty yarns. A plain cable-stitch panel is framed in two shades of heathered “fun fur.” One afghan mixes five different hand-painted yarns. The cover pattern plays two different multicolor fleck yarns against bright contrasting solid colors. Mandalas are accented with tassels on page 59; paisleys are elaborated with mini-mirrors on page 145. You won’t be able to get the same novelty effects this year, but you’ll be inspired to mix up the current novelty yarns to make afghans that are uniquely your own.
What some Americans will love, and others will hate, is the extravagant use of cashmere yarn. Presumably this is less extravagant in Kashmir, or in Bengal, than it would be in the United States. One entire multicolor afghan is worked in nothing but cashmere. Good luck even finding cashmere yarn in that many colors at your local wool shop...in a good year they might be able to order it specially for you. Mohair and alpaca are easier to get and look gorgeous, too, but they just don’t feel the same.
You need to be a fairly skilled knitter to reproduce most of these afghans. This should not be a problem. Afghans don’t have to fit exactly, and people sweating out colds on the couch won’t even care if the panels aren’t perfectly matched. Afghans are the way knitters build those skills. Gorgeous Knitted Afghans will entice you to perfect knitting techniques that may have seemed too much of a challenge when you were trying to knit a sweater.
