Now that it’s cuddle-up-on-the-couch season, it’s just the right time for a new afghan. Add a little splash of color to your decor with the Hue Shift Aghan!

This afghan is knit in Garter stitch mitered squares. The squares are picked up and knit off of each other in four large segments, so that the only seam required is to stitch the four segments together. Because of this, it makes an easy travel project, because no one section is very large.

The 10 colors in the patterning of the afghan are arranged in such a way that they create a wash of 100 slightly different, shifting shades. This pattern is available in two colorways as a ready-to-knit kit: Rainbow and Decor. But, if you want to create your own colorful masterpiece, get the downloadable version and choose your own palette. With a little imagination, the color possibilities are much greater!

For instance, if you wanted a rich, jewel-toned blanket, try these colors:

Or for something a little softer, how about these?

You can have a lot of fun with the border, too. Try striping the afghan’s colors in each garter ridge, or choose a solid color from the afghan and it will seem to blend into the border. For the Rainbow colorway, a dark color like Eggplant or Solstice Heather would complement the bright hues, while using Red or Celestial would make the mitered portion appear to pop off of the background.

Hue Shift is knit in Brava Sport, so it’s both cuddly and washable. There’s just enough Brava Sport in the kit to make the afghan – it will use nearly all of the yarn required! But if you wanted to make a bigger afghan, you could use the same colors in Brava Worsted or Brava Bulky – just carefully watch the yardage, as a move to either will require purchasing a second ball of each patterning color, and a third ball of the border color.  You could easily knit it in any other sport weight yarn as well, following the yardage calculations.

Since the mitered squares are really basic, it’s also easier to simply make each square larger, thereby making the whole afghan larger. This, again, will require more yarn, but you can nearly double the area of the blanket with double the yarn. If you want to go really big, though, make four of the center sections and sew those together for a stunning king-size afghan!

With simple patterning and loads of color choices, the possibilities are endless. What will you do with your Hue Shift?