The Great American Afghan Collection

Whether they are called blankets or throws, warm and colorful afghans are an ever popular item for the home and project for knitters, and this guide takes knitters from the basics of creating afghan squares through the mechanics of laying out those squares in a design to the final product. Four project patterns—two that combine texture and color, one with cables, and one for kids—are included. Step-by-step illustrations are featured for stitches such as intarsia, duplicate stitch, cable and twist stitches, modular, entrelac, and two-color stranding. Both written and charted pattern directions, finishing hints, and border treatments are also provided. Since squares are made one at a time, crafters can easily transport projects and switch up designs any time.

The Great American Aran Afghan booklet features 24 squares by twenty-four knitters. Combine 20 squares of your choice for the throw and pair the additional four into accent pillows. All the information you'll need to knit The Great American Aran Afghan is included in this convenient booklet.

KNITTING. Straight from the pages of Knitter's Magazine: the second in a marvellous series, done in a brand new colourway. 24 new squares by 24 great designers in a flower garden of color, motifs, and patterning. You could decide to knit your afghan by repeating several of your favorite squares, or even by making it with just one or two squares. Refer to Knitter's School illustrations to assist you in learning new techniques. All the information you'll need to knit The Great North American Afghan are in this convenient booklet.

"Raw, direct, and powerful...This work is vitally important."—Ken Stern, former CEO of National Public Radio As a captain in the Army National Guard, Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan. Separated from most of his unit, Ben, along with his partner Corporal Radoslaw “Ski” Polanski, served in an Embedded Training Team, teaching, training, and leading into combat the green Afghan troops. But what they experienced went well beyond the assigned mission, and the war proved to be a mix of drudgery, absurdity, and ever-present dangers. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper began to share his stories with Americans back home. His boots-on-the-ground dispatches were broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition and published on Slate.com’s military blog, The Sandbox. In Greetings from Afghanistan: Send More Ammo, Benjamin Tupper’s chronicling of life under fire pulls the reader into the realities of war with poignancy, humor, and vivid reality, offering a unique and compelling firsthand view of the Afghan people, their culture, and a battle for survival that began long before the Americans arrived.

2,300 years ago an unbeaten army of the West invaded the homeland of a fierce Eastern tribal foe. This is one soldier’s story . . . The bestselling novelist of ancient warfare returns with a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 b.c. In a story that might have been ripped from today’s combat dispatches, Steven Pressfield brings to life the confrontation between an invading Western army and fierce Eastern warriors determined at all costs to defend their homeland. Narrated by an infantryman in Alexander’s army, The Afghan Campaign explores the challenges, both military and moral, that Alexander and his soldiers face as they embark on a new type of war and are forced to adapt to the methods of a ruthless foe that employs terror and insurgent tactics. An edge-of-your-seat adventure, The Afghan Campaign once again demonstrates Pressfield’s profound understanding of the hopes and desperation of men in battle and of the historical realities that continue to influence our world.

The Riveting Account of the American Who Inspired Kipling's Classic Tale and the John Huston Movie In the year 1838, a young adventurer, surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan. He declared himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great. The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before, yet the life and writings of this extraordinary man echo down the centuries, as America finds itself embroiled once more in the land he first explored and described 180 years ago. Soldier, spy, doctor, naturalist, traveler, and writer, Josiah Harlan wanted to be a king, with all the imperialist hubris of his times. In an extraordinary twenty-year journey around Central Asia, he was variously employed as surgeon to the Maharaja of Punjab, revolutionary agent for the exiled Afghan king, and then commander in chief of the Afghan armies. In 1838, he set off in the footsteps of Alexander the Great across the Hindu Kush and forged his own kingdom, only to be ejected from Afghanistan a few months later by the invading British. Using a trove of newly discovered documents and Harlan's own unpublished journals, Ben Macintyre's The Man Who Would Be King tells the astonishing true story of the man who would be the first and last American king.

Provides patterns and instructions for a variety of afghans, including picture afghans, and demonstrates basic stitches

"Since its first appearance in Knitter's Magazine issues 42-46, the Great American Afghan has appealed to many knitters - especially first time afghan knitters, even othose who thought they would never knit an afghan. The secret of its success is the square. You'll explore a broad range of knitting techniques, one square at a time"--Pg. 3.