This is a larger version of the Baravelle spiral. It was given the title Swirl Without End because it could go on for ever. Mathematically it is interesting because the final set of triangles have been truncated to make trapeziums and create a regular octagon overall. It is technically interesting because it cost almost nothing to make.
As with Best of Both Whirls this is basically made from the same triangles that can be clearly seen in From Square to Eternity. It is much more difficult to pick out the triangles in the spirals because the colours merge together.
The calculations needed for knowing where to stop knitting, to turn the shape into an octagon, are more complicated than most of the other calculations we use but working ‘by eye’ should give a satisfactory result.
The reason that the original afghan cost nothing to make was because we had acquired many oddments of red, blue, green and yellow yarn and decided that the time had come to use them up. They were sorted into piles which included some rather strange shades and some even stranger textures. These were not going to have any impact on the overall effect. Two strands of yarn were used throughout and whenever one ran out another was joined in. This meant that only one yarn was changed at a time and there were no definite stripes to be seen. In places more strands of finer yarns were also used. This has been a very popular design because it can use such a large quantity of bits which would not otherwise be used.
