Repairing my Mom's afghan

 I've started work on repairing this afghan my mom knitted.  I'm not sure of when she made it, just that it was my favorite thing to be under if I was sick or very cold.  I suspect very early 70's at the latest, and more likely the 60's.  I'm pretty sure she used a synthetic or synthetic blend fiber, as it has been through the washer and dryer probably close to a hundred times.

I've had it in my possession since the 80's and am a little ashamed of how far I let it deteriorate.  I knew how to do the most basics of knitting, but didn't knit, and it was always on my list of things to do when it started getting holes in the center of some of the flowers and then splitting on some of the seams.  After it passed into my daughter's possession it only got worse until I finally stole it back with the intention of finally mending it.  Strangly enough, I found some supersaver yarn that seems to match the pink extremely well, and the gray is only off enough to see if you hunt hard for it.

I've seamed up the 3 pink squares on this shot already and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I'm using a crochet hook and kind of ladder stitching it back together and it closely resembles the original.

It's parts like this one that have me worried.  I've got double pointed needles and a gizmo called a knook that might help, along with a very close to the original pattern.

The knook is a wooden needle with one end crochet hook, the other an eye for ribbon to pass through.  The ribbon holds stitches, you use the hook to do actual knit or purl stitches.  I think it will work best because it's so flexible and will get in the nook and cranny spaces even better than dpns or a circular needle would, but will still allow for knitting stitches as opposed to crocheting them.  Look how well that rose yarn disappears into the afghan in the picture above.

The pattern I have is slightly different- I only have a black and white photo copy but I believe they didn't use gray at all, and where the gray squares would be is a different kind of pattern.  The flower squares look very much the same.  I got it from a book (checked out of my local library and still there) called Better Homes and Gardens Victorian Style Needlecrafts, published Sep 1992.  It's available online but not for e-download.  As I said, I remember curling up in this during my childhood so I'm sure there is another older and closer to this out there- please let me know if you know of one.  My knitting skills are improving and I might like to recreate this from scratch some time.