wecareblanket 02

Today’s blanket group is just me as everyone else went on a trip to a museum so I finally took advantage of the quiet and an empty table to figure out this blanket. There were two issues. I worked several corners in places that weren’t the corners. However as I thought I had turned the work at one corner!

So, I ripped back. It’s painful but I know it’s the right move. There is another misplaced corner in the first grey section but as (I believe) it’s the only mistake it should disappear. Now to start forward again!

Yes, there's ways I could've fudged this to make up the one turn and make it square again, but honestly this is easier. It's not as much actual crochet time I had to rip out as it may seem, even if it was two to three calendar weeks worth.

I often work on this project after minyan as I drink my first cup of coffee. When I took it out to work on Thursday morning, I discovered that all my stitch markers were on the opposite side I was working and that didn't make any sense.

When I couldn't quickly find the issue, I continued. And I carried on during the weekly sisterhood session[1] when we sit and work on our blankets together.

The blanket now measures approximately 17 inches or 43 cm. As I laid it out for this progress photo, I discovered it's not laying right. If you look along the edge with my tape measure you can see that the lower edge and specifically that corner on the right is very off.

It will go into time out, but something tells me I will pull back about 3 inches to my last known good point and rework it.

Is this perfectionism?

No... this is the sort of mistake that will niggle at me. In the back of my head I will hear a voice that says I should've fixed it when it was only a few rows off kilter.

I don't want the entire blanket to develop a new shape.

With that in mind, I'm constantly telling students[2]:

• humans aren't flat
• humans aren't made of right angles
• humans aren't circular

However,

• humans are lumpy in odd places
• humans are often cold, especially in hospital settings
• humans need to feel loved and cared for

At this point it's only about a week of work that I need to rip out and I do want to find where I turned the work around. My guess is that at some point I put the piece away when I was at a corner and turned back without realizing it. However, I've been unable to spot it so far!

Notes

[1] I'm often troubleshooting the issues that pop up so my work is in short bursts between when I'm asked to help.

[2] I'm using the term student loosely here. I tell anyone who gives me any encouragement that they may listen to me about this.

I haven't been working much on this blanket. However, there is still progress, it's grown since my first check-in when it was 6.5 inches, 16.5 cm square.

Last week was too dark and grey to want to work with a mostly grey yarn. This week two days were unavailable due to Shavout and today the heat index in the 90s! Who wants to work on a one-piece blanket? I think I'm going to start another one that's motif-based and worry about the joining up later.

Even with all these reasons not to work on it, very slowly the colour is beginning to shift to a green. It currently measures about 14 inches, nearly 36 cm (square).

The number one question I'm asked as I work on it is: how big it will be? Everyone is surprised that I don't know. I haven't sat to do math about it. I don't want to think about this project. I just want to crochet. I thought too much about the first blanket and now need to think more about how I'll make that one a useable blanket.

If all goes well, I'll end up with a blanket that's at least 34 inches, 86 cm (square); if it's not, then I'll find more yarn and continue to work until it's the target size for this project (which is ideally 36 inches, 91.5 cm).

Hopefully it'll be speedy.

I'm working this next blanket from the center out in Lion Brand Mandala Bonus Bundle in creams, greys, and green.

Simple and easy. Maybe I'll switch up the stitch pattern when I get a bit further, but for now this is a good start.

It’s currently at 6.5 inches.