04-16-2017

Several attempts needed to master the pinhole cast-on … I couldn’t get it until I found a tutorial demonstrating it left-handed.
First square made using magic loop (I tried 2 circs and dpns but couldn’t get on with either).
First square came out smaller than it should have but I think increasing needle size will likely make the squares too big - I was knitting very tightly, as I often do when I’m not sure what I’m doing, and I expect subsequent squares will be a bit more relaxed.

05-08-2017

Six squares knitted. After second square switched from using magic loop to two circulars. I think this method may distort the edge stitches less, so I’m going to stick to it. All six squares have come out at the same size once blocked and relaxed. This is slightly under-size but only by a tiny amount.
Currently taking a break to work swatch Carraig Fhada.

10-05-2017

Working on the 11th square now, with 9 of them blocked joined into a strip, as I’m now planning on making this 9 x 9 for a bedspread.

01-28-2018

20 squares knitted, with 18 joined into 2 strips of 9.

Halfway through making squares for the second strip I discovered why some of my yarn overs were less open than others. When a YO falls at the start of a round, I was wrapping the yarn the wrong way around the needle, creating a much smaller hole. Wrapping the YO’s all correctly makes the squares slightly larger, but this doesn’t seem noticeable when they’re joined. Fortunately!

03-22-2018

28 squares knitted, with 27 joined into 3 strips of 9.

12-09-2018

After a long hiatus lasting most of this year I’ve made a bit more progress with this. 34 out of 90 squares knitted and joined (plus with the three complete strips joined together). And I’ve made myself a tracker page for this project in my journal because - well, why not? It’s evidently going to be a part of my life for a long time to come!

02-07-2019

Fourth strip of 9 finished and joined.

05-31-2019

Last Sunday I decided to downsize my upsized Birlinn back to the pattern dimensions of 6x6 squares. It’s too much for my wrists! I unpicked the joins for the top three squares in all four strips of nine squares. This gave me the right number of squares but two were incorrect colours for a 6x6 sequence, so I frogged them.

Knitted two squares in the right colours to give me 36 squares, now blocking.

June 7, 2019

Picking up the edging stitches.

June 22, 2019

Completed 20/06/2019. I loved knitting the edging of this blanket - it really pulled it all together and made it seem much more unified. The icord bind off is a lot of work but so worth it - it gives such a lovely neat edge.