Bought the yarn for this on my day off on Good Friday. You can see the intended color scheme in the picture. Dad’s birthday is coming up at the end of the month. I probably won’t have this done by then, but I want to have at least a good chunk done and I can at least wrap part of it up and give him an IOU on the rest.

4/3 - Began starting chain. Multiplied the pattern by one and a half because the original measurements were for 40” wide. Dad said he wanted an afghan at least 5’ by 6’! Wahhhhhh!?! Um, I think this is going to be a $200 blanket. Got the first few rows done. I royally screwed the other knit version of my suede zig-zag blanket. I haven’t been able to figure out where to line up the increases and decreases. The first row was one off, but it seemed to line up ok after that.

4/4 - Got about 5 rows done. I think I am going to do 10 rows per color repeat. I am probably going to use about 1 skein per repeat. This really is going to be a pricey piece. Wow, I guess this should make up for all the years I didn’t get him anything for his birthday, or Christmas … or Father’s Day. Yeah, that should make up for it?

4/7 - I finished the entire skein about 1/3 of the way through the 10th row. So I bought a second skein of the first and second colors.

4/8 - Finished the first stripe. I think 10 rows is a good width. Started dark blue.

4/11 - Finished the second stripe. This one I didn’t use the whole skein. I accidentally cut some of the first skein up when I cut off the label. I got a niffty new pair of scissors that fold up that came with the set of crochet hooks I bought and I got carried away with cutting things. I got about halfway through cutting off the label and realized I cut some of the yarn. Between that and the extra used in the beginning chain and I made a really long tail when I started, it ended up using extra yarn. That is great because now I won’t have to buy quite so much yarn.

4/16 - Finished the purple and started on the burgendy.

4/17 - After completing most of the burgendy stripe (8 out of 10 rows) I decided I didn’t like the color after both Shawn and Devon saying they couldn’t tell the difference between the purple and burgendy. The shades were too close together. I went to Colorful Yarns with my mom and Devon (he hates going in there!;). She helped me pick out some better colors. Now the flow of color between the purple and green is WAY better. I also think it will be ok with the two bright colors next to each other. Now, the colors gradiate and the shades go light to dark. I couldn’t afford to buy all 4 new colors because my cat decided to eat a fish hook last week and I had to spend $400 to get it surgically removed. So I only bought the next two. I hauled ass through the maroon and will start on the light brown tonight. Since I am heading to my mom’s tonight, I think I will go ahead and get the chocolate and olive (mmm, chocolate and olives, lol) because I am trying to get all the colors done at least once by Saturday.
4/18 - I worked on this all weekend at my cousin Iris’ house in the mountains. We had fun and she is so sweet. She always compliments my work and makes me feel special! Her friend even asked me if I could knit her a skirt. Iris told me I have gotten really good and that my work is beautiful. I am definitely happy with this afghan. The colors are amazing and I have been very careful with my stitches. There are these tiny circles at the middle of each peak and they make a straight line perpendicular to the diagonal ridges. It looks awesome. I am sure my dad will like it. I love it so much I want to make one for myself.

4/23 - Ok, getting all the colors done once is not going to happen. I have to give this to my dad tomorrow and I am still not done with the light brown. There are still 3 more colors to do and I can’t get that much done. Oh well.

4/24 - My dad REALLY liked it! My sister started cracking up when he said he liked his shawl and wrapped it around himself. I still had the ball of yarn attached to it and it fell down and rolled away. She was like, “What the hell? Are you serious the ball is still attached?” And so I had to explain about how I wasn’t done, and it was not a shawl, it was going to be a blanket, and no, there were not going to be any extra balls hanging off it. I also had to explain that even though I just gave him a present, I had to take it back. Hmmm, it was weird. But they understand. Apparently my mom asked my dad later if he liked it and he said he really did. It was exactly what he wanted and he was super excited about the colors and how big it was (going to be).

4/25 - I went downtown with my mom on the light rail and she asked me why I was carrying so much crap and I told her I was going to crochet on the train. She was laughing at me. But I actually got done with the light brown and half way through the dark brown between working on the train and at the coffee shop we ended up hanging out at.

4/26 - I am officially burned out and am taking a break.

5/21 - OK, now a month later, I have been wanting to work on this now for a while but I started so many other things, I didn’t get to it. So, being stuck at home for 2 days with a scary mystery stomach sickness, I had lots of time to make things. This is now officially back in rotation. I got the dark brown stripe done and started the olive.

5/23 - I ran out of olive yarn. I knew there was a significant difference between all the different skeins from when I weighed them. One weighed 104 grams, one 100. There also has been a pretty noticeable difference in how much is left over from each stripe. So this one must have been really short - Argh! I think it’s probably going to be a few more days until I get more. Darn it! And I was making such great progress too. I was thinking I may actually be able to finish it by Father’s Day. I still have a full month…

6/1 - Got a new skein of the olive at the Lamb Shoppe. They didn’t have many colors but just so happen to have the one I needed AND it turns out it is even the same dye lot! Finished the stripe and started on the bright green.

7/19 - I went camping this weekend and when you get to 10,000 even in the middle of July, the temperature gets down to the 30’s over night. It has been so feaking hot (in the high 90’s -100) over the last few weeks, I can’t bring myself to work with anything this thick or hot. But going to the mountains and bringing my nice warm soft blanket to work on while we sit around the campfire at night seemed like the perfect thing to do. And it was! I was getting really cold, but as soon as I whipped out the blanket and spread it over my lap, it kept me toasty warm. Warning - Working around a campfire may result in tiny holes being burned into whatever you are working on from the embers that fly out of the fire! Luckily I realized this right as they were flying towards precious blankie and I saved it in time. I got about half the bright green stripe done, more than I’ve accomplised in one weekend than I have in the last few months.

4/3/11 - OMG I worked on this thing!!! I forgot how gorgeous it is. I worked a little Friday night and was going to take it to Mom and Dad’s but I lost the freaking Size H hook I was using. I grabbed a G and an I and checked the mm and it looks like the Size I is a half mm bigger while the Size G is three quarters smaller. Did a few rows with the Size I and it looks fine. I’ve accepted the fact that it will be a miracle if I finish this thing, EVER.

11/9/11 - Yes, a miracle indeed. However, I’ve decided to TRY (key word there) to finish all my UFOs (I have a LOT) and give this shit out to people for Christmas, two years later! That’s ok, I think at this point everyone knows it takes forever for me to finish stuff, if ever! I’ve actually gotten a lot done in the last week. I finished the last bright green stripe (to complete the first color set) and started on the bright blue. I got 8 rows done and the ball was looking awfully small. I didn’t even make it halfway through the 9th row. I realized why I ran out so early on the first bright blue, because I didn’t take into account the starting chain. There was a whole extra row in there. With the first part of the skein missing, hoping to get this done by Christmas and not wanting to buy a whole skein for a row or two, I decided to rip out the start of the 9th row and just leave it at that. No one will ever know, it doesn’t even look that much different. With the leaf turning I’ve gone through over the last month (as in, turning over a new leaf? get it?) I’ve been trying to be more realistic and less anal. That will always be a part of me and perfectionism isn’t always bad, it’s just that sometimes it starts to ruin my life, and in turn, the lives of those around me. Prioritizing on what’s really important in my life then focusing on them and using my LIMITED energy and time into THOSE things, instead of the time and energy vampires, has helped me de-stress and relax a little. I certain feel like I’m accomplishing more and doing things when I’m supposed to and just accepting the rest as it is. So, blah blah blah long story short, it’s not perfect. I moved on and started the dark blue number two. I also took and inventory and am making a trip to the yarn store to get the remaining yarn, ALL at ONCE. Yes you read that right. I’ve been also prioritizing my budget and expenses so I finally have some control over my money now too! Taking back control over my life after being in an abusive relationship has been very difficult but the biggest part in healing.

12/11 - Mom bought me most of the rest of the yarn for the blanket! Yeah! But there’s still no way I can finish this anytime soon. So I’ll just keep plugging away.

1/10/12 - Put the last of the yarn I need on order at Colorful Yarns. I only need a few more skeins. I’m about half way done with this. I’m half way through the second purple stripe. I found out I’m losing my job at the end of the month so on the bright side I’ll get LOTS more time to work on crafts! Maybe this can be birthday (March) or Father’s Day (June).

3/8 - I AM making progress on this. I just started the weird orange-y brown stripe which means I’m over halfway through the second color repeat! Unfortunately, I think I may have to do a fourth repeat to get it to the dimensions I want. That and the skeins are getting smaller or something because the last 4 stripes got about 9 rows (I’m doing 10 rows per stripe) before running out so it’s taking more skeins. I went to Colorful Yarns last week and picked up the next 2 skeins I needed from the dozen or so I have on hold because I had to order some of the colors. They are so NICE!!! I love them over there.

12/16 - Time to write an update. I have finished 2 entire color repeats. This evening is our family gift giving early Christmas. My parents always go out of town for Christmas so we get together early to exchange gifts & have dinner. I still would like to do 3 repeats but there’s no way I could get them done by today. My goal is to finish by the time they get back from Wisconsin on the 27th, giving me another week & a half. I am also short some yarn to do the third repeat. I don’t know what exactly is different but I used more than a skein per stripe on this last repeat so I may need even more than I originally thought. I might need 2 more skeins per color even though I’m only doing one repeat. I’ve been getting a lot faster & a lot more disciplined in getting things done so I am really pushing myself to get this done on time. It is beautiful.

11/25/14 - UPDATE! I almost threw the leftover yarn away. One of the cats felt like using it as a litter box. I really need to finish this. I washed the blanket in some oxy laundry detergent & it seems to be ok. I also soaked the remaining eight skeins in the oxy stuff too. I think they’re ok, they smelled fine. I laid them out to dry on a towel. I’m glad I didn’t toss them because I realized that was almost $60 worth of yarn! I still have one more color repeat to do but I think with one month until Christmas I can push myself to finish (I’m super proud of myself for finishing Amy’s blankie ON TIME, yes I typed that correctly & no the world isn’t ending). I think I just need to start crocheting & then I can worry about picking up any remaining yarn as I get to it so I don’t get overwhelmed or wait too long to actual get working on it.

12/1/19 - Couldn’t save the yarn, did save the blanket. I decided to give it to dad just the way it is, it’s HUGE & HEAVY. He loves it!!!