Joined a cool-looking test. Looks like I’ll get my new queen-sized afghan in this lifetime after all. ;)

Due date’s January, so chill. LOL

The Vanna’s Choice yarn is soft and comes is great colors…but it’s very splitty and the twist unravels easily.

1/5/15--ten days til the deadline…just finished twelve 8-row squares…this wouldn’t have taken me nearly as long but for all the color changes and woven-in ends (I do it as I go so I don’t fling myself off my roof at the end)…just those twelve squares represent 96 color changes and 192 ends woven in…but I chose this…and it’ll be fabulous (my mantra in energizing me to finish, already). I’ve got just twelve 4-row squares to do, then I’m joining. I’ll finish for the test deadline with just the attaching, likely. And that’s all I’m required by the test rules. However, I will be then adding a border of some size, since just ending with the join looks entirely too plain, imho.

1/10/15: squares done…now labeling each squares back with a number & letter code that corresponds to the printed afghan map (with Sharpie and masking tape)..will then put each section I’m joining on a dowel so that I don’t have to keep my bed unoccupied (or having to keep laying them all out)…beginning my join today! Hope I can do it all in 5 days. Surprise extension to 2/3!

Helpful

1. Giving each section of squares a letter and number identification on the pattern “map” (I wrote it right on the paper) AND on the squares themselves (in Sharpie on masking tape).
2. Highlighting each section on the map after I was done making the squares. This way, I knew at a glance how much I’d done, what I still needed to do.
3. Weaving in each and every end as I went
4. Using a couple dowels to hold the sequence of squares for joining (I had squares of all sizes, so stacking would have been ridiculous)
5. Using a colored pencil to follow the joining direction line on the pattern. Again, I knew exactly where I was. Between this tip and #1 and 4, I never got confused as to where I was in joining and with what

Yardage:
Squares 2954.1 yards
Join 1452 yards

(this is just an estimate…I used some taupe within the squares and the labels got mixed…so it might have taken between 1-2 skeins…also, keep in mind that my squares’ yardage is a lot because of all the color changes…those ends eat a lot of yarn)