February 8, 2022

Big labelled ball of Scarlet for the Star
The drab pink was frogged.

February 9, 2022

70g left of the Scarlet.
The completed Star square weighs 90g.

Part 2 - using ancient Caron Wintuk
How old? Well, its label is unilingual English, but has a barcode. So, made sometime between the implementation of barcodes and the first NAFTA agreement. Made in USA.
100% Monsanto Worsted Weight Acrylic.

9:30 PM
Oops! I only just noticed that the second round of the border of the first square is supposed to have a whack of eyelets!! Time to rip back and correct.

February 11, 2022

Part 2 completed. Total weight so far: 215g.

February 12, 2022

Part three - navy blue - done!

February 12, 2022

Sometimes, it pays to actually READ the pattern, not just assume it’s the same as the previous.
Parts 3 and 4 both have ‘arrows’, but they’re not the same number of units.
Part 4, row three ripped and redone.

February 13, 2022

3:50AM First half of part 4 done.

February 14, 2022

Second half of part 4 done!!

February 14, 2022

IDEA I have a box full of “hand knitting yarn”, 100% cotton from Spain. I wouldn’t call it yarn, but crochet thread. At least one of the projects was done in white. The cotton I’m thinking of is an off-white. Maybe I make this again with that cotton?

I’m supposed to have 129 stitches across. I have 133.
No, of course I hadn’t counted before working to a few stitches from the end of row three!! Why would I do that?!

Now, rip only row three and fudge four stitches out of existence, or rip all three rows and lose four stitches from the get go?

No end of row stitch counts given in part 3.
I’d been so happy with this pattern!

OK. Ripped back almost to the beginning of row one. Left out two stitches where the previous parts joined. Have the prescribed 129 sts.
Onward!!

Yay! Row 3 finally done!!! It only took four goes.

February 15, 2022

3:35AM first half of part 5 done!
And first row of second half done and counted. 129 stitches.

Pattern says 2 dc in the post of each dc/end of row. Well, that’s fine for most, but four. This time, I did it in one of them, because I managed to skip a stitch in the last row of the navy. I don’t think my tail is long enough to allow for rip/redo, so the skipped stitch remains.

February 18, 2022

Second half of part 6 done!!

Looking ahead at the end of the first row of part 7, it calls for a total of 171 stitches.

February 19, 2022

I seem to have trouble remembering to read the even numbered rows from left to right. That has cost me several times ripping out rows two and three.

February 20, 2022

Progress photo added. Only two rows of the first half of part 7 to go.

It will at least cover our bed, but … it’s possible I may need to either finish with non- matching ‘logs’ or buy more yarn. I don’t think I’ll have enough of any single colour to complete both halves of parts 8 and 9. Or maybe I just need to spend more time digging around in my stash? Maybe Mohamed’s right, and I do have enough yarn?

9 PM Second half of part 7 done!

Now to look for the next yarn!

February 21, 2022

1:30 PM Begun part 8. The colour is Chocolate.

This is the first time I have used the Loops & Threads Impeccable from Michaels. It’s soft, but not in a limp way. I like it!!! Better yet, the ball band says it’s made in Canada from imported fibres. If ever I need to buy more worsted weight yarn, this is what I’ll try to get.

February 22, 2022

2:45 PM Second half of part 8 begun.
First half took a few yards more than one skein. There are four total.

February 23, 2022

12:15 AM Second half of part 8 done!!

6 PM. Using pale yellow Baycrest to do part 9.

February 24, 2022

Pattern says:

Puff Stitch (PS): Yarn over, insert hook in st, pull up loop (5 times), yarn over and pull through 9 loops, yo, and pull through last 2 loops

Rewritten: (yarnover, pull up a loop)x5 = 10 loops plus the loop on the hook = 11 sts.
Yarnover, pull through 9 loops = 3 loops remaining on hook.
That’s one too many!
So, I’m pulling through 10 loops, not 9.

February 25, 2022

Working row 6 of the second half of part 9. I dislike the Puff Stitch. Doing it slows me down! I can whip along with a pencil-grip, but find I need to change to a knife-grip for each Puff.
I am not looking forward to part 10.

7:30 PM second half of part 9 done.

From several 50g balls of yarn and an unmeasured quantity of hand-wound balls of the same yarn, I didn’t need to broach a full ball to finish the last row. 16” of yarn leftover from the hand-wound balls! That leaves me a neat stash of eight intact 50g balls of this pale yellow. I count it as having won at Yarn Chicken!

9 PM Baby Pink? Look like that’s the next colour.

March 5, 2022

Time out helps.
REREADING the text, when available, also helps.
I had thought that there was an error in the pattern. A few days knitting, and then coming back to it helped me to finally see where I had erred.
Row 3, part 10, successfully completed!!! Off and running again!!

March 6, 2022

2:20 AM Just begun row 5 of part 10.

7:25 PM First half of part 10 DONE!! Many missteps, but it’s done.

Now, lunch!

March 7, 2022

5:30 AM second half of part 10 DONE!

Now, to sleep.
Later, to seek out next colour, if not white.

March 8, 2022

Part 11 will be Raspberry.

March 9, 2022

Round 2, part 11 done!!

March 10, 2022

Round 3, part 11 done!!

2:30 AM. I’m not particularly happy with this part. If I take the time to work into two chains individually as I do round 4, it will look nice, but it will take a week! If I speed along just putting 2dc in each ch3 of the previous round, will it look as nice?
The round is begun, and I’m off to sleep. I’ll think about it later.

11:50 PM Did the 1dc in each of two chains of each ch3 space. SLOW!! But round 4 is done.

March 11, 2022

3:00 AM Halfway around round 5, and I’m beginning to wonder if I have enough yarn for another six and a half rounds. If I don’t, there will be no ripping back. I’ll change colours is all.

4:15 AM Round 5 done.

5:20 AM I am some kind of math nudnik. The two Baby Pink ‘logs’ (part 10) took almost all of two 7-oz. skeins. What made me imagine that one 16-oz. ball would be enough to do eleven ever longer rounds?

So? To decide if this band will be two-tone or narrower than the others? Impossible that I have enough of this heathered raspberry to do another six rounds, unless …
I can abandon the pattern!! Do the remaining rounds as plain mesh!!

Ah! Now, I can go to sleep. Worrying over!!

March 12, 2022

3:15 AM. Dumbly hoping, I did round 6 in pattern with the same yarn.

April 11, 2022

Continuing round 7.
Since the only blue in this is navy (so dark it looks black), when I run out of this raspberry heathered yarn, I’ll dig out a lighter blue to complete part 11.

April 13, 2022

After a long spell in time-out, I continued.
While doing round 9, I discovered several errors in round 8. No one not examining it very closely will ever notice them; they remain.

Not enough of the heathered raspberry to complete part 11 - two rounds shy. They’ll be done in Claret. It’s almost a full ball; it should be enough.

Undecided about border.

11 PM YAY!!! Round ten done!!
One more round, and then on to the border!!!

N.B While the text states 1 dc in each ch-space, the chart clearly shows 2 dc in each ch-2 space along all sides of part 11, round 11.

April 14, 2022

Saturated pink! I’m sure I have enough of it.

April 15, 2022

Border, round 1 done!! I need to bring up more yarn. It used almost all of the one 140 g ball I brought up. I think there are three or four more. I’ll bring them all up.

April 16, 2022

One ball of the Kids Pink got me around once and three-quarters. Two and a quarter left to go!

Round 2 of border done.
Spent time counting and placing markers every fifty stitches on each side. I needed to add a stitch here and there to have the required number.
Now, to sleep. It’s 3:20 AM.

April 18, 2022

Three-quarters around round 3 of the border!!!

April 19, 2022

3:30 AM Final round - one side, one corner, and maybe a quarter of the second side done, BUT … The way the ‘crowns’ are curling up displeases me. I guess I’ll be ripping back and do a round of crab stitch instead. The huge size of this precludes blocking, and seeing those cupped crowns all the time, would drive me crazy.

OR … maybe add a round of crab stitch to the curled bits to force them flat? I’ll give that a try, before ripping it.
Sleep first!

April 20, 2022

12:40 AM Continuing the fourth/final border round as written. Since my darling likes it as well with cupped or flattened ‘picot-crowns’, it goes along … slowly. Two sides done; two to do tomorrow.

April 20, 2022

Done!! All ends woven in!!
Only a run through the washer/dryer left.