January 20, 2019

I heard about this CAL from Terri at The Yarnjoy Podcast (one of my favorite podcasts). I have a lot of stash I want to bust this year, and this is a slow motion CAL (two 12” squares per month for twelve months), so it should be fairly easy to fit in amongst other things.

I started the first square tonight, which is herringbone half double crochet, a stitch I’ve never done before. The Caron One Pound is not my favorite yarn, even for 100% acrylic. It is super thick and stiff. The ball band actually calls for a 5.0mm hook which seems really small for it but I’m using that since my guage is loose. Sure enough, my square is measuring just over 12” width without the single crochet border. There’s no way I’m going down a hook size!

January 31, 2019

I finished the second square this evening and it was lots of fun. I should have gone up a hook size, the fabric is a bit stiff. I’ve been saying that a lot lately -- you’d think I’d learn.

February 13, 2019

Square #3 is done. This one was very fast.

February 28, 2019

The Sedge Stitch square was also very fast and it has a nice texture.

I just weighed my squares (which average around 90g) and my remaining Claret yarn and I have enough for two and a half more squares. So, 5 per skein. I think I will do 9 squares and then join/border them with the Cape Code Blue, doing a nice, deep join and border to use up as much of that dark blue as possible. (I also have 200g of Sunshine, bright yellow, in my stash. I wonder if I could do a sc border around each square or join with that color to use it up?)

I may pick some normal Aran weight from my stash to make a second blanket with the final 15 squares from this CAL.

March 22, 2019

It’s time to decide how to border the squares, how to join them, and what kind of border to do around the whole blanket. I think I’ll do alternating fpdc, bpdc in the Colonial Blue -- this should give some consistency to the squares and the ribbing look should match the textured aesthetic of the project.

I’m thinking I’ll then join them with a join-as-you-go method, and then linen stitch around the whole thing to even it off until I run out of yarn. I would like to do a cable border on two opposite sides to make it rectangular (maybe one of Bonnie Barker’s), but I’m almost certain I won’t have enough yarn.

I want to use up the whole skein (and not go over, of course). I’ll weigh the skein, border a square, and then weigh it again to determine how much bordering the squares will use up.

Before: 469 g
After: 434 g
9 x 35 = 315 g

Square border & JAYG:

Round 1: Start an odd number of sts (like 5) before the corner st. Start with a standing hdc, then hdc in each st to corner, (hdc, dc, hdc) in the corner st, 1 hdc in each st to next corner. Repeat on each side and Inc or dec as needed to get to 41 sts per side (needs to be odd). Join with a sl st to first hdc.

Round 2: Ch 1, sc in the same stitch as join (counts as a bpdc), *fpdc around next st, bpdc around next st*, repeat between * until next corner, ending on a bpdc in the first hdc of the corner. Dc, ch2, dc in the corner. *bpdc, fpdc* and repeat to the next corner. Repeat on each side. Join to the first sc with a sl st.

Round 3 (first square): Ch 1, sc in the st with the sl st join. *Ch 1, sk 1, sc* to the corner omitting the final sc (you’ll be skipping all the fpdc). Sc, ch 3, sc in the corner stitch. Repeat on each side.

In subsequent squares, do plt join into the ch sp on the square to be joined to in place of the ch 1 in round 3. Pay attention to the corners -- see this Cypress Textiles video tutorial, Tiny Cable Join for details.

March 29, 2019

I made the Wide Checkers square last night (square #6). I really should have waited to join them until I had my layout worked out because this square would have looked better in stripes. (My first row had all solids so putting two striped in this row or one in the last two rows didn’t feel right.) No biggie, it still has a cool texture.

April 13, 2019

I finished the Granny Spike Stitch (square #7) on the drive out to Amherst to see our girls at UMass. Again, this is another square that would have looked better in multiple colors.

I’ve decided I’m not going to do a second blanket with the rest of the patterns from this CAL. Instead, I’m going to switch to making cotton dish cloths from the rest of the squares, altering them to be smaller. One of my goals for the year is to use up more of my kitchen cotton stash, and these would all make great dish cloths.

April 24, 2019

I made the Tiny Flower Square last night but realized half way through I was skipping row 6 (the second row of hdc between the flower rows). I decided not to frog and just add another repeat.

April 28, 2019

I joined the second row of squares this week.

After making the 8 squares and joining 6, I have:

274 g Cape Cod Blue
160 g Azure Blue
100 g Claret

Definitely not enough for another row of squares, so my current plan is to do a wide linen stitch border to use up as much of the remaining yarn as possible.

May 11, 2019

The last square was the Wattle Square and I didn’t actually take a picture of it by itself. I added the border and did the join at my Thursday meet-up at the café, then I started a linen stitch border that evening. I finished up the border on the way to Amherst for oldest DD’s college graduation. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to use up the rest of the yarn.

Today, Saturday, I gifted it to my father-in-law when we visited him in the Soldiers’ Home. (I took a picture on a bench just before we went in.) He’s just moved there and his room was a bit sterile, so it was nice to give him something a little more personal to add to his space. We also brought some family photos for his bulletin board and a homemade banana bread. While there, I also dropped off 6 other throws that will go to the recreation department to be distributed to other veterans at the home. I’m really happy to have passed them along and I hope someone enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them.