August 1, 2025

After finishing the week 1 squares, I decided the Purple and Varsity Green were too dark, and I only had one skein of the Varsity Green. I swapped out Purple for Lilac from my stash though I waffled back and forth between it and Grape. I ended up deciding I wanted the brighter color. I then went looking for a lighter green on the internet. Herrschners had Green Gecko which is very neon but I thought would be a better contrast. There’s now not quite enough contrast between the Green Gecko and the Slime, but my only alternative is Safety Yellow which is too neon and too yellow. Herrschners also had Varsity Red, which is brighter than the regular Red I had been planning to use, so I decided to swap it out too. The final blanket may be a bit eye watering, but it’s a silly, fun Halloween throw so I’m OK with that!

It’s also silly that I bought more Big Twist Value when my stash of it is so large, and it felt weird to pay full price for it -- I don’t think I’ve ever paid full price for Value -- but at least I got free shipping by adding Coral and Magenta to the order too!

August 2, 2025

Mods on Spooky Swirl:

• Finish the orange corner that goes into the last white dc with a dc instead of a tr, then to put a tr into the next, black st instead of a dc. (This makes the gap less gappy.)

Mods on Spooky Eyeball:

• hdc on last round instead of dc (otherwise it’s bigger than the Skullington Square because of the round of red sc)

Mods on Jack O’Lantern:

• 5th round, start with 3 dc in gray (not orange) in place of 3 sc, switch to green on the last pull through and finish the rest of the round, starting with the second 2hdc in the repeat
• Do sc in place of the dc over the top of the gray stitches on the last round

Other mods:

• double magic ring
• invisible join at the end of rounds
• standing stitches to start new rounds in new color
• beginning dc of sc, ch instead of 3ch to start new round in same color (like Rachele Carmona does in her patterns because invisible join or sl st will add the missing top loop)

August 15, 2025

I’ve been focusing on another CAL I’m participating in so I am only finished with week 2 while the CAL is in the middle of week 4. I am looking forward to getting started on week 3 this weekend but I’m not going to make an attempt to catch up, I will be happy if I finish this by the end of September so I can use it with Halloweeen decorating in October.

I’m still waffling on my purple color!

September 28, 2025

I haven’t had much to say about this project, but I have been making progress. Today I completed part 5 and I did the first round of the border. If I’m honest, the CAL has been a bit of a trial at times -- I’ve learned I don’t really like sewing on appliqués, and large tapestries are tedius. Also, the cartoony style isn’t exactly my thing. BUT, I do like all the variety and it’s a good use of my stash of Big Twist Value.

In the end, I had to buy some purple from Michael’s because none of the ones I had contrasted enough with the black and were Halloween-y enough. (The Lavendar was giving Easter.) I still wish it was a little brighter/lighter, but it’s fine.

So, just the bazillion puff stitch pumpkins to do (sigh), then spiderwebs. At least it should be in time for Halloween!