July 6
Finished!
This has been a long month’s work - filling the gap by extending the interlocking circles piece, sewing it all together and working the border.
I changed the border a bit - I had to do something to make it mine - adding a central round of ochre to reflect the internal lines, and working some of the rows from the wrong side to add texture and definition. I really like the ‘dc round the post’ which finishes it off - it maks a great edge.

My verdict? Better than I’d feared at one stage but it will never rank among my favourite pieces.
I also know now that ‘mystery’ projects are not for me - I like more control!

But I have learned from it, even if I don’t do any more crochet, and I’ve enjoyed the company here.

May 21
The instructions came early this month and it is mostly just more of the same and lots of sewing up.
Rather dull and tedious crochet-wise, but interesting to see the piece taking shape.
Some of my initial reservations are going; now that we are seeing the bigger picture and not homing in on the fine detail I’m feeling more optimistic.
But there are still 12 whole balls of yarn left!

April 24
Working in the round and interlocking circles. The pieces everyone has been waiting for!
Again several minor errors in the instructions which I find increasingly irritating.
I’m finding impossible at this stage to work out how these disparate pieces will come together as a coherent whole.
There must be an awful lot more to do - I still have 13 unopened balls of yarn, from the original 34, and only two more months to go!

March 23 This month’s technique is intarsia - again new to me. I modified the wrong side method of colour change to give what, to me, seems a better result. (See my Flickr set)
Several of us are a bit concerned about the design that is appearing - there are some odd matches of colour stripes and size. We’ll see…

Feb 23 This month’s beading finished. I’d never done any beaded crochet before, but, once I got the hang of it, it’s quite straightforward and I love the finished effect.
Is the beaded diamond piece going to be in the centre?

Feb 14 The new instructions are here - beads!
What fun! And now to get counting…

Jan 24 -all the first pieces finished!
Some of every colour has been used; I love the interaction.

I’m working through the first set of instructions and all is going well so far. The wave and chevron stitch piece was very irregular - but now it’s been blocked it looks fine.