16 Jan 2024: Date of yarn acquisition a guess. Using orphan skeins from a much larger donation of a full tub of this yarn. The two shades of Cactus color way are from different dye lots so blanket squares are a good option for using them.

21 Jan 2024: Began Sq 1 with color 26 Cactus. Used long tail cast on.

29 Jan 2024: Sq 1 10.5”/27 cm, 1.75oz/51 gms. Used my standard bind off. Selvedge is lovely. For future, I will use the twisted cast on or the crochet cast in to better match the selvedge and make things consistent.

25 Mar 2024: Belated notes on Sq 2. Used twisted cast on with color 59 Pearl Grey. Centered the pattern between 1 st on each side instead of having 2 st on one side. Needed firm blocking to get to size. Blocked square has pleasing texture.

25 Mar 2024: Sq 3 started with the green from Sq 1 and the grey from Sq 2 but the contrast was too subtle. Restarted with grey (59) and brown (33), which is much better. Put stripes in the garter borders at top and bottom.

27 May 2024: April block is finally done. 46g. I struggled with the given pattern because it was not a regular repeat. After multiple attempts, I substituted a stitch that had a regular repeat. Then I ripped and tinkered because I didn’t like my uneven SSKs and the decrease lines of the intersecting blocks were not consistent due to the pattern structure. Finally, I gave up and just finished the square. Blocked to 10.5”.

19 June 2024: 47g, damp blocked to 10.5”. 3.5 repeats.

24 June 2024: 41g, wet blocked to 10.5”/27 cm. Color 33.

5 Sept 2024: 35g, wet blocked to 10.5”/27 cm. Color 26.

9 Sept 2024: 48g, needed only light blocking. MC 11, CC 141, both leftover from other squares.

13 Oct 2024: 44g, wet blocked to 10.5”/27 cm. Color 123. In order to have the block be the correct size, the 2 extra squares on the left were omitted. The color was a mistake. The tweed made it difficult to read the stitches, and the block took more attention than it normally would and it was tedious. Lesson learned!

19 Oct 2024: 38g, wet blocked to size. Pin marks show the firm blocking needed. The joining method I am contemplating should disguise the pin marks. To reduce cable flair and balance the two margins, I cast on 5 st on the last row of the bottom garter edging, adding 4 st in the cable center and 1 st on right margin so both had 3 st between the pattern st and garter border. Dec 5 st in first row of top garter edging, started on the last wrong-side row of patt st (Row 12).

19 Nov 2024: 45g, used pattern stitch counts.

16 Dec 2024: Used pattern stitch counts, with 4 repeats of pattern.

22 Dec 2024: Blanket assembled. The joining method was a lot of fun even if tedious working with the cast on and cast off edges. Would provisional cast ons and leaving ending stitches live be possible? Would that have enough stability for a blanket?