Only because of Ginette! And because I’m a mitred square addict.
Worsted weight yarns, because that’s what I have most of.
Using Knitter’s Pride Nova Platin Cubics needles.
Crochet-hook cast-on.
Doing two consecutive k2tog at centre.
The first square - Scarlet - seems to be coming out to 6” square.
The second square will be the Bernat Pounder in white and an unlabeled dark lilac.
Because changing colours at centrepoint, no need for a stitch marker!
December 2, 2020
1:40 AM Squares 1, 2, and 3 done.
The white and purple are uncut between the two squares.
Squares 4 and 5 will be more of the same purple, after a sleep.
Now that I’ve seen the second set of instructions, I won’t knit any more until after ALL the directions have been released. The pattern calls for reuse of previous colours in later squares, so using tiny leftovers won’t really show the designer’s planned pattern.
I’m in clue-collection mode, so I’ll be able to plan colour distribution. It’s not a stashbuster, if I can’t use up odd and ends. So far, of six days, I’ve only seen one which calls for previously used colours, but I can’t count on that being true throughout. Maybe I’ll have it finished for my birthday on January 23? That’s a reasonable goal, and not that much faster than the 24 days of Advent.
December 7, 2020
After reading the first 75 pages (of 90 so far), I’ve decided to continue now, but I won’t use any tiny bits, just in case one is called for later on. I certainly have more than enough largish balls of leftovers.
Colours for numbers:
Day1
1 = Scarlet
2 and 3 = white and light purple
4 and 5 = purple
6 = white and purples variegated
7 = Red Heart Mexicana - probably, wimpy-thin like the one ball of recent manufacture I had
8 = light tan through darkest brown variegated
Day 2
9 = faded denims variegated
10 = Red Heart Dark Plum
11 and 12 = light purple - no label
13 = golden sand
14 = greens and white variegated
15 and 16 = intarsia, white and light purple
17 = Zellers Old Rose
18 = grey/green
19 = royal blue
Day 3
20, 21, 22, and 23 = grey and sparkly turquoise
Day 4
24 = blues/white variegated
25 = dark red and green-teal
26 = saturated yellow
27 = sparkly deep aqua
28 = light grey
29 = Baycrest Sayelle Hot Pink
Day 5
30 = burnt orange
31 = peach and dull burgundy
32 = brown
33 = medium grey and Kelly green
Day 6
34 = black and four shades of pink
35 = medium blue and palest green, held double since it’s so thin.
36 = Hot Red and sky blue
37 = white and heathered blue-green
38 = sage green
39 = violet
Day 7
40 = teal (doubled) and grey
41 = dead rose and Kelly green
42 = saturated yellow and four shades of blue
43 = light green and purple
44 = royal blue
45 = Lemon
46 = Dark Plum
Day 8
47, 48, 49, 50, 51, and 52 = burnt orange and white/purples variegated
Day 9
53 = neon pink
54 = sparkly turquoise
55 = golden sand
56 and 57 = a blue, orange, a grey
Day 10
58 through 62 = a bluey green from a cardboard cone, and five shades of grey - one in the window ledge, and one in each windowpane.
63 = Sun Gold
64 = reddish yellow
65 = canary
66 = orange
Day 11
67 = burgundy
68 = Cherry Red
69 = pink, olive drab, medium blue, heathered light brown
Day 12
70 through 78 = red and/or white
Day 13
79 = denim, neon pink, sparkky turquoise
80 = maroon, saturated yellow
Day 14
81, 82, 83, and 84 = Dark Plum
Day 15
85, 86, 89, and 92 = lilac and pink
88, 90, 91, and 93 = Dark Plum
87 = neon pink and bright purple
Day 16
94 and 95 = blue and pink
96 =
Day 20
131 = heathered brown
132 = burgundy and old rose
133 and 134 = pink
135 = faded pink
136 = black
137 = heathered blue
December 8, 2020
Not thinking, I began #16 joining with ssk instead of the k2tog called for. By the second join - at the end of the first decrease row (I did it at the end of the pickup and knit row for starters.) It’s a nice join, but it makes a distracting ‘chain’ along the surface. So, undid two stitches and am doing k2tog.
Interestingly, I’ve done this before, when working queen-sized Rambling Rows blankets - made in four quarters and joined as they met in the centre. This is the first time I’ve encountered it in a pattern.
11 PM Too many ends at the centre of the pinwheel!! Had I my wits about me, I wouldn’t have cut the turquoise at the end of #21, but I thought of it too late. 
SIX ends to weave in at the centre of the pinwheel!! Had I thought ahead, there could have been only two! (bashing head against wall!) There’s no law preventing working from both ends of a ball and creating temporary tangles, especially for such small bits. I hope there’s another pinwheel before this KAL ends, just so I can try it!
December 10, 2020
Somewhere in #37, I goofed and didn’t notice until almost done. So, I fudged. There’s a k2tog on the wrong side in the next to last row, just to bring the stitch numbers down to needed to work the last row and cast-off.
I’m not going to worry about it.
December 12, 2020
On Day 8’s series or intarsia squares, I did manage to avoid two ends, by using both ends of one ball until I got back to #51. Minor victory, but I’ll take what I can!
December 12, 2020
23:05 Day 9 done!
Dug out more leftovers.
December 13, 2020
A few more ends woven in, and Day 10 begun.
I’m unsure about the applied i-cord border for two reasons. I detest grafting those few stitches when they join, and I think this needs to be wider than it is, in order to be useful.
For now, no border.
It’s already long enough to keep my legs warm - almost down to the extended ankles - while knitting on it.
04:25 I think I’ll make these ‘windows’ as samplers of Centered Double Decreases.
First one - lower left - two consecutive k2tog.
Second one - lower right - ssk/k2tog.
Third one - upper left - k2tog/ssk.
Fourth one - upper right - add a stitch at centre, and slip 2 together knitwise/k1/pass the 2slipped stitches over the knitted stitch. Purl centre stitch on return row on first six ridges; knit on the rest.
December 15, 2020
It’s taken me a long time , but I have decided that my squares look better when ended sooner. So, when there are four stitches left with the right side facing me, I do ssk, k2tog, and pass the first over the second to bind off that square.
I’m only partway through the Bear Paw/day 12. In the last quarter century, I’ve made thousands of mitred squares, and wasn’t ever entirely happy with the end of any of them, until now. Better late than never, eh?
December 16, 2020
Day 12 is called a bear paw (after the traditional quilt block of the same name), but my eyes saw it as a partial maple leaf. Done in the red and white of the Canadian flag, I think of it as a partial flag of Canada, my adopted abode.
December 18, 2020
Day 15 bogged me down. From seven stitches/chains, I was to pick up 8 stitches. It took a day of time out for me to figure that this is where ‘fudging’ enters the game. So, on the downslope, I picked up an eighth stitch in the akready shared stitch at the bottom. Then I did a backwards yarnover, picked up the remaining seven, and twisted that yarnover closed on the return row. Any remaining hole can be dealt with whenever I get around to weaving in ends.
I had seen many completed versions of this thirty-minute section, but nowhere did I see any mention of HOW others coped with it.
Done and dusted, and Day 15 to boot!
December 25, 2020
4 AM: Working on Day 22, but am doing the squares in reverse order AND not cutting the yarn where possible.
Did 153 first.
152 second, facing the other way.
151 third, also facing the other way.
149 and 150 together as a rectangle.
Results in two fewer cuts of two strands each, so instead of a dozen ends to weave in, there are only four. Yay!!
8 PM Ah! The advantages of lagging behind on a KAL! Since I can see both parts of the star pattern at the end, I can see that there are six 8-stitch squares along the right edge, and I got the bright idea to work them all together from a single strand of my last bit of what I believe is Red Heart Mexicana, though it’s a tad thinner than I remember from the first ball of yarn I ever bought in 1954. It has always made my heart sing.
.
December 27, 2020
3 AM
Only a few squares to do for the ‘frame’ of the star/sun at the end. Then I’ll work the four centre squares at once in the round. Sometime later today. Need Zzzzz.
Ack!!! I only just now noticed a placement error on the bottom on the star’s rays!!! Right now, my feeling is to leave it as is. I have no confidence in my prowess as a yarny surgeon. Remove one intarsia square when there are two other squares attached to it?? I don’t think so.
Well, it’s not the only error in this thing, just the most glaring.
About it growing into a blanket … It will be far easier to produce more strips and only attach them together afterward, than to have to manhandle the growing mass all the time. So, that’s the new plan.
Applied i-cord can work as a joining method.
Were my dining room table ever clear of computery gear, it’s 8’ would be a perfect table runner. The table, without leaves, is 6’ long; with all leaves, 8’. But that’s only a dream.
3:50 AM
Nope. Couldn’t leave it. Removed the error; hooked up the loose loops from the adjoining square; rolled up the removed yarn, but probably won’t try using it to redo the square. That would be tempting Fate!
December 28, 2020
Centre of star/sun begun! Garter stitch in the round. Transition between knit and purl rounds marked by oversized aqua-coloured marker on the right in the photo.
Why not all yellow? Because all colours are emitted by the sun (a star IS a sun), and because I still have some Mexicana.
Note to future self: Begin next ‘scarf’ with the star! It’s easier to go round and round without an 8’ tail!
This time, I’ve put the length into a drawstring bag with a cord-block, only leaving the part I’m working on outside.
Evening: DONE! Well, the actual knitting is done. The weaving in of ends will be done bit by bit as the whim takes me, probably during long phone calls, when concentrating on a pattern isn’t possible, but fingers want to be doing something.
Now, to begin the next - to eventually be joined to this and a few others to make a blanket. If I can do one a month, it should be on our bed next Christmas. IF. IF.
January 2, 2021
Working from the last towards the first, all the ends of days 23 and 24 have been woven in!!
I find my right wrist/thumb joint are beginning to complain about knitting the decreases , so I take a break by weaving in ends on this one and/or on the second.
May 15, 2021
Because this was the first strip and because I followed the pattern almost exactly, it has many more and longer ends to weave in. That task is begun, now that the other four strips’ ends are done.
May 22, 2021
More than halfway tweaving in ends!!
June 4, 2021
Only fifty ends left to weave in!
June 8, 2021
LAST END WOVEN IN!!!
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