September 26, 2018

My swatch is 8 cm wide by 10 cm tall.

8 x 15 = 120 cm = 47.25 “ = 4 ‘
10 x 21 = 210 cm = 82.68 “ = 6.89 ‘

October 1, 2018

I started the CAL this morning! It’s time to do some math to work out when (roughly) to change colors to achieve the color fades I’m aiming for. (Dark to light greys for color A, light to dark pinks for color B with both colors changing independently and not on pattern boundaries.) I’ll figure out the border later when I know how much yarn I have left.

Each of the 7 patterns is 3 x 12 = 36 rows = 18 rows of color A and 18 rows of color B.

• Color A: I have 2 skeins (roughly) of 6 shades of grays (some are partial skeins, and I have lots of two of the mid-tones)
• Color B: I have 2 skeins each of 6 shades of pinks for color B (and more of White and Denali)

I started with the Graphite (darkest gray) and White (my lightest “pink”) and I’m getting 14 rows per 100g skein.

October 2, 2018

Call me crazy, but I’m considering making two blankets. These colors are perfect both for my oldest daughter and for my niece. I won’t make two identical blankets, but instead two “cousin” blankets.

Blanket 2 would alternate A1/B1 and A2/B2 for each pattern, changing on pattern boundaries:

• Color A1 = Light Tan (4 patterns), A2 = Ecru (3 patterns)

• Color B1 = Pinks (4 patterns), B2 = Greys (3 patterns)

• I’ll need 12 (of my 28 total) rows of each of my 6 pinks for Blanket #2.

• I’ll need 9 (of my 28 total) rows of each of my 6 greys.

So, for this blanket, Blanket #1, I’d only have 16 rows of each pink available, and 19 rows of each grey. I do have 70g of Red Wine (would be the darkest “pink”), which would be about 9 rows that I could add to Blanket #1. I also have plenty of White and Denali. So I could do these splits:

• 10 White (W): 25 rows (19 Pattern 1, 6 Pattern 2)
• 2 Candyfloss (C): 15 rows (12 Pattern 2, 3 Pattern 3)
• 2 Pale Rose (P): 17 rows (15 Pattern 3, 2 Pattern 4)
• 6 Denali (D): 29 rows (16 Pattern 4, 13 Pattern 5)
• 2 Raspberry (R): 16 rows (5 Pattern 5, 11 Pattern 6)
• 2 Badlands (B): 16 rows (7 Pattern 6, 9 Pattern 7)
• .7 Red Wine (N): 9 rows (9 Pattern 7)

I have plenty of most of the greys, plus extra of two of the mid-tone greys, but I need to be careful to not use more than 19 of the ones (like Graphite) that I have a limited amount of. I could also use white as my lightest “grey” to balance out all the white from the beginning of the blanket.

• 2 Graphite (G): 15 (15 Pattern 1)
• 1.5 Slate Grey (S): 16 (4 Pattern 1, 12 Pattern 2)
• 20 Grey (Y): 20 (6 Pattern 2, 14 Pattern 3)
• 1.25 Silver Grey (V): 8 (4 Pattern 3, 4 pattern 4)
• 10 Light Grey (L): 26 (14 Pattern 4, 12 Pattern 5)
• 2 Misty Grey (M): 18 (6 Pattern 5, 12 Pattern 6)
• 10 White (W): 24 (6 Pattern 6, 18 Pattern 7)

This will give me this color sequence for pattern 1:

GWGWGWGWGWGWGW
GWGWGWGWGWGW
GWGWSWSWSWSW

October 3, 2018

I finished pattern 1 today.

Pattern 2 color sequence:

SWSWSWSWSWSW
SCSCSCSCSCSC
YCYCYCYCYCYC

October 12, 2018

I finished pattern 2 today.

October 18, 2018

Starting pattern 3. Colors:

YCYCYCYPYPYP
YPYPYPYPYPYP
YPYPVPVPVPVP

October 20, 2018

Finished pattern 3.

October 26, 2018

Pattern 4 color sequence:

VPVPVDVDLDLD
LDLDLDLDLDLD
LDLDLDLDLDLD

November 11, 2018

I finished part 4 today. My crochet has taken a back seat to some other things in my life for the last few weeks. (I know! How odd is that?!) But I’m looking forward to starting the next section soon.

November 14, 2018

Pattern 5 color sequence:

LDLDLDLDLDLD
LDLDLDLDLDLD
MDMRMRMRMR

February 17, 2019

After a break where I finished many other projects, including four blankets, today I finished pattern 5. Two more patterns to go!

Pattern 6 colors:

MRMRMRMRMRMR
MRMRMRMRMRMB
WBWBWBWBWBWB

February 21, 2019

It’s Thursday morning and I just finished pattern 6 and did the first 6 rows of pattern 7.

Pattern 7 colors:

WBWBWBWBWBWB
WBWBWBWNWNWN
WNWNWNWNWNWN

I just noticed that the White and Badlands and the White and Red Wine of this section are the UMass Amherst school colors. That’s appropriate for a graduation blanket!

I’m looking ahead to the border now and thinking about how much of different colors I have. My current plan is to do the main color of the double border with the Grey and the accents as White for the small pattern and Denali (medium pink) as the large. I’ll do the back border in Light Grey. I wish I had enough pinks to do an ombre for accent in the second section of the border, but I’ll need to reserve those for the second blanket for Lauren.

Going back and forth between the Mary Maxim and the Heartland in this section is emphasizing for me how much I like the Heartland yarn and dislike the MM. I definitely need to make a garment from the Heartland in the future (and never buy the other again).

February 24, 2019

On to the border now.

Back border stitch counts - short sides, long sides:

1. Slip stitches: 184, 254
2. 186, 256 (actual - Bottom: 186, Left: 259, Top: 185, Right: 257)
3. 190, 260 (actual - 190, 261, 190, 261 after inc/dec)
4. 194, 264 (this took me 1 hour 23 minutes!)
5. 198, 268 (actual - bottom 198, left 269, top 198, right 269)
6. 203, 273 (extra stitch increase, I just need on top and bottom, last for small mosaic)
7. 207, 277
8. 211, 281
9. 215, 285
10. 219, 289
11. 223, 293
12. 227, 297
13. 231, 301

Hmm… it is Sunday evening and I just finished round 4 of the back border. This is taking a lot more time than I anticipated. It is also taking a lot of yarn and I don’t think I’ll have enough. I’m going to finish the back border to round 6, then switch to the front mosaic border. After the small mosaic pattern (to round 12) I may decide to continue on to the full 26 rounds and finish the final rounds of the back border, or (more likely) I’ll decide to stop there.

February 25, 2019

Now working on the front side mosaic border.

Starting stitch counts: 183, 255

I have just finished round 3 where I have done a few sc2tog to reach the desired stitch count.

If I do two rounds per day I will be able to finish it by the end of this week. That would be nice since it will have to go back into hiding as DD#1 is coming home from college this weekend for a visit.

February 28, 2019

Done! I am really, really pleased with how this came out. What a gorgeous pattern. I rarely make multiples of the same pattern but I’m very happy that I started on a second one of these and that I get to do it again.