November 27, 2018

~ On R15 fpdtr2tog’s worked better with my tension.

R1 - R18 Complete

November 28, 2018

~On R22 the pc’s should be centered. I had to go back and fix mine for inadvertently shifting over a stitch on previous joins.

R19 - R28 Complete

November 29, 2018

R29 - R35 Complete (new pics in the morning)

November 30, 2018

Well… My Bean stitch is less than stellar, but I’m digging the way it looks; my slightly messy + doing the RS WS thing gives it an even more textured appearance, Hey! At least I’m consistent with it…lol. On R38 with a few more bean rounds to go…

~Whew! Rounds 36 - 43 Complete.

December 1, 2018

Round 44 thru Round 51 Complete. Not much time to crochet today. Pics tomorrow.

December 2, 2018

~Once you get going on Rnd 53 its easy to miss doing both hdc’s after the first fphdc of the trio’s, be careful there.

December 3, 2018

One thing I wanted to take a moment to point out is that I’m truly appreciating the density and thickness of this piece. A true blanket… no big holes to catch fingers and toes in; very, very warm and snuggly. :)

December 5, 2018

~Rnd 67 - For me, it looked better for my first tog stitch’s second leg to be in the 4th stitch instead of the 5th. This kept my post stitches looking straighter with my tension and did not affect any stitch counts.

December 8, 2018

Starting in on Rnd 72 this cold Saturday morning, and I’m happy to have this beauty on my lap as I drink some hot coffee… I’m hoping to finish up this part today.

~On Rnd 73 Don’t miss the single ‘extra’ sc in the middle of each side. (It’ll go into the second sc following the 2sc from Rnd 72)

~Tricky business in the middle of each side on Rnd 75, pay attention here! :)

~Finished with Part 2!

December 9, 2018

Started Part 3. Rnd 76 - 79 Complete.

December 10, 2018

Whew! Going to be ‘beaning it’ for a few Rounds.

December 11, 2018

So I took a little break from the beans last night and added some color to a few places on the blanket. I did an outline stitch to emphasize the arches early on. And I ‘completed’ an outline by adding some bpsc’s to the corner. What do you think? Yay or Nay?? Since I’m pattern testing somewhat blind and not following set color changes, I won’t frog back JUST for colors. But I did see some areas I would have liked to use the Burgundy… which is why I played around with it some just to see.

~Oi Oi Oi Still beaning… On the last round of it though! :)

December 12, 2018

Through Round 87 Compete. I’ve been short on crochet time lately dealing with car repairs and appointments.

December 13, 2018

I got almost halfway through R91 and had to toddle off to bed. There’d been a lot of chatter about this round so I was dreading it. It actually isn’t hard to do, but the words! the extra numbers! Makes my eyeballs want to fall out, lol. I may take a stab at rewording/condensing it after I finish it tomorrow. (LATER NOTE: Actually once the pattern is established and you get going you don’t even have to look at the pattern for this round! My eyeballs were thankful!)

December 14, 2018

Not much progress today, but R91 - R92 are complete.

On R91 if your ‘first leg’ has too much of a slant you can attach it a stitch or two over without it affecting the total round counts. For me, I think it would have been better in the 16th or 17th stitch. Just keep your sk sts evenly spaced in between the first one and the last.

December 15, 2018

Through R95 Complete. The rounds take much longer now!

December 17, 2018

Finally done with Part 3!

December 18, 2018

Starting Part 4 today.

December 23, 2018

The latest pics have been my life and my view these days as I test this beast of a blanket… and I say that affectionately. However, I don’t think I will ever take on another pattern test during a big holiday, or at least not one this BIG! :)

I’ve been terrible about notes too, and I usually write a lot. But the test isn’t ‘here’ - I’m using Google Drive/Facebook and it’s really weird for me, lol.

Be careful on the stitches that ‘tack’ the loose corner down if yours are pulling too much or not allowing the corner to lay flat. The designer gives instructions and counts to anchor it down, but if you aren’t matching up completely (this is definitely a tension thing) I’d advise anchoring it where it works for you, or leave it loose and tack it later. Or you may be in store for a hard blocking. :)

December 24, 2018

~Rnd 120… I only needed to do FPtr’s with my tension. You should have realized by now that not all rounds will be symmetric in this pattern with the corners or the repeats; as in this case there will be 25 post sts on one side and 26 on the other.

~Rnd 121… dtr’s here for me, not trtr’s - except for the ones that went into the same stitch as an anchor stitch, those I did need trtr’s for.

~Part 4 Complete!

January 1, 2019

Still crocheting away on this one, I can’t believe I’ve not written any notes since Christmas Eve. A sign that I am hard at it at every available moment. This certainly is a huge blanket!

Anyway… I finished up Part 5 on New Years Eve.

Its likely that there won’t be any more pics of the whole thing until I am finished. Its huge, and heavy!

January 3, 2019

Progress comes, but too slowly. One round seems to take hours. I think I’m on autopilot at times. I’m on Rnd 151, and with 7 more to go it feels like there is far too much yet to do.

January 4, 2019

These last colors are being dictated by yardage and I’m not really happy about it. But honestly, I really don't want to buy any more yarn for this. ended up buying more yarn for this. ::sighs:: But I am not frogging back to change anything already done… rounds take too long and I’m anxious to finish this up.

January 5, 2019

Midway through Rnd 154… soooo close to the finish. With 4 more rounds to go I am now certain to finish by the very ambitious deadline that was set for this test. It is officially the largest blanket I’ve ever tested, or made for that matter.

~Complete through Rnd 156. I think I’m gonna call it a night, I deserve a bit of a break before I crawl into bed. But it may take me most of the day/evening tomorrow to finish up.

January 6, 2019

Finished!!! Its dark now though, not sure about pics yet. I’ll have to move some furniture out of the way in the living room in order to get a full shot.

January 7, 2019

Well, I have a bit of finishing work to do on this yet; and have realized it is totally not going to fit in my washer and dryer. So it will have to go to the laundromat. Doing the pinning out and blocking of areas I need to do will also take quite a bit of planning to do. So unfortunately it will be some time before I can take any pictures of the finished/blocked piece. I may try to take some daylight shots of it if I get a chance in the coming days. With the test off my plate its time to catch up on errands and housework I’ve been neglecting. :)