12/9/10: i am really, really excited to be casting this on. we don’t have a real “grown-up” throw blanket; a lot of decent, warm blankets for snuggling in the living room, but nothing with any style. i hope this corrects that problem…

12/10/10: i love the yarn, i love the pattern, but…sometimes when you pick out yarns based on views on your computer screen, the colors aren’t quite the same. i had even thought of this when i ordered the yarn, and almost added a few “afterthought” colors just in case, but at the last minute decided not to. which just means now i’m going to pay more for shipping and put this on hold until a few balls of some other colors show up. i love knitpicks, but i do hate that they’re located in my state and take FOREVER to ship out. i really want this to be the kind of blanket i have and use for years, though, so it’s worth it to do it right the first time.

12/18: cast on again last night! up to the third color, and while my hand is acting up a bit, i’m still busting through it thanks to ibuprofen. whoo!

12/27: the last afghan i made, i used much bigger needles and yarn, and it felt like it went faster. sometimes this feels like OMG it’s never going to end, but i think i’m actually making pretty good progress. i’m taking more photos of said progress, so i can look back on it and feel awesome about the millions of stitches that went into this.

12/28: because i’m not using the yarn recommended for this pattern, i’ve been making my substitutions right on the pattern print-out. today i realized that the print-out was too small and my writing all over it was confusing me, so i took the time to transcribe the color pattern, and also added a few more rows with the extra colors i bought. hopefully this will make the afghan a bit longer and better for napping!

1/17: this really is the never-ending-knitting-project! gah! it’s still coming together, it still looks great, it’s still miles and miles of stockinette.

4/24: i took a couple of months off because OMG the never-ending part of the project was making me crazy. i’m glad i did take some time off, because working on it now feels great. we’re getting ready to move in a month, and this afghan is going to look amazing in our new family room.

5/8: it only took five months (eek!) but i finished the knitting today! still needs to be blocked and the ends woven in, but i am so happy! it ended up long enough to nap under, but kind of skinny, so only one person at a time can snooze under it. whew. it was totally, completely worth all the work. looks amazing, and i am so proud.