My First Project of 2011

Did I share my new project with you guys yet? I don’t think that I have…probably so that you wouldn’t think that I was crazy with a capital “C” for attempting such a feat. I swear that I couldn’t help myself. That excuse works for a lot of things, so I figured that this might be one of those times. It’s sort of like when you fall in love…you see someone (or some craft project, in my case) and just simply fall. Just like that. See, you couldn’t help it, that excuse works, right?

Here’s what caught my eye.

source - but don't go there since she's "on vacation"

Le sigh.

It just looks lovely. Love the colors, love the texture…love everything about it. And I had.to.have.it. Now. I even love what she said about who she was making it for instead of telling her daughter the truth. Oh wait, since her blog is on "vacation" mode, you can't read what she did.  I'll sum it up for you - when her daughter asked her what she was working on, she told her that she was making a blanket for her best friend.  Then she gave it to her daughter on her birthday...how sweet is that?!?!  Insert another loud, longing sigh here…

But I’m a horrible liar. It’s one of my best qualities, according to my husband. There was no way that I could make that blanket for Jenna without telling her who I was making it for. Just can’t do it. Plus, I thought that it would be more fun if she picked out the colors herself, so that it could be “our” project. And by “our” I mean mine – since I’m the one doing all of the actual work. Sure, she got totally directorship in color selection, but I’m the slave here. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

So you know me – I jumped right in. Never mind the fact that I don’t own a crochet hook. Never mind the other fact that I haven’t actually crocheted anything in oh, say…twenty years. Who needs to know how to read the pattern? Not me! Let alone understand what the pattern means and how to perform the stitches. Those are just minor details. (See how much like love this is? Overlooking glaringly obvious character flaws and dating the guy anyway?!?!)

But since I had already hooked Jenna on the idea of that blanket, you know that I had to keep going, right? Well, I’m proud to say that after two or three days of practice runs, I hit the ground running and am only now slowing down for air. I’ve made about 50 of the little squares…and let me stress the word little. It hit me the other day exactly how small these little things are...which led me to quickly try to calculate exactly how many of these bad boys I actually need to make. Which gave me a headache. LOL!

I was originally thinking that I could make it 15 squares x 10 squares. But after I got into my groove on how to make them neatly and prettily, I realized that 15 of these squares lined up isn’t really all that long. But it took me actually laying the squares out on the living room rug with Jenna beside me (I needed someone to ooh! and ah! over my work, you know) that it really hit me. 15x10 just isn’t going to cut it. That actually barely covers her body, much less with enough leftover to give her some “wiggle room.” What a conundrum…

You’ve seen my inspiration. Each square is made up of three circles, rings inside of rings if you will. Right now, I’m keeping the colors a repeat on the outer and inner circle and then a contrast color for the middle ring. So if my two colors are hot pink and purple, then my innermost circle is hot pink, the middle circle would be purple and then the outer ring would be hot pink again. My anal-retentive self created a chart so that I make sure to combine every single color with every other single color – because who can just do that in their head, right? According to my chart, if I don’t repeat any of the color combos, then I’ll have 64 squares at the end of it.

If you’ve had your morning coffee (or Coke) then your math skills are on the same page with mine. 15x10 does NOT equal 64. It equals 150. And that’s too small. Going up just one 5 square set on both height and length looks a little closer to what I’m thinking in my head. But once again calling on my keen math skills, 20x15 = 300 squares = a LOT of darn work. This is what jumping in with both feet without looking means.

So this is where you come in, bloggy friends. What would you do? I can only see two options. I can make the 300 squares that I think that I really need…or I can make the original 150 squares and then add a wide border to the blanket and see where I stand. The theory with option #2 is that if after adding the border I still don’t think that it’s big enough, then I could add another row (or 3) of squares outside of the edge and then make another edge. I don’t know if that will translate well through words only, so here’s a quick sketch for you…

Option #1

Option #2

Which route would you take? You know, if you were me. Which you’re not, clearly. Because any sane person wouldn’t even attempt a project like this with a child aged 6 months in their house. Then again, I never said that I was sane! Or that it would turn out perfect…there are many squares where I got off in my counts and they’re not perfect. But it’s still made with love, and that’s what counts, right? Man, I hope so! Especially if I have to make 300 of those little suckers…