TL;DR

Rewind your yarn before you start. Do not add twist. CDD involves passing 2 stitches knitwise at the same time. Conserve yarn by: using reverse loop cast on, carrying yarn up to next square if used again in same row. Check your Gauge and generally order more yarn.

Count your 1,2, and every few right facing rows. When you get confident is when you rip entire squares.

Project Start November 21, 2016

Cast on knit wise due to needing to cast on multiple times mid project. Cable or long tail require more yarn and two lines to execute which is akward mid project and could lead to a lost game of yarn chicken.

Using weave in as you go per TechKnitter Blog for ends when possible. Otherwise skimiming in ends in a Z pattern.

Picking up stitches similar to this TechKnitter Blog - I am picking up behind the the purl bumps, with either 2 strands of the same colored yarn being eaten up as seam on the back of the work, or 3 (2 same, 1 the carried yarn for the unused color).

Did a temp swatch in black, seemed on target. I usually am on the larger gauge yarns in knitpicks but not the fingering for whatever reason.

Going to shoot for 1 square a day (more is fine of course!) meaning I should have the blanket done in under 2.5 months. :P

November 22, 2016

Two and a half squares in is a miserable time to question your centered decreases. And realize yes, you did do them wrong.

HINT Hey Knitpicks! Pass Two Stitches Knitwise AT THE SAME TIME is different than Pass Two Stitches Knitwise. grrrrrrrrr. One makes a cleanly laying perfectly centered decrease. The other makes a blobby right hand turn.

FROG FROG FROG FROG BEHOLD MY YARN BOWL OF FUCKS AND SEE IT IS EMPTY.

November 27, 2016

Five squares completed.

HINT Hash check your data every right facing row. It’s slow. It’s not as slow as finding a dropped stitch 10 rows later or an accidental knitwise k2tog instead of a CDD.

December 3, 2016

On square 11. La de dah.

December 4, 2016

Working 13 ATM. So far so good. I am certain that anyone who questions their ability to pick up stitches will not do so after finishing this!!

HINT When using a color next square but not immediately I just pass yarn through stitch to ‘bind off’ and proceed to use it when needed. Less waste of yarn that way.

My horizontal lines are not perfectly synced due to my seaming. Or maybe it’s inherent in garter mitered squares? Going to run thread or thin yarn through the seams on back and make the intersections look even (evil scientist laugh). It shall be perfect (as far as strangers know!!!)

December 6, 2016

Finished square 15, casting on 16. “Stay on target!”

Hint pick up yarn on facing row from the back when switching colors. This leaves a neat edge.

Okay. So. Finished 15. And now back to 11 because frak me - 2 rows of red in a row. I don’t know how my eyes were so blind for this many days.

December 9, 2016

Hit 14 (again) early am. Eager to get into new yarn so the sense of accomplishment can increase.

December 11, 2016

Square 18 done! Had to hand wind some in use skeins into round balls. Using gallon bags to contain so can work from outside line. Didn’t even try to wind with inside line available.

December 13, 2016

Square twenty. We’ve hit lap-blanket status.

December 17, 2016

I’m not cheating on you with my new knitting belt. Not! Honest… it’s not you -- it’s me!

December 21, 2016

Finished first quarter. All ends done.

December 25, 2016

Completed square 7 of the second section having squeaked out section 1 before leaving on vacation.

December 29, 2016

Finished square 10 of the second section, all ends woven.

January 5, 2017

After intense massage my back is recovering nicely. Finally made it to square 15 in my section 2.

January 6, 2017

Square 18. Time for something else today.

January 7, 2017

Working square 19. Keep seeing Reddit posts of people needing extra yarn - weighed my deep blue and it was 53g. Since I already did 8 part blue and 1 solid and only need to do 10 part blue I’m ok. Unless I got shorted on grams (why did I not weigh all ten skiens to make sure??)

Did math - 48 days in on square 44. I can make it! Just a little more catch up…

January 8, 2017

Finished 20. Now realizing 53g of yarn in blue is not enough as I still have not done 1/2 blue. Average 5.8g per square. Errr…. switching to reverse loop cast on and hoping that helps reduce yarn usage. Tiny tails go! (Also may have to wait on mom to finish. Smarter than I and has extra yarn. I would like to keep each section in the same batch for consistenty. Can at least finish 3/4. -- 48g after last blue square in this section. That is bad. Even if I shave yarn w reverse loop cast on moving forward I’m doubtful - maybe scale is off on my favor but that’s a big if.

January 10, 2017

Okay. Did not finish section 2 as planned due to incredibly muddy puppy = bath = clean the shower and bath mat = do dog towels….

You know. Fun. I did finish square 23 though. Also mom is hooking me up (!!) with extra yarn so no more rationing - just need to get through 3/4 and use new stuff on 1/4 so that section is consistent.

January 12, 2017

Arg. Wanted to finish 50 squares today but got side tracked by my anniversary. ;)

Also the yellow randomly had 2 knots - 1 single strand and 1 complete - and a bad dye spot - all in the same foot. Hack it out and rejoin.

I am bummed with KnitPicks acrylics lately. :/ can’t recommend this yarn.

January 12, 2017

Mini rest until I pick up extra yarn tomorrow. Better to do 1/2 in new yarn than 1/4

January 15, 2017

This pause brought to you by yarn winding. Yarn winding - so you won’t murder loved ones later. All project yarns except black for the border have been wound from fresh yarn balls provided by my mom. (Thanks mom!)

Rant

KnitPicks - why? why would you have a cut and knot where 1 strand is left untied and foo bars a yard of RED, one of the essential colors in this project? I should flog you with a whip made of all the yarn I trimmed out of the ten balls while I was winding it into proper cakes. No wonder people run short on this project.

Oh - the half hour detangle of the Tranquil was my personal favorite. Thank goodness the Nintendo Treehouse event is over 5 hours long or I might have lost my mind winding 10 skeins of already wound commerical yarn.

/Rant

January 18, 2017

It does go faster when the yarn is tamed. Easy draw. Each cake wound twice to ensure no wiggy yarn tension. 5 squares done in the last 36 hours. Working on section 4 per the pattern, my section 3 of 4.

January 30, 2017

Under weather extremely last week. Apparently loom knitting is what I do now when I don’t feel well. Also detangling and winding yarn for mom so she can finish her project. :) Maybe if we get back to the brainless TV shows like Arrow and Flash etc I can get back to knitting the blanket.

February 7, 2017

Got the parts for my yarn winder. Is fixed. Got yarn buddies on Etsy. Yarn is less tangly working from outside rather than center pull. Is fixed. Got to aquare 2 on row three.

February 9, 2017

SO. It turns out that you can add twist to your yarn if you pull from a center pull skein or cake multiple times! See this Techknitter blog post for details on why this happens if you work from the inside but not the outside (no matter how much you wind from the outside, you’re okay. The inside? hahahah.)

So on the bad news -- I added twist to several of my colors from the fresh commercial skeins I wound up. I did this by winding from the center, then again from the center of the cake to get even, fluffy cakes.

It is impossible to work these balls from the center again - they curl and twist fiercely and I’m afraid it will affect the finished product. I TRIED to unwind some tension from ONE BALL with a spindle and after 2 hours it wasn’t much improved. Yay. I don’t own a wheel so I bought some Yarn Buddies to use with each color I’m working with - plus I do color work from time to time so this will help during those projects in the future. This way I can pull from the outside of the ball of yarn, where there is less twist (larger wind) and I’m not adding MORE twist every time I extend the yarn - assuming I am good munchkin and spin the yarn, not let it twist off the top.

It’s helping. Sometimes I still have to stop my work and remove the extra twist by attaching a stitch marker next to the working end in the ball to secure it, and let it dangle and spin out until the yarn has neutral twist (you can hold it up next to each other in a loop and nothing happens, no curling). However I can do this much less often working from the outside strand and not introducing new twist.

February 10, 2017

Finished row three of my third section.

February 13, 2017

Got 3 more squares in in the day and early AM. Not bad progress. Mind you, had the time cause I knocked my toe with the vacuum…. Trying to NOT start a new crochet project. Kind of want to re-tackle one of my original projects now that I’m fairly competent.

February 14, 2017

Finished number 69. ;)

February 14, 2017

Hahaha. I just did the math. I’m supposed to be on square 90 if I did 1 a day since I started. :P Yeah… About that…

February 16, 2017

I’m not cheating on you with a spring entrelac scarf! No no. I was not seduced by poppy pastels!

I was seduced by poppy pastels.

March 10, 2017

Getting back to this. Nice little break.

March 17, 2017

Guess who bent a needle in the car! Wheee

March 23, 2017

I finished a quarter? I finished a quarter!

March 26, 2017

Finished square 5 of last section.

April 4, 2017

early AM Haven’t had a ton of free time lately -- but we managed to add a square to line 2 and start square 2 of line 2. So…that’s.. 75 + 5 row.. 80, 81, start of 82.

April 4, 2017

82 done.

April 17, 2017

Actually finishing square 85. Had to fix a single strand knot n my green. Grr. edit: twice. Like they fixed it for 2 feet and it broke so they fixed it again? WHAT THE F?

April 24, 2017

I finished another 2 squares in row 3 of quad 4. Bleh. Life is crazy.

April 24, 2017

Working on 90. No really, there is almost only 10 left.

April 26, 2017

Made it through 92. So…. freaking…bored… But darn it I just want to figure out a cool way to do the border.

April 27, 2017

Working 95 in the early AM and the ending of Wool is too much in audio. Feel drained. Only 45 min left in the book and I can’t bring myself to listen. Damn book.

April 29, 2017

Finished square 95 after full rip out due to first line error placing center. I’m smart. (Thunks head on wall).

HINT: Keep. Counting. Rows. People.

May 1, 2017

Blistered my finger in unrelated activities, but that’s not helping. Turns out sharp tipped needles are um…. multitaskers? Overshare? probable…. Got to 99 though.

May 2, 2017

3AM - finished Square 100. Bo-Fucking-Yah. Not going to try to seam without sleeping first.

May 3, 2017

Got the seaming done, best as I could. Mattress seam and Purls are not best buddies the way it can be with flat knitting. Leaving the lines open (unwoven) until after I’ve got a border on this thing, so that I can at least begin to understand what tension to set the seams. I mean, really, who’s idea was it to have a 4 single strands of yarn, with no protection from failure, hold an entire blanket together :P

May 9, 2017

Almost have 1/4 of border done.

May 15, 2017

After throwing a crochet shawl across a room mentally for a week or so I was ready for the ‘boring’ border again.

Decided on the Icelandic bind off as being neat enough to not want an I-cord border on top. 1 side done. Hurray.

Take a removable stitch marker and mark every 25 stitches. Count it a few times, then move forward with another 25. Presto, no counting to 250.

Also, WHEN you add that extra stitch to get 25 switches at the middle. If you were adding it at the end of your square you now add at the beginning. So the middle likely has 2 added right next to each other, rather than natural pick ups along the edge.

June 2, 2017

I ah… I finished the shawl. Back to this. Binding off side 2. Had to look up the bind off again!

June 5, 2017

Arrrgh. Got the binding off done. Now to finish setting my mattress stitch tension, take care of ends on border, and wash. Then trim square ends.

June 5, 2017

It’s in the rinse cycle. Then snippy snip all those ends when it dries!

August 22, 2017

Added notation to most of the photos. To read the notations click on any photos and then navigate photo view.