Finished!

I believe I knitted all these squares about 14 years ago.  It was a good project at the time, because I could knit a square in a couple of hours and be done, if I wasn't interrupted too much. With knitting, you really shouldn't put it down in the middle of a row, so these were short enough rows to handle at the time.  I do remember having a somewhat small baby back then, and I think it was my third, but he wasn't newborn, because it's to hard to accomplish anything with a newborn. 

Then, when I had used up a lot of yarn, they were put in the back of the closet. I did get them out once or twice to sew them together, but I didn't get very far, because that is not my favorite part. I had four squares whipstitched together and was working on the next set of four, but they weren't finished.

I think I may have even donated a bunch of squares to Warm Up America, which had a donation collection basket in Michael's, when I had mostly given up hope of finishing. I'm sure I used up a few skeins of blue yarn making these squares.

I couldn't bear to give them all away and so they were put in a bin in the garage when we moved a couple of times.

Thankfully, sometime during those years, I learned to crochet and thanks to the magic of the internets, I found an interesting joining technique.  I started with these instructions, because I like the way it looked: simulated-braid-join. Mine looks the same on the front and back though.

I didn't trust joining yarn back then without tying a square knot (like in the blue and brown square above), so there are a couple of those knots, not so pretty. If I get ambitious I might add an appliqué shape to cover it, but then that's more ends to weave in, so maybe not.

It took me a couple of weeks to get it done, including deciding in what order to put the colors and weaving in ends (my other least favorite part).

I had 44 squares, but couldn't figure out how to use them all, so I ended up not using two, so I could make it seven by six, almost square.

It just occured to me that I have a ravelry account that I haven't done anything with; I should be posting this there!  Anyway, what I did was: single crochet, chain three, skip next two spots and sc in third spot. Can't really say sc in the next sc after skipping two, because it's knitting not crochet, but anyway, you can see it in the picture. Then on the corners, chain three and attach the next square with a sc in the corner. If it's an edge piece, then sc in the corner spot and chain three in the same corner spot.

So, when attaching the next square after the corner spot, you chain two, then slip stitch over the chain three, then chain one, then sc on the new one after skipping two spots. Or if your gauge isn't exactly the same from square to square, you can skip four or just one if necessary. When you join in a corner where there are already two squares, you can chain two, slip stitch in the middle of the chain (see above pic) and then chain two more and sc in the new square to join. You get used to the pattern.

So, here is a drawing of the order in which to join them, because that was a brain workout, like those plastic puzzles with one piece missing and you have to slide them around to get the puzzle in the right order; not exactly, but I can never do those. Hmm, I rotated this before uploading, but now it's sideways again, 'begin' was in the lower left hand corner, but now it's in the upper left hand corner.

Anyway, you just pick a corner to start at and only go around two sides of the square, then join the next square and go back the way you came along one side. Then attach at the next corner, all the way up as many rows as you are going to have, then go across the top and then all the way down all the rows back to the bottom, attach begin working your way back up. Then, when all your squares are attached, you go all the way down the last side and all the way across the bottom.

Clear as mud? Good.

I made the mistake of going around all four sides of the first square, then I was stuck at the bottom of the second column, not able to attach without crossing back over where I had already gone and keep going. I had to tie off the yarn and reattach at the next column.

Geneva wants this blanket, so I'll let her have it,
because it's nice when someone wants what you make.

I'm thankful that I was able to finish this UFO (UnFinished Object).  It clears some cobwebs out of my head to have this out of the bin that houses my yarn stash.
Hurray for skills increasing over the years!

On to the next project!  I have three or four in mind that I'm eager to get to now that this is done. Funny that wanting to start the next project is big motivation for FINISHING the current project, but something has to motivate me to weave in those ends. There is also the satisfaction of having a work complete.  Yeah, that's a good one, too.