Present, Past, and Past Imperfect

Things had gotten desparate. The angles were ok (and I hestitate to say that; they might seem ok to someone who had never made anything in their life and didn't have an opinion on irregular borders, i.e. someone who doesn't pay attention that this thing looks like a lopsided mass first project of a kindergartener [not a comment on you, Crochet Queen, a comment on my wacky irregular stitch decreases when I should know better]) but I didn't like it. I didn't like working on it and it, again, was taking way longer than I thought it should take. So, I made a call to Crochet Queen after putting Sgt. Cribb on pause (it was at a part I felt I needed to pay attention to anyway) and asked her if she cared if the blanket turned out in an oval shape. She didn't really but wasn't going to be picky. I told her no, if she wanted a rectangle, by golly she was going to get a rectangle, not matter what. "The blanket has gotten to you, too, huh?" she said. I didn't want to confess to my impulses to light fire to the thing, even though Crochet Queen had already confessed her sordid ideas, but I did. We had a good laugh and I told her it still would be finished and not to worry.

I had the blanket laid out on the floor and was looking at it on the floor when I decided to try something I had thought of initially when the mitered corner idea took over. I could mark the tentative side point(s) (it's flatter there so I could fudge a little), start there by picking up a stitch and crocheting rows, picking up every other stitch along the sloping side as I came to it, keeping the border side straight, and increasing 1 stitch next to the slope side every few rows. I started, fully prepared to rip it out, and guess what. It has, for the most part, worked!

So, here is the blanket. The first picture is the current progress that is (thankfully!) working. The second and third are views of the mitered corner that I thought was going to work and didn't. I posted them because I wanted to show the whole blanket and my first attempt at the corner. I'm sure I could find a way for the mitered corner technique to work if I felt like doing the math and really thinking about it but I don't feel like it and it takes to long to miter once I actually start crocheting. The top picture method is working out better but still isn't as rectangular as what would be perfect. However, it is more of a rectangular shape and will have corners, plus I'm still going to crochet a border, add a row of Granny Squares already crocheted by Crochet Queen, and then see what the blanket wants for a grand finish. I asked CQ if her sister liked frilly (I like doing scalloped trim on Granny square blankets; I have one of my own that's king sized that was a huge stash buster and preggy project to use up all my acrylic yarn I still loved but would never use 2-2.5 years ago. It would be our current bedpsread (and I would have had made no attempt to make our lovely quilt) if Hubby tolerated that sort of thing. He drew the line at Granny Squares, thus the quilt idea was born) and she said not really but her sister wouldn't care because her blanket was finally going to be finished. The scallops don't really say frilly but I'm not going to decide yet. The blanket will tell me what it wants.

I've also had some more success on the quilting front: I've found the patterns I want for the Christmas fabric I had that was unearthed in Mom's fabric stash room (yep, those dresses I was going to whip up for Bailey that never happened... oh well, she would have outgrown them long before now) and the cute cotton prints I've been collecting for some reason. I had to take both groups out of my stash drawer (more like pry the drawer open and liberate them so the drawer didn't explode at some random, inopportune time) and put them in covered bins that are now hidden, um, STORED under the bed so that I had more clear space in the lived in part of the house. They now have their plan and I'm so excited! I've told myself not to start them till after I finish everything else I've started so we are looking at 8 months from now. Let's see if I actually wait till then.