Twelve of One, a Dozen of Another

In just one week (even with work and sewing thrown in) I've managed to get a nice healthy start on my granny-square afghan. Last weekend I had gone out and bought my colors--

...and planned out what I wanted to do. The original idea was for a full-on seventies' inspired blanket, in goldenrod yellow, marigold orange, avocado green, cocoa brown, and almond. These aren't colors I normally work with outside of seasonal crafting for fall bits, and I was very worried I would get completely sick and tired of it and end up wasting time, money and effort. I wanted it to still be a bit retro, but also a bit cleaner-looking, and not something that would make people say "How many greats did the grandmother who made that have in her name?" So I consulted with my in-house design team (Mumsy and Alicia) to see what they thought about these colors softened by extra white (well...off-white). So that's what I'm going with.

Each square has a round of each color, with two rounds of white (I just checked the label and the color is Aran--not really an off-white, not a cream, more like an oatmeal, I suppose). Every other square is a solid color center, surrounded by white. It's not so in-your-face seventies, but that's ok. That part is in the details, while the overall look is more muted and sedate. Here's what I have so far:

I was going to do an eight by eight layout, but it would be a wee bit small, so I added an extra two. Once I get the border on it should be just right. My plan for the border is to do a stripe of each color, but looking at the photo above I'm wondering if a plain white would be better. I suppose I'll get a bit more done and then I'll be able to tell for sure. Or I'll ask you folks and you can tell me for sure :)

When I told my mother my original plan and she saw the colors, her face expressed her thoughts. And those thoughts, based on her expression, were along the lines of "I think that seafood I ate was dodgy" or "What's that terrible smell?" But now she loves it, because of the white. It certainly makes the colors pop a bit, to have such a contrast instead just blending together in riot of crazy-ugly.

I'm using a join-as-you-go method. I was thinking of sewing each square together, and then I made someone slap some sense into me. Then I thought I'd slip-stitch them together, but that would add a bulkyish seam. The JAYG is working out beautifully. The only thing is that it takes a bit more planning than waiting to lay out your squares, but planning probably isn't the worst thing ever (if I really meant that I'd have made a quick sketch of color placement to make it easier on myself. OK, it's not that I don't mean it...it's that I didn't think of it until just now). I had pinned at tutorial on joining yarn invisibly, but when I tried to access it last weekend it seemed to be a dead link. Twenty squares later I checked one more time (I was going to delete it otherwise) and it was back! I'm bugged because you can see my join in the early pieces and not in the latter, but oh well. Hopefully that's not the detail that people focus on in the end.

I'm weaving in my ends as I go on this one and I am quite thrilled. At first I wasn't going to, but changed my mind and I'm glad for it. It took two whole nights to get them all in. It would be a ridiculous amount at the end, instead of a few minutes after each block to hide them. You would think that would have been a lesson learned quickly after the rainbow ripple, but not this girl!

After taking these pictures I sat down and cranked out the 24th square. Just so I could honestly give this post that title.

The light changes so quickly now it's crazy. The sun was coming in picture-perfect when I started, and set to  deprive me of its light by the third round. I do love when it gets dark early (so cozy!) but the need for light for good photos bothers me slightly. Then I have some hot chocolate and get over it. I pride myself on my ability to move on :)