On to happier things.

One of the things I found while rearranging the stash yarn this past weekend was all the yarn I bought (as my birthday-present-to-myself) for the Color Bar Blanket.

This is, as you can see, a blanket made of single-color granny squares arranged to look like the one type of test pattern (Interesting - I guess I didn't realize there were other than the "standard" B&W or "standard" color ones, but that site shows quite a few)



The first squares of the colors representing cyan, magenta, and yellow in the test pattern. No, they're not a perfect match for the actual pattern but they were as close as I could get with Wool of the Andes.

So these are the first few squares - I actually began this last night (did the first of the cyan squares). I've been keeping a small, simple project in my room next to my bed because I'm once again having the typical summer problem - hard to fall asleep. Part of it is the frantic pace of summer teaching - as much as I love it, it's kind of hard to shut my head off at the end of the day. Listening to quiet instrumental music and knitting or crocheting something that's an "autopilot" project (that doesn't require much reference to a pattern) helps.

The nice thing about granny squares is that they are a fantastic "autopilot" project. Once you've familiarized yourself with the progression, you don't need to look at the instructions again - and if you put the square down midway, it's very easy to pick up the next day and know right where you are. (It's kind of a relief to have something to work on that doesn't require a row counter).

I also like granny squares because, as I said before, they're FAST - I can finish one in less than 15 minutes. So you get those little charges of gratification of having "finished" something.

I'm going to do these bit by bit - making a few squares of a color as I feel drawn to do it. I think if I went through systematically - making myself make all 14 black squares first, for instance - I'd get sick of it really fast. (I briefly contemplated the idea of doing it systematically as a sew-as-you-go, because sewing the things together will have considerable activation energy for me to get started on it - I don't like that particular finishing step.)

This is one of those things that although I may not have a particular tie to the idea (never worked in TV production and really, you don't even SEE test patterns much any more), it amuses me and appeals to me to be able to make a bunch of granny squares that then work up into something recognizable. (Perhaps someday I'll work up to one of those pixel-picture blankets. Not sure what I'd do - I've seen Mario done as one but I have even fewer ties to Mario than I do to a test pattern. And it is maybe a little beyond weird for a woman as mature as I to be sleeping under a Mario blankie. Or maybe not. I don't know. Perhaps I will just do a lot of pastel colors sometime and make like a Trip Around the World setting - that would be fun done in lots of pastel colors of fine-weight yarn).