Progress, of a sort

I thought I'd give you a little update on my solid granny blanket today. The one I was having such trials and tribulations with, if you recall?  I've posted the odd snippet of news about the thing here and there about the blog and since the last news on the subject, this blanket has gone away for a nice long rest.  So I could work on fun Christmas projects and so it could have a long, hard think about what it had done!

Well, earlier in the year I got the dreaded blanket out again.  I'd already decided that the original idea of loads of squares with nice, harmonious edges in dark blues and greeny greys was out.  I was about ten squares in when I started getting concerned and by twenty squares I was seriously worried.  Still, I'd tried a few more colourful squares before Christmas and they seemed more appealing.  So after the hiatus I worked on coming up with brighter, perkier squares.

Thirty squares in and the results were mixed.  Some were good, some were decidedly bad.  What is it with these colours?  Why can't I make them work?  43 squares in and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere.  I seemed to be getting a higher percentage of 'good' squares and I saw a glimmer of hope.  Maybe all was not lost after all?  I had one particularly productive weekend where I hit the halfway point.

Feeling like I'd finally conquered the troublesome blanket and with 56 squares complete, it was time to lay them all out and prepare to swoon at the much improved results...

I laid it all out, I took a little time to arrange and rearrange to get a nice even distribution of colours.  I stood back and took it all in....  and.... oh drat.  I don't like it!

I was a touch dismayed, I have to say.  I wasn't sure what to do but for some reason the idea of abandoning it didn't seem like an option.  Maybe because I've come so far.  I mean, half the squares I need for a blanket are complete for goodness sake!  More likely because I know that these colours are gorgeous and I should be able to make something lovely with them and I'm just too pig-headed to admit defeat.

 It was time for a crisis meeting.  I called in my sister.

We laid it out again and she was not dismayed, she did not think it was doomed.  She agreed that some squares were maybe less satisfactory than others but was complimentary about many that I had shunned.  She said 'keep going'.

So the next day, I looked again.  I sorted the squares into piles:  The Nice Ones, The Ones I Can Live With and The Bloomin' Ugly.  I laid out the blanket again, using just The Nice Ones and the The Ones I  Can Live With.  And... it was alright.  It was even, maybe, something I liked?

So, although it may very likely seem like madness to some, I undid some of The Ugly Ones.  Some just needed the last row removing, some a couple of rows and some became just little balls of wool.  I've spend a not inconsiderable amount of time, undoing, shuffling colours and re-making these blighted squares but strangely, this hideous backwards step did actually feel like progress.

For the first time since this blanket has begun, I think I know where it is going.

S x

♥

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