Blankets, Toques and Sales, OH MY!

The blanket slash afghan (what's the difference?) that I am making for Lucas' mom for Christmas is coming along swimmingly! I am really glad I switched to circular needles for this project and am doing it all as one big piece -- it's really coming together nicely. As of yesterday I had hit my 50th row. That seems like a lot, but I've still got 220 rows to go! At 50 rows the blanket is around 7.5 inches long without being stretched very much, and I'd like the finalized length to be around 40-45 inches. To make me stay consistent on this project I'm setting a goal of 10 rows a day. If I do 10 rows a day every day this month, I can theoretically be done by December 1, which will then give me plenty of time to work on a few much smaller and less time consuming gift projects in time for our trip to Indiana at Christmas. This is totally doable! Some evenings I may have time to do more than 10 rows (at 130 stitches per row and with me being a fairly new knitter, it takes me 9 minutes per row, so that's putting aside at least an hour and a half every night) and on the weekends I hope to be able to do even more. And as you can see from the photos, I've changed up the "pattern" a little bit, too. More about that when it's done!

To ensure that I stay on track and get my 10 rows a day done and complete this blanket by my personal deadline, I'm not allowing myself to purchase the set of DPNs that I want so badly. I'm dying to knit in the round and give socks/toques a try, especially after hearing how much some of the readers on the knitty coffeeshop forums prefer DPNs or a combo of 16" circulars with DPNs for such projects. I've found a free pattern or two that I can't WAIT to try and have already picked out what size DPNs I need... but I just can't allow myself to buy them until I'm done with the blanket. Well... that was my plan. See, I know in my heart that if I pick up DPNs that I will totally allow myself to get excited about breaking them in, and I'll start multiple projects that I'll want to work on and those projects will compete with getting the blanket done. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for setting this goal and the prize for reaching my goal would be to reward myself with DPNs, but then I got the Michaels ad in the mail last night, and the plan went downhill... sort of.

Michaels is having a HUGE sale this weekend. The flyer that I got had the normal 40% off any one item coupon, but there were two additional 50% off coupons on the front to help ring in the Christmas craft season, too! The 50% off coupons work just like the 40% one -- it's 50% off any single item in the store, but one is good for this weekend only and then the second 50% off coupon is only valid next Friday, November 16.

The flyer itself is filled with mostly Christmas-y things, but on the back there is a full page spread about how EVERY YARN in the store is 25 - 50% off from November 10 - 16. I can't pass a sale or coupons like this up! Tomorrow Lucas and I are going to go and I'm going to use my coupons on a nice set of Takumi bamboo DPNs and a matching set of 16" circulars. Since yarn is on sale, I'd like for Lucas to pick out some yarn that he really likes so that I can make his requested neck warmer and toque from it. However, to stay true to my original goal with the blanket, I'm not allowing myself to USE the new needles or start a new project until I'm done with the blanket first. I will be strong! (But you might want to cross your fingers or pray for me, just in case.)

I have spent some time lately reading and following other knitting blogs I come across. There are so many fantastic and talented people out there from all walks of life and from every corner of the globe, and it's so interesting to read about their life through their knitting. From this perusing I discovered Innocent beverages' charity project, The Big Knit. I found out about it too late to contribute this year (The deadline was October 22), but I am SO in for next year! With my online nickname being "Toque" (or "pinktoque"), it's not surprising that I was quick to follow a simple pattern to make a tiny little pink toque of my very own. And just like the site says, making tiny toques is incredibly addictive. I've made 3 this week (shhh, they were super quick and didn't detract from my blanket work that much, really!) and I hope to have a ton to send in next season. If you've not heard about The Big Knit, you really should give it a look. Innocent beverages puts up an easy knitting pattern to make a very simple and tiny knitted hat with their specific size requirements. People all over the world make the little hats and send them in, and they are then worn by the company's beverage bottles and sold with them. For each little hat that gets purchased, the company donates money to a charity that helps the elderly keep warm this winter. It's a great cause, and so many people get super creative and come up with amazing variations on the pattern that result in wonderfully unique little toques. I was feeling adventurous and even attempted knitting with more than one color for the very first time, resulting in the dual pink toque and the orange and yellow toque successes. Aren't they just adorable!? I feel confident that I can knit with multiple colors when I finally get around to knitting a life-sized toque and neck warmer for Lucas now.