I’ve decided that I need to stop setting myself up for failure by taking on huge projects with multiple steps that take forever to complete and leave me feeling frustrated and unaccomplished.
As I mentioned in my previous post, frustrated and unaccomplished don’t jive well with my personality type at all.
Case in point: my 365 Sky Blanket.
First, I didn’t plan well or measure correctly.
Then, I completely misjudged how much time each row would take me as the blanket and therefore the circumference of the blanket grew.
So, with the packing and the moving and unpacking and all of the other things on my ever-growing To Do list I’d gotten myself close to 80 days behind (!!!) on the creation of my blanket.
Now, I have been observing the sky/weather daily and making notes in my phone, but the truth is that I’ve been so incredibly overwhelmed at the prospect of catching up that I’d just freeze up and do nothing and then get even further behind!
Geez…
Then, a couple of weeks ago while working on a blanket for Sprout, I had an epiphany that cracked me wide open and allowed the creative crochet juices to start flowing again!
Instead of remaining stuck in the original design, I just had to give myself permission to mix it up!
Imagine that?!
Now, instead of each day being represented by an entire row, I’m whipping up a quick 5 inch by 5 inch block for each day for the first 64 days that I’m behind. I will then connect them all together, in order, to create an entire row of blocks around the blanket.
This will catch me up by over two months while only adding a few inches around the whole blanket!
Truth be told, it is incredibly gratifying to complete a 5×5 block in just a few minutes as opposed to the marathon each row was turning into!
Additionally, I’m thinking it might be wise to continue with this pattern for the next few months since the blanket is already very large and, if this is truly to become a blanket representing a full year, I have until November 28th to continue tracking and crocheting.
Whew!
Next time I’ll measure more carefully 🙂
Now, do tell, what creative projects are you working on these days?
xoxo,
M
I absolutely LOVE the idea of a Sky Blanket, and this has inspired me to make my own! My only question is: 365 (or 366, since 2016 is a Leap Year) doesn’t divide evenly into a square or rectangular shape—you’re gonna have five squares left over at the least; that’s making it 19sqX19sq, which only uses 351, and that’s the closest I can figure (without making it 6sqX61sq for a veeeeery long and thin blanket)!
How are you planning on putting the blanket together once you’re finished? Or do you think you’ll make extra days at the end? The next evenly made blanket is 19sqX20sq, which totals 380 squares—an extra 15 (14 when including that Leap Year day) days!
I’m interested to hear your thoughts!
L.C., wonderful questions! If I were you, I’d go with a square to keep with the days of a full year. Then, I’d start thinking about either adding a border with your remaining 15 days. The border could go just around the outer edges of the blanket, or could be added into the pattern of the blanket. For example, a block of 9×9 squares, with a border of single crochets around them…then add the remaining 100 squares with a final border of single crochets. Does that make sense?
Also, I’m simply crocheting together each square using the fourth technique in this video (with the “window Pane effect” in front to create texture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F31ActsLT9Q
Good luck!!!
This post was so good for me! it absolutely released me from all of the frustration and tension building up because of all the projects I’ve started and can’t seem to finish them all. I’ll have my 81st birthday in November but I’m still learning to garden and do carpentry work….. a lot of it learned from following your blog over the last 4 years. so, thank you thank you and have a beautiful day.
Fay, Thank you so much for your kind words! This path of changing our habits and our lifestyle is such a learning curve in so many ways, isn’t it? I am so glad that you find inspiration in the ups and downs of our journey! please know that I am inspired by *you and am so grateful to have you here in this space! thank you for reading, and thank you for commenting <3