I am calling the center field of Grandma’s blanket done. Now to knit a bit more length on the long side borders.

I have four borders and most of the center field done of Grandma’s blanket. The side borders are not finished because the plan is to maximize the length of the blanket with the yarn I have remaining. The pattern calls for tassels, but I don’t like tassels (because they become a tangled mess), so I’m going to use the tassel intended yarn to make the blanket longer (we have tall people in our family). The yarn remaining is laid out on the center portion. I will use one skein to make the length, and the other skein for the join technique I want to use. I consider this a calculated risk, not yarn roulette.

I’m still plugging away at finishing Grandma’s blanket. I have a renewed fervor for finishing, since I now have five projects in queue. I’m currently working on the border pieces, which are mostly a five row repeat. At this point I have the five rows memorized, but to keep track of where I am, I made a simple chart. Since I have to make two, I make the first leg of the X for one side, and the second for the other. Then they should come out the same length.

I’m still working on my Grandma’s last unfinished project. I’ve been knitting along on the main body of the blanket and I had a chilling thought. What if I don’t have enough yarn to do the border? I have an idea of how long she intended it to be, but what if I’m wrong? What if I’m missing a skein or two? Yikes! Deep breath. I’ll just make the borders now, while I have plenty of yarn.

The top and bottom border strip are a fixed length, so I’m starting with those. For the side borders, I will knit them as long as I think the blanket should be, but not finish the taper, rather I’ll put the stitches on a stitch holder, and if I need to rip out, I can do so. Then I can go back and put 90% of the rest of the yarn into the central field. When almost all the yarn is gone, I can finish the side tapers and sew it all together. I don’t need to save yarn for the tassels called for in the pattern (I don’t like tassels, they just get tangled), so I just need to save enough to piece it all together. I have a plan.