Crazy Patchwork Blanket, The Start

For a very long time, I have wanted to make a Babette or a Klimt blanket.  My bucket list for items to make, is much much longer than the hours in each day to complete them all.   I have been keeping my fingers very busy this winter on one thing after another.  This fall I was busy making gifts for others and crocheting the nights away.  Now I am on to a project for myself.  I have decided that I need to spend more time making the things I want for around the house, and squeeze a gift in for others here and there.  Well, I finally started on my Crazy Patchwork blanket.  It is yet another scrapghan type project.  I think it is a cycle where I keep trying to use up scraps, then I start to run out of colors and buy a few more skeins of yarn and soon I am up to more scraps again, and this blanket is no exception.  But, I am using up more than I am purchasing which is a good thing.

Let's get down to business shall we?

First I gathered together all kinds of balls of yarn that sort of go together.  I left out some of the more obnoxious almost neon type colors that I had left over from when I made the neighbor down the street a blanket for Christmas (she likes bright colors, and I mean REALLY bright).  Here they are in my basket.  I typically just us an old laundry basket for my yarn when I am working on a project.

I started making centers for all the squares.  I made 10 of each inner color and then I have a method where I would rotate making the 2nd row.  I line up all the balls of yarn and go down the line until I run out of colors and then start again.  I was able to do this twice, so 10 dark centers, 10 light centers and 2 left over colors which I reserve for when I start again.  This gives me a pretty even amount of light and darks and no centers end up the same.  It also gives me an idea what the finished project will look like with them all muddled together. 

Here is the first bits of my blanket that I am working on and it's progress.  I am putting it together in a rather random way.  I just do the math for each section as I go, so it all fits, and I pick random colors as I go.  It will be interesting to see how it comes along.   It will be exciting to have a fun blanket like this.  I am not going to make it full bed sized as I tend to make blankets large be default and have nothing to curl up with on the sofa.  This will be a sofa blanket just big enough to curl up under while watching TV on the couch.  I can't wait till it is finished so I can do the big "Ta Dah" in bloggy land.