A Bed of Roses (WIP)

Today, I have no beautiful Etsy crochet to show you. Sorry. I promise I'll have something adorable tomorrow and it includes a poll which is always fun.

I just had to share something of my own making this time. And it's not a new pattern for my shop. This is something just for me. A Christmas gift to myself....

It is...a... 

BEAUtiful blanket!! Or, well, 2 squares of what will become a beautiful blanket!

I'm very, Very excited about the colors! All two of them, haha :) The yarn of choice is Naturally Caron's Claret (for the red) and Misty Taupe for the grey (it's more silver than Caron's website shows).

I think I'm going to need 7 or 8 skeins, if I did my math right. More on the numbers in a moment though.

This lovely afghan will be done in the join-as-you-go method. This was my first ever attempt and I'm kicking myself for not ever trying it before. Prior to this I'd been slip-stitching my sides together across (urg) and from this point on I'll never be doing that again!!

Doesn't that look wonderful? Initially I though the gaps would be a problem, until I realized that A) a granny square is covered in gaps B) the slip stitch holds it together snugly so it's only visible if you're playing tug-of-war with the thing and C) is an acceptable trade-off for the ease, joy and quickness of using the method.

So, the numbers...
I want my blanket to be 50"x50". Each square is 4.5" across (using a 5.5mm hook), so I'll need 11 rows down and across plus a simple not-yet-decided-on border. That's 121 squares. At half an hour per square (when my kids are awake that is about 60 hours of crochet time. Marvelous.

As for how much yarn I'll need, I'm pretty terrible at this calculation. I have my trusty Yarn Requirements pamphlet and (to spare you the arithmetic) the final number my calculator showed was 7, as in 7-skeins-of-yarn. I bought 5 : 3 taupe and 2 claret, so Oh Darn, I need to buy more yarn. An extra skein of each. Or maybe...2 just to be on the safe side? I do need to create a border... maybe 2 taupe and 1 claret...? I'm so terrible at this game.

I'll be sure to continue to show it coming along. My goal is to have it done by Christmas. A nice, repetitive,  gorgeous Work in Progress!!

(Will the pattern be available in my Etsy shop? Umm, perhaps. If The People demand it. To be determined...)