Akachan no Mofu (赤ちゃん の 毛布 - Baby Blanket)

Well, I took the plunge! :P  I committed to working on multiple projects along side my Tabi No Monogatari v5 & v6 as well as 2015's NaKniSweMo and my Kurisumasu no Bōshi. :)  My "big" at home project was to make a "baby" blanket with the Taiwanese yarn my mom had picked up for me (and had gone a bit overboard) while traveling in Taiwan a while ago.  I had asked her to pick up 400 yards of sock yarn (basically something I could make a pair of socks with) and instead, she (or more likely my Dad) had gone nuts and basically brought home yarn that I couldn't use for a pair of socks! 8S  So, after much thought and deliberation about what I was going to do with all this non-sock yarn in colours like: multi blue-mint green-white, multi purple-blue-pink-white and pink, I decided to turn a good portion of that yarn into an Akachan no Mofu (赤ちゃん の 毛布 = Baby Blanket) as the colours really called for a baby blanket. :P  I found this super cool scarf/wrap pattern that I thought would be awesome as a blanket. :) It's called the Dragon Wrap/Scarf.  On that note, I should let you know that in my family, a "baby" blanket is really more like a twin sized blanket (or bigger - basically, we give something as big as possible that we can squeeze out every square feet or yard; our theory is maximization is key! :P).  We believe that baby blankets should grow with you until it's completely ratted out (and by then, you're usually in high school or older). :P

So ... Here's how it went:
First, I modified the pattern a bit so that it would be "blanket" sized. Here's the "pattern":

1. Cast on 168 sts.
2. Knit five (5) rows of garter stitch.
3. Follow the following repeat rounds in the following colours:
• Round 1: (WS) and all odd numbered rounds : Purl 
• Round 2: *K1, Yo, SSK, K4, K2tog, K3, Yo, K2, Yo, K3, SSK, K4, K2tog, Yo, K1; rep from * 
• Round 4: *K1, Yo, K1, SSK, K2, K2tog, K4, Yo, K2, Yo, K4, SSK, K2, K2tog, K1, Yo, K1; rep from *
• Round 6: * K1, Yo, K2, SSK, K2tog, K5, Yo, K2, Yo, K5, SSK, K2tog, K2, Yo, K1; rep from *
• Round 8: *K1, Yo, K3, SSK, K4, K2tog, Yo, K2, Yo, SSK, K4, K2tog, K3, Yo, K1; rep from *
• Round 10: *K1, Yo, K4, SSK, K2, K2tog, K1, Yo, K2, Yo, K1, SSK, K2, K2tog, K4, Yo, K1; rep from *
• Round 12: *K1, Yo, K5, SSK, K2tog, K2, (Yo, K2) twice, SSK, K2 tog, K5, Yo, K1; rep from * 
• blue 16.75 rows (including casting on and the initial five (5) rows of garter stitch)
• yellow 13.25 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• purple 15.25 rows
• yellow 8.75 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• gray 12 rows
• gray 12 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• pink 13.85 rows
• yellow 11.15 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• blue 16.11 rows
• yellow 7.89 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• purple 16.75 rows
• yellow 7.25 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• pink 14.25 rows
• yellow 9.75 rows
• yellow 12 row
• gray 12 rows
• gray 12 rows
• yellow 12 rows
• yellow 8.50 rows
• purple 16.37 rows
• yellow 11.13 rows
• yellow 13.25 rows
• blue 16.75 rows (including final five (5) rows and bind off) 
4. Knit five (5) rows and bind off.

I started off using my Knitter's Pride Trendz US 8 needles (because I wanted to know how well the plastic needle worked with the acrylic yarn) but, it was very difficult to use as there was a lot of drag and made my hands feel really achy and sore very quickly (mostly the yarn's fault and partly the needles, I think). :(  So, then I switched to my Knitter's Pride Cubics (same sized needles) and it was better but, I think the acrylic yarn itself was hard on my hands because it was still tough and slow going despite changing my needles. :(

Other than that, working the dragon scale pattern is interesting (even though I need to constantly look at the pattern every time I started an even numbered row - I just couldn't seem to remember it).  After knitting nearly the entire pattern with my first ball of blue multi yarn, I realized that there was no way that I would have enough yarn to actually make a blanket out of this.  If I used just what I had it would be a giant dolly blanket or a very itty bitty baby blanket.  So, I began to look through my stash (documented and undocumented stash - the undocumented stash is from when I had bought yarn thinking I was going to learn how to knit and used it as practice knitting yarn and as such decided not to document it as stash) and found some leftover Red Heart light grey yarn that would work well with the colour combinations I had.  But, my grey ball wasn't all that much so, my sweet Hubby took me to Wal-Mart and helped me find another colour (I couldn't find another light grey).  I picked up another Red Heart Super Saver yarn in pale yellow. :)  After completing several pattern repeats, the blanket was turning out very nicely. :) The only thing I worried about was actually having enough yellow and grey yarn to make it all the way through the blanket.  After working the first pattern repeat for the grey yarn, I realized that I had to break down and find another skein of it.  With the number of grey repeats I had to do and the amount of yarn I had left, it became crystal clear that I had to pick up another skein of grey yarn.  So, I managed to find another Red Heart Super Saver skein of light grey at our local Ben Franklin store.  I also ended up picking up another skein of the yellow yarn (after I've gone through about two (2) of the yellow pattern repeats and had used up about half of the first yellow skein, I realized that I needed to get more yellow yarn :'() as well as be fortunate enough to have a yarn fairy (Thank you, D!!) who gifted me another skein of yellow yarn. :P  I actually held out of picking up more of the yellow yarn until I had actually ran out of my original skein to see how far I could get with it before picking up the rest of skeins. :D  (Yup, I was playing yarn chicken and being delusional! :P)  It took me six (6) pattern repeats of the yellow yarn before I picked up the remaining skeins of yellow yarn (Denial is not only a river in Egypt :P lol).

And, because I was adding in colours and wanted to be sure I could actually make this blanket as big as I wanted to, I started doing knitting math - again. 8S  It was partly to check to see if I had enough yarn to make a full sized "baby" blanket but, more importantly, it was really to check if the colours for the pattern would work out (and look fine).  As I was merrily making the blanket and used skein after skein, Hubby asked if I was actually going to use all that yarn and of course, I said: yes! :P  Then, he broke the news to me:  He said that if I used all the yarn using the same repeats I had already established, the blanket would look ... awkward (ok, he used the word: "funny") ... I sat in the river of Denial for an hour before conceding that he was probably right (although I didn't have to like it! :P).  With his help (I dunno why I didn't just ask for his help in the first place since he's always better at math than I will ever be), he helped me figure out what sections I needed to take out and how to finish up the blanket.  So, the blanket ended up being 159 cm L x 92 cm W (60 in L x 36.25 in W) - basically something slightly smaller than a twin sized blanket.  This lucky child will just have to enjoy it until she/he is bigger than I am! ;)  Then she/he can enjoy it as a lap blanket. :P

Lastly, I also discovered that I could only do one (yes, one (1)!) pattern repeat a night before my hands tuckered out. :(  So, after doing the (inital) math, I determined that this "project" would take me at least total of 46 days to finish (presuming that I actually worked on it every single day and was able to complete one whole pattern repeat a day).  It was overwhelming to think how long it would take me to finish this baby blanket!  In the end, I found that at most I could do no more than 4-6 rows (or no more than one (1) full repeat) a day so, it really took me one (1) year, two (2) months and two (2) days (not 46 days) to finish this blanket.  This was mainly because 1) I was too tuckered out more a days than I thought I would be to actually work on it at night and on the weekends, 2) I got all hyped up about NaKniSweMo 2015 (yet another simultaneous project! :P) so in essence, I had temporarily abandoned this project for a little bit :( and 3) there were also other (smaller and quicker) projects that "got in the way" ;).  Essentially, I was only working on this project when we were either at all day events (like picnics, barbecues), at big (aka all/most of the evening) parties, or on the rare weekends when we needed a break from reality. :P  There was a small break in projects near the end of this project in which I just manned up and finished the darn thing!  After all, I needed to finish this project before there was an actual baby being born! :P (And, no, the closest relative/friend I have being close to having a baby is getting married next year so, I'm good to go (now) when the next baby comes; hopefully it's just not two (2) babies - then I'll be in big trouble! ;P (And, yes, I was getting worried about when I was really going to be able to finish this - a baby may well have been on its way if I had let this drag on any longer! :P))

Nevertheless, it's finally done! :)  Here's how the completed "baby" blanket looks:

Here it is!  Done!!! 

And, see! It's just taller than me! :P

While I'm not sure if I want to take another endeavor of making a baby blanket again but, I am glad I had a chance to see if I could handle doing multiple projects as well as working on a H-U-G-E project to boot! :P

So, here's my lessons learned:  

1. No multiple projects for me! I can't handle anything more than two (2) projects at a time and simple projects at that! :P  It took me as long as it did because often times, when I picked up this project again, I had to re-evaluate what I was doing before starting up again.  And, when I stopped this project to work on another one, I had to re-evaluate that project to see where I left off there to begin again.  It really amazes me how people can do multiple projects and be able to remember where they left off.  It actually drove me a little crazy and gave me a bit of anxiety to have so many projects going on at the same time.  I think ultimately, there's were (way) too many projects and unfinished works going on at the same time that really gave me anxiety ... I found that I really like to see a project from birth to completion so, having multiple projects stressed me about actually being able to finish them. :P  While I did manage to finish nearly all of my projects, I definitely won't be taking on more than two (2) projects at a time for future knitting projects! :)
2. With regards to working on a big project like this, it was definitely trying as the shear size of it was hard to manage and lug it around with me (eventually, it needed to be lugged around with me so I could actually finish it).  Additionally, because I couldn't really ever remember the pattern, I had to have a lot of accessories with me (like my cell phone and counter).  So, with that, there were more things to juggle around as well as managing the yarn and the blanket itself (not to mention always making sure I had battery power on my phone so I could actually look at the pattern and work on the blanket!)  If I were to take on another "baby" blanket, I would definitely try it with another yarn and perhaps work it with a different (or easier/less complex) pattern - like a simple knit, purl, or knit & purl (like Moss stitch) pattern.  We'll see ... Once we hear that another baby is coming along, I'll think about it then! :P