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I finished my squares for week four of the Patchwork Mystery CAL in record time. The first one I finished on Monday, then I started the second and finished it on Tuesday. I did have to cheat a little and watch the tutorial video for one row. Spoiler alert- same lady, but different beautiful fingernails. I may go back and watch the videos for weeks one and two just to see her pretty nails! Actually, I found out this week that the lady doing the tutorial videos is actually the organizer of the entire crochet-a-long! Her name is Anastasia Smith from Journey Chanel Designs. You can find her blog HERE
Anyway, this week’s square was designed by Marianne Hamil from Sunset Knots. You can find the pattern HERE. Honestly, the finished piece is so beautiful, you’d have no idea it was so easy and quick to work up!
With all of my extra time this week, I decided to go ahead and block my first batch of completed squares. Honesty time: this is the first project I will have ever properly blocked. My former method involved my husband and I essentially playing tug-of-war with my freshly finished blankets to stretch them into shape. Technically “wrong”, but it is an effective blocking method if you dont have a 6 foot wide blocking board!
With every square being so different on this project, proper blocking is going to be essential so that when the time comes to join them all, I won’t have to fight with the squares all being slightly different sizes. You can see below what a HUGE difference blocking makes.
Did you see that? From wrinkly and uneven to uniform and square just like that! Plus, I finally got to use my boards that I purchased months ago. Money NOT wasted, how about that? In the spirit of honesty, I’m actually pretty embarrassed that I posted photos of my squares online before I blocked them. In my mind, I was going to block all 9 squares at once. I failed to account for both the amount of table space I would need and the amount of space each square would take up, so blocking actually took 4 days (the cable squares took 2 days to dry). New plan for the next 8 weeks: weekly blocking!
Are you participating in the Patchwork Mystery crochet-a-long? If so, I’d love to see your progress! Follow me on Instagram HERE, and I will follow you back! Even if you aren’t working on this project, I’d love to hear from you! Pop by my Facebook page HERE and say hello!
