Look who can count.

I managed to make the granny square square. It was touch and go there for a while. I managed to save the unsquare square but the gauge was too floppy for a blanket. So I started with a smaller, less rude looking hook. Better gauge but it wanted to be a hexagon before becoming another square.

I know, why is it such a big deal for me to make a square? I have a general dislike of counting, math, figuring things out before hand, but this is me blindly following a pattern so what's the deal? Well because of the Ginormo nature of the yarn and therefore exaggerated proportions of the resulting square make it more difficult to keep track of all those double crochets. Uh. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I am totally in love with this project but the price of the Magnum is giving me an eye twitch. $20 a skein!?!???! Yikes. Considering that each square eats almost a full skein I think it's going to be a while before this project goes any further. I could pick another super ginormo bulky chunky something-or-other, but I like the resulting texture of the un-plied Cascade. I'd be open to any recommendations for a similar yarn that won't end up costing the same as my duvet. Yikes.

Alright. I've done some fancy calculations and the size of said blanket will be 30 squares. With each square using just about one ball each, this give me a grand total of $600 for the blanket. Let me be the first to say AY CARUMBA! Even if I factor in the leftovers and bring the total number of skeins down to let's say, 20, that's still $400 and absolute madness. It's just crazy talk. Does anyone know of cheap substitute lopi-like wool yarn?