A lighter post with color

Yesterday I spread all of the Tahki Cotton Classic yarn from the Mitered Square Blanket onto the living room floor and reconsidered.

Actually, it was a sign of my feelings of disorganization lately. Whenever I feel especially scattered (you know, losing your glasses while you're trying to see the tiny buttons on the new stereo system at yoga, knowing that you hadn't moved from that spot, finally asking your student to help because you can't see because you don't have your glasses on, then discovering that you've been holding your glasses in your right hand THE WHOLE TIME), I go into what my family calls a cleaning frenzy. Translation: I "organize" by throwing out almost anything that's not nailed down.

I resisted temptation to toss all of this yarn. I think I'm just not a cotton kind of girl. I love the spring of wool, or the softness of alpaca. But cotton, not so much. It tends to feel like I'm knitting with an unresistant kitchen string, and the progress is so slow. Endless, mindless miles of stockinette stitch, and then a garment that had better fit right the first time, because there's no blocking cotton.

Still, I tried to stay positive. I love just looking at the yarn, all together, in a patch of sunshine.
So here's the new plan: a knitted version of the Sunshine and Shadows quilt in my Classic American Quilt Collection: Amish book. (Here's a version of the pattern. Mine will be much lighter in tone - Bubblegum Pink, Cranberry, Light Blue. And mine will have large borders of the pink and cranberry, instead of the traditional Amish black.) And, instead of plain stockinette squares or garter stitch (I know that it works for Ann and Kay at Mason-Dixon Knitting, but here again, I'm never happy with the look of mercerized cotton in garter stitch), each square will have a pattern from Barbara Walker. This will give me something to occupy my mind as I knit the many squares that will make up the blanket, and I'll have a manageable start and finish to each block.