When did I become Queen Knitalong?

I never used to do knit-alongs. Well, I tried, I really did, but I never could get the hang of knitting to a deadline. It's part of why I refused to join in the whole "Super Bowl Scarves" thing -- deadline knitting = un-fun knitting.

But now:

This is the first of multiple yarn purchases for a large, full year blanket knit-along. With a theme (which I won't ruin for you; as I progress, you can play along and see if you can figure out what fandom has inspired the blankie). I'm a weird little fangurl, you all know this to be true, but this is the first time I've done a themed knit-along.

Or such a large one. I mean, I was shocked enough at joining in the tea cozy knit-along last month (and Betty loves her dress, thank you for asking), but that took me...what, four hours, design to done? I did the charity blanket square knit along last year, August through September, but I didn't get a lot done for that project. I started (and quit) a shawl knit-along several years ago (I have all the patterns for that one, I really should finish it up one day), but aside from the attempt at the shawl and one tiny little tea cozy, I've never been good at knit-alonging. As I say, deadlines. They make me think of work, and work is not fun -- well, it never has been in past, but the times, they do change.

Anyway, it fills my pervy little fangurl heart with pleasure to contemplate the finished blanket, as well as my desperate need for warmth -- I love blankets. Mostly because I'm always cold.

So I stopped tonight at Not My Usual Big Box Craft Store to look at the yarn I'd chosen for my blankie. I decided to go with acrylic because Yoda has the reflux, you know, and while cotton is easily machine washable, it's also heavy as lead. Particularly when wet. Plus I already have two cotton blankets for warmth, this one will be more decorative. And cuddle-friendly.

I bought the yarn for this month's squares (there are two squares available each month, of which you only have to do one -- although if you do both, or all three if that's offered, you get a bigger blankie at the end of the year) and then bought ahead for a square I'm particularly looking forward to. Unfortunately, when I got the bag home and saw the yarn in the correct light, I noticed that this yarn:

is the wrong shade. In this photo, it's about...three shades darker than it is in life, and were that the true color of the yarn it would be correct. Unlike this yarn, in the color cranberry, the square in question calls for maroon. Which is an amusing word, maroon, but there it is. I think I will have to take this one back tomorrow, exchange it for a purple shade that's going to be coming up eventually, and try and find some maroon (marooooooon!) at another Big Box Store.

This is why Not My Usual Big Box Craft Store carries the appellation Not My Usual. The lighting is, frankly, crap. And the yarn is stocked in the Red-Headed Stepchild Corner, where at least two of the overhead lights are burnt out every single time I go in. It's like a yarn ghetto in there, dark and cramped and sort of seedy; they really don't want yarn crafters wandering through. But the yarn was on sale -- $3 a pop -- which is too cheap to resist.

Considering I couldn't hardly see the yarn at all in there, I don't think I did too badly. We'll see how it shakes out.

I am so looking forward to this!