When I was in first grade, we had a unit on learning to count. We’re not talking just one through ten, either – oh no, we were graded on whether we could recite, in front of the entire class, the numbers from one to one hundred.
It doesn’t sound so hard now, but at the time…terrifying. I was a shy little Asian girl in a really, really white elementary school with a racist teacher who thought I had Down’s Syndrome (and then yelled at me when I did better than the other kids). Getting up in front of everyone scared the living snot out of me.
Also, I had trouble with the eighties. To this day, I’m always a little cautious about counting past seventy-nine. I’ll pause for a moment, think really hard, and cautiously go with, “eighty? Eighty-one…”
The other day, one of my friends and I were arguing about counting in base-ten vs. base-two, and he commented that “No one has trouble counting! It’s an inherent human trait! Who could possibly have trouble counting?!”
At which point I raised my hand, and I swear I lost like three whole Respect Points™ in that moment.
Anyway, all of that was a really long way of explaining why when I suddenly realized that I’d recently finished knitting a few more squares for Wedding Blanket II, and was well into yet another, but I hadn’t actually counted my progress in a long time, I felt a moment of panic. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d counted my progress.
I’m sure if I went back in the archives, it would be on this blog, but…er…I’m inefficiently lazy.
Anyway, I dug out all the squares for the blanket, starting with the most recent additions.
I…er…might have a habit of making small little bundles as I finish each one. It serves absolutely no purpose, but it tends to make me happy and that’s all that matters, right?
Anyway, I unfolded those and laid them out on the stack with the rest of them and started counting.
That, my friends, is thirteen whole blocks for this blanket. I think that means that if I’d wanted to bail at a 3×4 block blanket, I missed.
However, luckily, I was planning to knit a 4×4 block blanket, so I’m still good to go. I mean, sure, in the back of my head was the thought that I had an escape route planned if it became too much, and the recipients would never know… (Except now they would, and I think I’ve mentioned the plan for 16 blocks before, so that was really more of a fairy tale I told myself.) Just three more squares, and I can start the border for this thing.
Anyone have a good idea for a border to go with this one? You know, without me showing you what the blanket actually looks like, because I have to somewhat hide it from the newly created husband-and-wife duo it’s intended for?