So I Guess Black Friday Isn't All Bad....

By Kaelyn Angelfoot

Jack and I spent the last three days outside in the cold patching our driveway (buku points to Cynar for dropping in to help!). Its days like those that make me turn to Jack and say "Sooooo... still sure you don't want to move to Miami?"

Let me just start by saying, finally, a Black Friday Sale I can get excited about. I hate the idea of standing out in the cold for three days and then dealing with the crowds and getting mugged to buy Christmas presents the day after Thanksgiving. I prefer a nice quiet vacation weekend.
But...JoAnn's ran the world's best sale last weekend with fleece on sale for $3 a yard. Boom! I was there first thing Saturday morning (surprisingly, no crowds). Look what I got for less than $25.

I feel like I just won the lottery. That there is enough fleece to make about thirteen blankets of various sizes! Hello Christmas presents for my nieces and nephews.

I'm basing my blankets on this picture, from Project Linus:

And I already have two of them cut out. What I did was fold the paired fabrics in half and lay them on top of each other. I trimmed as necessary to make all side even and straight. From both the top and the bottom, I cut through all four layers using my rotary blade a strip nine inches wide. From this strip on the side with the raw edges, I cut off a nine inch square. Finally, on the large piece I cut another nine inch strip off the side with the raw edges. Do not ever cut the folded side. This left me with two blankets worth of fleece, the second being the inverse of the first.

Now I have to cut out three more sets and crochet them all together. Oh, and I only have two weeks for this whole thing.

 I've completed two blankets for Project Linus, the zebra striped one and one small monster baby sized blanket. 

The blue zebra blanket was practice. My crochet skills are rusty and minimal. This ended up being three rounds: 1) foundation single crochet, 2) single crochet, 3) double crochet, chain one, in every other stitch. It gave it a very nice crinkly look, I think in part because I used a larger crochet hook.