Deadlines!

I love deadlines, they force you to get things done. Most projects I start will get finished in pretty good time. Then the odd time a project, especially a big project will seem to spend a  lot of time in the WIP (work in progress) pile.  These projects need a deadline, a real deadline. I began this project just after Kay Gardiner published the pattern to raise funds to support Mercy Corps, they were raising funds to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan in early 2011.

After beginning the afghan in March I decided to have it done in time to enter into the Orono Fair's Cultural Expressions Class. I completed 11 squares of the 12 I had planned and then the unthinkable happened, I ran out of yarn!  Silly shop wouldn't have any more until after the deadline.  I set the whole thing aside and then it happened, time passed and it now was a few weeks until my next established deadline: Orono Fair 2012.  I did decide, since I had to purchase 10 balls of the background yarn to finish the blanket, I should really make 4 more squares. The squares were easy, putting the whole thing together meant it no longer was a portable project. The deadline became closer and life was getting in the way.  The entries had to be into the hands of the judges by 10 am Thursday morning.  I was knitting the last few inches of the border after Wednesday's Knitt'n Night.

 I have to say I do love this blanket.  Every stitch was a knit stitch, no purls in this project.  It used up a whole bunch of odd balls of Noro Silk Garden. Garter stitch and Noro in the same project!

Oh yes, I won first prize, it had more to do with the design than the knitting. (The pattern is called Mitered Crosses Blanket for Japan, so far the pattern sales have generated more than $18,000)

 Entering the Fair is like eating potato chips, you can't just enter one thing, you may as well enter a bunch.
It always surprises me to see what the Judges like, especially when they are mine.

I guess I should look through my pile of unfinished objects (UFO's) and see what I could enter next year.