Tomorrow, my sixteen-day streak of not having to get up before sunrise ends, and while I know I will miss the languid and lazy mornings of this winter’s break, I am also looking forward (with the help of my New Year’s goat) to getting done some of the things on my “to do this year” list as I did on this lovely Sunday.

One of the first items on the list is to finish a blanket made from textured crochet squares that was intended to be a Christmas gift.

To my delight, I managed to make measurable progress over the weekend, finishing sixteen of the twenty-four four-square centers needed for the project.

Stitch by stitch, round by round, I moved forward, weaving in ends and joining squares as required. By late afternoon, I had took a moment to lay out my work and examine my progress.

Here are eight of the four-square centers without the additional six-round edging needed to call them finished:

and here are eight more squares, seven of which have the edging completed and one (bottom left) that is two rounds shy of being done:

Happy with my progress, I rearranged them and got this group photo:

I still need to make 32 of the smaller squares that form the foundation of the finished project, but with hook in hand and my New Year’s goat at the helm, I expect that I will have it done in relatively short order: