On the flip

Well, it's all Parcheesi all the time around here these days.  Stripey squaresville and stripey strips.

I thought I'd flip it over and show the back side.  This is 2/3 of the blanket, almost all joined up.

I'd taken care of weaving in the ends on all the strips before sewing up, but hadn't bothered with doing all of the squares.  Now, as I'm joining the pieces, I'm taking care of all the remaining ends.

The "ends" seen here are actually stitches at the ends of stripey strips that are on holders.  I'd get so excited about finishing a strip that I'd break off the yarn before casting off, as if I were going to join another color, never leaving myself an end long enough to do the job.  I can't tell you how many times I did that — break off the yarn and, simultaneously, hear the voice in my head, "DOH!"  So, I've been picking up stitches on the square to which the strip will be joined and doing a three-needle bind off thingy.  It's working out fine.

This sewing up, along with the suddenly and decidedly winter-like weather (observe) (that's only 280 miles to the north and west of me), is giving me a pain in the neck.  I feel the cold in my neck more than any other place and, if I'm not careful, it's going to turn into a full-blown back problem.  I wore my first turtleneck of the season yesterday, layered with (among other things) a small triangular shawl and topped off with my crazy-soft-warm-fuzzy shadow[]box.  If there's anything good about the onset of cold weather, it's that I have a reason to pull shadow[]box off the shelf.