Preparing for the KAL and Clue #1

Having made the decision to do the KAL afghan, and having the benefit of joining in after the event was completed, I looked through the completed blankets. There is a prescribed layout for the afghan, but it wasn't required, and there's a lot of very creative combinations! I picked a blanket I liked best, and wrote down how often each colour was used. The Waverly for Bernat yarn that's used is expensive, and I wanted to be sure I'd be happy with my colours. I was able to discern from the person's pattern which of their colours were contrast A, B, C, D and E. 
Initially I picked out Aqua Frost, Greek Sea, Butter, Bark, and Turtle Green. I'm glad I didn't order online right away though. When I finally got my car back (it'd been in the shop and for two days I was getting more and more anxious to get out and get the supplies to START ALREADY!), I went down to Zellers and checked out their prices. It turned out to be more economical to order the yarns online, even with a $10 shipping fee, but by this time I was so anxious to start, I bought my B and D contrasts so I could start on clue 1. 
While looking through the selection at Zellers, I revised my colour picks. Aqua Frost, Greek Sea (now contrast C), and Butter (now contrast E) remained from my original picks. Brick Brown replaced Bark as my contrast D, because Bark was much lighter than I'd thought, and my contrast B became Classic Navy. 
I stopped by Michael's to buy a 29" long, 5mm circular knitting needle (bamboo of course!). Their price intimidated me, when I compared to Zellers and Wal-Mart, so I didn't get any straight 5mm needles; I knew it was possible to knit on circular needles. 

Square 1 on the circular knitting needles.

I did not know that I needed to straighten out the plastic wire between the needles before knitting though. So just after switching to contrast D, I bought some straight 5mm bamboo needles at Wal-Mart (as well as some pins for blocking later), and switched to those. I'm starting to think I may go buy the $10 Clover brand needles at Michael's though; my circular needles are Clover and they're softer and smoother. 


Also, you may have noticed that my yarn is in a ball. I dislike using the yarn as it comes, because you have to stop each time you run out to unravel more pf it, and this way my knitting stays more consistent. I just rolled it up by hand, which always takes less time than I anticipate. 


On to clue #1...

Completed block 1!

Clue 1 is knitting 4 squares on the bias (diagonally) in contrasts B and D, and another 4 in contrasts B and C. 
And here's my finished first square! The blue looks much more life-like in the top picture, but you can see my stitches better in the lighter picture. 
Now, I did not make a gauge first, and my block ended up about 8.5"x8.5", rather than the expected 9.5"x9.5". I'll just block them a bit bigger once I'm done them all, and have a smaller afghan. 
Currently, I'm more than halfway done my third square, and waiting for the rest of my yarn to come in the mail. If it doesn't get here before I'm done these four, I'll be starting clue #2 early.


Things I learned:

• why making a gauge is important (oops!)
• how circular needles work and to straighten out the cord first (oops again!)
• the difference between the right side and wrong side (right side is marked by the white yarn)
• how to change colours midway through knitting
• how to (k1, p1, k1) all in one stitch
• how to sl1, k2tog, psso
• how to tink (undo stitches individually... "tink" is "knit" backwards), since I occasionally miss the second increase or decrease in a row