Your idea is smart to NOT do yarn work outdoors,
Nancy!
I never even thought of that, when others had told me they work outdoors in the summer months. It's smart NOT to get things "dirty" if you don't want to re-wash & re-wash it!
Also, do you wash acrylic yarn afghans, etc.. before you give them away as gifts?
When I read here, how
Booksaver, or someone does wash every finished project, it made sense, so now I do, except I don't wash P 'n' C or S 'n' C completed kitchen items for adult kitchens.
But this past December, I washed, dried with dryer sheets, the 3 youngest grands' afghans, they were so much softer, pretty looking, vibrant, & ready to snuggle in to immediately.
Now I wonder if it'll be a good/better idea to do that with the grands' puppets, scarves, vest, etc.., too.
I'm familiar with that feathers and fans pattern. I've seen it on-line in a photo. Do you ever go to Pintrest to get ideas?
DDIL goes there, then makes up her own patterns for DGD-17-months' tuutuu's, etc.. She did that with an infinity scarf for me from ruffled material found at the end of ribbons & trim in the fabric dept. AND with a little round tote bag with pockets & handles. She's incredible. She has 1 baby girl & 6 sons, ages 2 - 17 & still sews & loom knits. She works when kids are sleeping or late at night when the family's asleep or early a.m. before the family rises. Her and our DSON get up quite early to chat over coffee, so when he leaves, she gets extra time in, too.
Too bad. Joann's, I've found, carry a lot of the Lion Brand's 100% kitchen cotton yarns there, too, & less P 'n' C, if any. I wonder why? 
But it'd be fun to do multi-color snowflake squares for a large afghan for my king-sized bed. 