Granny square blanket – fully assembled….mostly

I have finally finished attaching all of the squares together to resemble a blanket!  There is still tons of end tucking to complete.  You may notice that the back side has a loose end on every square.  That part is definitely not my favorite.  There are also a few extra loose ends on the front side.  I’d also like to make some kind of border.  I haven’t quite decided on exactly what to do for the border.

To give you some sense of scale, this blanket is longer than my California king sized bed.  It’s about 57″ wide.  Some crocheters like to use some type of gauge to keep every piece consistent.  I choose not to be so exact.  Sometimes that bites me in the butt, but I enjoy the creative freedom.

if I ever decide to make another similar design in the future, I’d have to learn how to make the squares  in a way that allows me to tuck the ends as I go.  I generally try to stay away from motifs like this since I do not enjoy the assembly process.  I will have to try one of the join as you go (JAYGO) techniques next time.

I guarantee that my next project will be something of a more continuous nature.  I already have the new yarn ready to go!  Stay tuned!

Front side

Back side

Granny Square Blanket assembly!

Let the assembly begin!  I found that it was easier to join four small squares as a larger square.  This makes the final big squares easier to assemble.

After some experimentation, I decided to join the squares using a simple single crochet stitch.  I’m planning to piece together the big squares in long strips.

Granny Square Blanket progress

Finally finished all the granny squares!  The picture contains:

• 30 big purple squares
• 29 big pink squares
• 116 little purple squares
• 116 little pink squares

Now, I get to figure out how to join them all together!  This should be interesting!

First Granny Square Blanket!

I figured it was time to make my first granny square blanket!  I have been crocheting off and on since I was a kid.  Surprisingly enough, this is my first attempt at the granny square.  The basic design would have squares of equal sizes lined up in a nice grid-like fashion.  That sounded pretty boring to me, so I decided to mix it up!

I looked all over the internet to find the best granny square pattern.  Many of them start with the “magic loop.”  I was challenged to find the best method of accomplishing this technique.  I finally settled on the Crochet World Blog version.  I, of course, had to customize it for my ease-of-use.  Instead of the two wraparounds on just the index finger, I do two wraparounds on both my index and middle fingers.  This makes Step B a lot easier for me, since I insert the crochet hook in the natural valley between my two fingers.

The Chalky’s World Granny Square pattern seemed to make the most sense to me.  To add the Michelle flair, I made some big squares (6 rounds, 7 inches) and little squares (3 rounds, 3.5 inches).  As I started laying out the squares to make some sort of design, I found that I was having a hard time with it.  I figured the whole thing could get pretty unwieldy.  Finally, I found that Microsoft Visio was just the ticket for my design planning!  It’s reminiscent of the diagonal or corner 2 corner (C2C) pattern.  Plus, it’s relatively symmetrical, which makes me happy. 🙂

I tend to make pretty good sized blankets, since you never know when I’ll keep it for myself!!  As you can tell from the pictures, I’m going with one of my favorite color combinations:  pink and purple!  I have a bunch of Loops & Threads Impeccable from my friend D.  I’m trying to pare down my yarn collection (I know — good luck to me!) to just Red Heart.  The Impeccable colors are technically soft rose and lavender.  In order to accomplish my ambitious design, I’ll have to make the following number of squares:

• Large lavender:  30
• Small lavender:  116
• Large soft rose:  29
• Small soft rose:  116
• Grand total of all squares:  291!!

I’m planning to try the Flat Zipper Method to assemble this project.  We’ll see how it goes.  Wish me luck!

Chevron Afghan for V

My nail lady, V, and I traded pedicures for an afghan!  She had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted.  I had never made chevrons before, so I had to make several different samples of different patterns until we agreed on the best one.

Pattern:  Chevon Lapghan, 196 chains + 3

Yarn:  Red Heart With Love in pewter and aubergine (love saying this color out loud!)

The pattern was so striking, I didn’t even have to do a border.  Now, I’m going to have to make one for myself!

Birch Bark Basket

Thanks to a wonderful Birch Bark Basket pattern from Moogly, I made this basket awhile back.  Please excuse my pajama clad legs!

I used double strands of Caron One Pound yarn in Dark Grey Mix.  I’ve never made anything with any kind of structure just by crocheting!  It was a fascinating process.  Essentially, it was almost entirely single crochet all the way around and through the thing!  Unfortunately, my poor Addi Swing hook broke due to the force I had to use to work the double strands.  The metal shaft totally detached from the plastic handle.  Fortunately, the manufacturer exchanged it for me free of charge.

If I decide to make another one, I would use more than one color.  I like a charcoal gray as much as the next person, but it gets kinda boring after awhile.

Bev’s 5-Day Lovee Blankee

I’ve already started a new project!  I’m trying to use up some of my Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn.  I’m planning to use my two 10.5 oz skeins of neopolitan.  I think one of the skeins is partially used, so it may not be a full two skeins.  We’ll see how far it goes.  I’m using this pattern:  http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/5-daylovie.html.  It’s working up pretty nicely.  

Tunisian afghan is finally finished!

I finally finished the Tunisian afghan yesterday!   I think it was one of the most time-consuming projects I have ever attempted.  It will be a long time before I make another one with the same pattern!  I’ll try to post a picture of it later.  I used a simple two rows of double crochet for the border with five DCs in each corner,

Diagonal Pattern aka Corner to Corner

The diagonal is my default pattern these days.  I can whip up a pretty decent sized blanket so quickly, it’s scary!  I made this one with six rows of each color.  As I recall, the border was two rows of SC, one row of trebles (I think) and two rows of SC.  I’ll just have to try it again!

I made this blanket for my auntie’s 98th birthday.  She loved it!  I used Red Heart Soft yarn.

Leaping Strips and Blocks

This blanket was made using the Leaping Stripes and Blocks pattern:  http://www.mooglyblog.com/leapingstripes-blocks-blanket-crochet/.  The Red Heart Soft yarn is so luxurious!  This might actually be my favorite blanket to date!