Granny Square Blanket

My Finished blanket.

Granny squares. I love granny squares, basic ones are repetitive and easy to learn and there are so many variations ranging into the very complex! I tried to learn to crochet from books but this did not go very well and the most I achieved was a well-constructed knot of wool! But a couple of years ago a lovely lady at a craft group spent some time teaching me and it just clicked! Having her watching what I was doing and pointing out where I was going wrong and helping correct me was the key to teaching me. After that I crocheted more than knitted.

I did attempt a crochet-along but found the complex patterns too much for a beginner, although it did help me create my first (small) blanket and some of the more complex patterns are beautiful and I will revisit them at some point. I have a pattern that looked like a sweet which is awesome! Anyway this led to my love of the simple granny square blanket so I did the math and figured I needed 120 squares to make a double bed sized blanket and I got down to it. My squares were as basic as they come, one colour 6 rounds. It took AGES. 120 squares is no small feat for one lady! It is well worth it and I can now do a basic granny square in my sleep. However while making my blanket I did make a few mistakes and I feel if I tell you them here maybe you can avoid making the same ones:

Not tying in the ends as I did the squares – I got to about 90 squares and realised that I was going to have to go back over all 90 squares and tie in all the ends. This was very disheartening and set me back about a week. Lesson learned!

Thinking about the finish line – At about 100 squares I was so happy because I was thinking ‘I only have 20 squares left to go’. Getting the squares is only the beginning.

Not thinking about how I was going to put it all together at the end – So going back to the last mistake, I started to think if I’m so close to the end I need to think about how it’s all going to come together. My smaller blanket has the traditional connection but this leaves a bit of a ridge and I didn’t want that so I searched the internet for a flat binding method. I found the perfect method but I needed to edge all my squares in my binding colour so I had to go back and edge all 100 squares in one round of black. This again set me back and disheartened me further.

Making the squares the same size rather than the same amount of rounds – This was stupid and I don’t think anyone else would make this mistake but I had a slightly finer wool for about 10 of my squares and when making them I laid them on top of the other squares and decided they could do with another round. This wasn’t going to work with my joining method so I had to unpick around the edge it in black again. I will not do that again!

So there you go, just a couple of things to keep in mind when creating your granny square blanket. It sounds a bit negative but I love the results of my blanket and I am very glad I made it and all the bumps along the way are learning curves that I am grateful for! Maybe I’m just impatient!

My friends and family love this blanket. It is massive and warm and my favourite thing is to cuddle up under it and watch TV.

So what has prompted me to write this post is another friend of mine is moving into her own place and wants one of these blankets for her settee. I wouldn’t have been able to make the blanket myself in time for her move but really wanted to do it so I taught her to crochet and thought we could split the task. She went home and taught her mum to crochet and now there are 3 of us working on the blanket. I figured between 3 people we only have to do 40 squares each, that’s only 3 a day for 13 days and one each on the last day (much quicker that when I made mine!). So here is my stash so far:

Crochet is good for the soul and I would encourage everyone to learn, maybe get together as a group and have fun.

I’ll keep you posted on our shared project!