Project Progress: Granny Square Blanket

Wow crocheting a blanket is hard work!

When I started way back in March 2012 I knew it would be a challenge to create a blanket. Usually when knitting or crocheting I have tended to stick to small items, a hat, a headband, gloves… so the size of a blanket is huge in comparison!

However crocheting the granny squares has not been a problem for me. I have my woven basket carrying all my yarns, I select two colour combinations and in 40/50mins I have hooked up five, 3 round squares: 2 rounds of contrasting colours with 1 round of white.

I decided to aim for a 14 row x 14 rows blanket, this meant I would need 196 granny squares.

On Sunday the day came where I counted out my squares and was very proud to realise I had 200!

So.then.the.long.long.long.task.off.laying.out.all.the.squares.began…

I stacked up all the same colours into piles, then lined them up into rows so i could see all the coulours avaiable to me when laying out the 14 x 14 row blanket. I then set about creating a 'random' blanket layout.

Turns out I am not a random kind of person, my idea of random has quite a few rules and limitations:

• Same 1st round colours cannot go next to each other
• Same 2nd round colours cannot go next to each other
  Opposit colour combinations, like orange 1st round and blue 2nd round, and blue 1st round and orange 2nd round cannot go next to each other.

So after 3 hours of laying out my squares in multiple combinations I just was not happy with the random look, I didnt have enough squares that were different enough for my liking to be combined in a suitable random fashion - that I found acceptable. There was always a square sticking out at me like a sore thumb!

Months of crochetting and I couldn't find a design I was happy with - however i thought struck me... I love rainbow colour combinations and I used rainbow colours to make my squares with, so why not go for a more organised layout...

I started laying out the squares in rows: Pink, orange, lime green, dark green, light blue, dark blue and purple. I started to really love how it was turning out, but i didnt have enough granny sqauares to complete this layout, so I spent 6 hours watching twilight films hooking away to fill my quota. It was like being on a production line, plaining the right colour, hooking up 5 squares, laying out and rearranging the combinations, seldcting another colour.
This is where I finished on Sunday night:

I found the process of planning the layout really difficult, it all seems so final and permanent deciding on the right layout for the blanket. But i did manage to sort it after a whole days graft!

Next i realised my biggest error, not sewing in any of the ends as I went along, so aswell as having to sew every square together I have to sew in 6 threads on every square,

20 rows x 13 rows = 260 squares x 6 threads = 1560 threads to sew in and snip, oh no!!!!!

Thank you xx