I started a blanket last spring. I suppose it was a bit of an accident. I was clearing out my boxes of yarn and thinking I really needed a project that would help use up some of the large 400g balls I had collected. A blanket seemed the perfect project. I don’t really enjoy blanket making if I’m honest and I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired but I wanted the comfort of crocheting without having to think about pattern or design…

When I feel like this I often turn to granny squares, maybe it’s because they were the first things I ever crocheted or maybe it’s something about the easy repetition of a square. I didn’t really think much about the colours I just grabbed a selection of what I had most of and started. I had 400g of a cream tweed aran so the only rule I worked by was to use this every other round. In my mind I was going to create one giant granny square and thought maybe we’d use it as a picnic blanket. After 30 rounds I was bored, I didn’t think I’d be able to keep adding rounds so I started another square.  I thought maybe I’d join them and add an edge to make a rectangle blanket but, after I’d finished, I realised I was enjoying the process of making it so much, I wasn’t ready for it to be over. So I started another square and then I ran out of two of the colours.

I looked for them online; they were Rowan pure wool aran colours that had been discontinued.  I put the blanket down and left it for a while. As the autumn approached I once again craved that ritualistic comfort of working on my crochet blanket so I began hunting for replacement yarn. I managed to track one ball of the yellow down but try as I might I could not find an aran red that matched what I’d been working with. As a last resort I dragged part of my blanket to my local yarn store and held it up to every red I came across. I found an almost perfect match in a DK ball. I wound this into two balls and worked the rest of the red rounds with two strands of DK.

I worked on this blanket through autumn (and three seasons of Supernatural) and enjoyed every stitch. It is the most beautiful, chunky, drapey, cosy, warm blanket. The children were snuggling under it on the sofa as I was working on it and it’s been in constant use since. I much prefer it’s rustic chunkiness to the delicate squares of Lulu’s blanket. I think maybe it’s softened my heart to making more blankets…

It’s actually quite hard to photograph as it’s so large, but I popped it on K’s double bed to try and give you an idea of size:

I’ve tried to write down as much Info as I recollect about colours and yarn, but I like I said there was little planning, just a desire to crochet.

Blanket Size: Aprox. 75 x 75 inches (190cm) made up of 4, 30 round granny squares joined in the 31st round.

Hook: 5.5

Yarn used:

Cream: Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Aran Tweed, Shade: 0753 Sandstorm

Black: Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran

Pink: Katia Alaska, Shade 022

Blue: James C Brett Aran with Wool, Shade Peacock 4AR76

Red: Jarol Heritage classic DK (2 strands used) Shade: 102 also Rowan pure wool aran, Shade: Ember (discontinued)

Yellow: Rowan Pure wool Aran, Shade: Banana (discontinued)

I can’t tell you how much I used of each I’m afraid, as I really didn’t make notes. The cream and the blue I was working from were in 400g balls and I used most of the cream but maybe only half of the blue, if that. So I’d say to achieve something similar you’d need at least 200g of each colour plus around 400g of a foundation colour such as the cream (If you are using it every other row).

So there you have it a mammoth colourful granny square blanket. I  L O V E  I T.

It has been the perfect antidote to these short grey days and has left me feeling refreshed and inspired.

Bye for now

Em x

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