Princess Crafts: Massive Granny Square Blanket

After Poppet was born, I seemed to lose my crafting mojo for a while and I just didn't have the time or the brain cells to give to anything other than doing nothing whenever I had a bit of free time. I guess most new mothers have to let go of something during the first few months of adjusting to life with a baby, and I let go of crafting. But guess what peeps, I've well and truly grabbed a tight hold of it again!

Although I just couldn't get excited about doing/making something, I did miss it and once I started getting ideas in my head again I knew that it was time to get hooking. I wanted something quick and easy which I could pick up and put down easily without having to go back and work out where I left off. Sometimes I only get a few mins of crochet time before needing to attend to Poppet who has rolled over/got stuck/needs a new nappy... you get the drift. So I started making granny squares, you know, to ease my brain in gently. After a few were done I wondered what to do with them and somehow came to the conclusion that I should use up my scraps and make a blanket.

The very beginning

As I was using scraps, I decided to make the squares in 4 rounds and some only came out as 3 rounds but they're saved for a future project, whatever that may be. I sewed four small squares together to make a big square and then did a couple of rounds of random colours finished with a round of cream on each one.

I had no plan for this blanket except to be as random as possible. Being random was SO difficult for my organised self! I even used colours I don't like! It was strange to be working on something without a vision in mind, but I just went with it and let it come about of its own accord.

When deciding the final layout, I wanted to make sure not to have the same colours repeated or too close together. It was like a crochet version of sudoku and boy was it tricky! Then I got bored with the millionth layout so labelled them all up so I knew which was which and got stitching together! There are a few 'mistakes' in the layout, but I decided nobody would even care and I decided not to care about it either.

Starting to stitch it together

As it came together, it was getting rather heavy, so I had to pile it up on the couch next to me and shuffle it round every so often. I kept me warm on some of those chilly ~~winter~~ spring evenings which was quite handy.

I decided to keep it simple and just do a few rounds of cream as a border. As there are so many random colours I thought the cream would help bring it all together and tone it down at the same time. After much thought and consultation with fellow crocheters, it was agreed that the best edging would be a simple row of double crochet. This surprised me as I had always planned a semi elaborate edging but it just didn't look right. This meant that the blanket was finished before I had expected it to be and so I was quite surprised that it was finally done!

And here is it in all its multicolour glory, draped along the (three seater) couch.

This is my favourite square of all.

And this is the very middle of the blanket.

Blankety facts:
100 small granny squares
millions of sewing stitches
25 giant squares in total
5x5 squares layout
4 rounds of granny in cream
1 round of double crochet
loads of odds and sods used up
3 balls of Stylecraft DK in cream purchased
total cost of blanket, £6
time to hook up, approx 5 months
approximate size of a king size bed