Who doesn’t love a granny square blanket? There can’t be many people surely.
I was so pleased when a friend asked me to make a crochet blanket for her living room. I was especially pleased because she already has one of my baby blankets, which was gifted to her by our colleagues at work when she went on maternity leave last year, and it means a lot to me that she liked that one enough to ask me to make another.
Through a little virtual chatting over Facebook we settled on some kind of granny square blanket and the colours blue and grey. Then she sent me this picture of a cushion with a beautifully simple, yet effective pattern…
… and the result was a granny square blanket – with a twist, well more of a 45 degree turn really.
I would usually join granny squares as I go but I don’t think the desired effect would have been achieved with that method, so I stitched the squares together once I’d made them all.
The edges were squared off with isosceles triangles and the corners with smaller isosceles triangles. All of the triangles were right angled triangles too. Can you tell we were learning about triangles at school today? (If you’re new to my blog you might not know that I work as a teaching assistant – you can read more about me here.)
Once all the bits and bobs were stitched together I had to tackle weaving in the ends. Obviously, a sensible person would have stitched in the ends as they went along. I am not that person. Did I mention that there were 61 squares and 24 triangles in this granny square blanket? That’s quite a lot don’t you think? Do you think I’ve learnt my lesson? I’d like to think I have, but if I’m being honest the answer is probably not!
It was worth the effort though. The finished blanket, particularly when viewed from above, is mesmerising and I don’t think it could’ve really turned out much better.
My friend’s boys seem to be happy with it…
…and their mum is too!
The finished blanket measures approximately 125cm square.
Let me know if you’d be interested in a chart of how the blanket was put together.
The blanket looks amazing! You’ve joined the squares so neatly! I’ve yet to attempt joining squares as I’m afraid it’ll look terrible!
Thanks Amy! This really isn’t my favourite joining method but it does look very neat after – don’t be afraid to give it a go! x
I love how this looks! And I’ve been searching for a little different pattern to make a baby blanket for a new great grandson! Any instructions you can give on how to accomplish everything would be wonderful. And I’m more than willing to pay for a pattern. Oh and I’d like to know what yarn you use. Is all that too much to ask?😄
Thank you Betty! A new great grandson – congratulations! I’ve been working on a sweater pattern today but will put together some instructions for this blanket soon, hopefully in the next week. I hope that’s ok.
Sure! Whenever you could find time would be great!
Love your work. I’ve been searching for a warm blanket that really looks like a good one. But I’ve never done the squares because I’m afraid of the joining process also. If I could do it like you I would give it a try LOL
Thanks for such a lovely comment. I’m usually put off by joining squares too but once I got going it really didn’t take long. It was definitely worth it.
Is there a written pattern? I don’t know how to read a chart after all these years.
I’m hoping to work on instructions for this blanket this week and hopefully post it soon.
That’s terrific. Can’t wait to get started. Thank you for all your time and effort it takes to do this.
I’m delighted to hear that you’re going to try to put together instructions for this blanket. Math is not my strong suit and figuring out the triangles by myself would put a severe dent in my self esteem! Plus, as others have mentioned, the joining of the squares is kind of scary. It’s a lovely twist (giggle) on an old, well loved pattern.
Thank you, I’m glad you like the blanket. Joining the squares was much easier than I thought it would be and Maths definitely isn’t my best subject either but the triangles are speedy once you know how.