This blog post is in three parts
- Granny square blanket
- Growing granny square blanket
- Ripple
Part 1
Sometimes the simplest patterns are the most enjoyable! You don't need to use lots of complicated stitch sequences to create something beautiful, complex patterns have their place but sometimes less is more!
A traditional granny square blanket is one of my favourite things to make and I always enjoy planning the colour combo and the colour placement for these kind of blankets. I'm quite a methodical person and I enjoy the maths involved in these kind of blankets. Every time my daughter has maths homework she moans that she's never going to need it in the real world and to be fair I've never had to use an algebraic fraction (they were always my nemesis!) in my adult life but I do use a lot of basic maths in my crochet.....especially multiplication!
This colour combo wasn't inspired by anything in particular and I've used similar combos in the past, I just wanted to create a simple granny square blanket with a random placement of several colours.
I chose eight colours for this combo......
Yarnsmiths Create DK
- Antique Gold
- Spearmint
- Olive Green
- Pinkberry
- Off White
Hayfield Bonus DK
- Oyster Pink
Stylecraft Special DK
- Walnut
Cygnet DK
- Beige (joining and border colour only)
It's a bit of a mixture of brands I know but I'm still trying to work from my stash as much as possible! I didn’t start with all full balls but used very little of each colour for this blanket, less than 30g I expect and under 200g of the joining colour. I've called this combo Daphne, no particular reason, I just like it!
As I have 7 colours that I wanted to include in the squares I wanted the total number of squares made to be divisible by 7. This makes it easier to create a nice even spread of colours throughout the squares with none being more dominant than the other! 7 divides into 42 six times so I will make a 6 x 7 blanket.
To begin I make 6 'round ones' for each of my 7 colours.
6 x 7 = 42 and 42 will be the total number of squares I will end up with once I've finished. (Apparently 42 is also the meaning of life, iykyk!)
Once I've made the first round I will take each colour set of round ones and divide them out between the other colours for round two. So for example each of my 6 Pinkberry round ones will have a round two of one of the other colours.
I'll then do the same process for rounds three and four so that no square repeats the colour order. It can take a little shuffling about once you get to round 4 to make sure all colours have been covered equally but by doing it this way you'll end up with a good even spread.
You can find my video for how I make a granny square here.....
How To Crochet A Granny Square
One of the things I get asked about most is how I deal with all the ends that a colourful blanket like this produces. I'm afraid I don't have any shortcuts or hacks to share with you, I sew them in the old fashioned way! I've always done it like this and it works well for me. I've put together a video to show you how I do it.
Granny Squares - How I sew the ends in
I don’t block granny squares made with acrylic yarn, if you want to do that you can do, but I find the process of joining will block them anyway. I’ve been crocheting a long time now so have had lots of practice with keeping a consistent tension and have learnt which size hook suits me best with different yarns/stitches to get the neatest result I can.
Once I'd made my 42 squares I was ready to put them into a random placement for joining. I used the continuous join as you go method, it's quick and there are very few ends produced......I definitely didn't need too many more of those at this point! You can find my video for this method here....
Continuous Join As You Go For Granny Squares
As I mentioned at the start I wanted to keep this one simple so decided to work a granny stitch border continuing in my joining colour. Another thing I get asked is how to achieve a nice flat, straight border so I've put together a video showing how I've done this one which you can find here......
Granny Square Blanket - Granny Stitch Border
Granny square blankets are always a real joy to make....I love them!
Part 2
As I still had quite a lot of all the colours left I thought I'd use this combo again and make a simple growing granny square blanket. The only colour I didn't have any more of was the Cygnet DK Beige so I've subbed that with Yarnsmiths Create DK in Linen
I worked 31 rounds in a random colour order and I've added a handy PDF in my Kofi shop listing this colour order. You can print it off and tick off the rounds as you make them, it’s FREE! If you wanted to make a larger blanket you could repeat the colour order as many times as you wanted to.
Daphne Granny Square Baby Blanket Colour Order Sheet
Before I worked the border I worked a round of DC (UK) in the same colour as the last round
One of the main reasons I wanted to make this little blanket was so that I could put together a video for my 'faux frill' border. This is a lovely border that is perfect for this kind of blanket. I've called it faux frill because it gives the effect of a frilly border without the border ruffling, it still lays nice and flat!
You can find my video for this border here
I have also added this video for left handed crocheters too. I am right handed so I have flipped the video to be a mirror image and I really hope this works ok for my left handed followers. I'm not a professional videographer at all, I did a little googling and this seems to be what others do, so I hope you can follow it ok. I plan to offer more left handed videos going forward if this one works out ok!
I have had a horrible thought since uploading it that the text will be flipped too! Oh dear, I will get that rectified as soon as I can! Doing videos for You Tube is a continued learning curve for me!
A few notes about this border........
- My video and the maths I've used is how I've worked it on this specific size blanket. If you're using it on a different blanket which is bigger/smaller and has more/less stitches along the sides then you will need to work out the maths based on the border stitch multiple of 4 +1.
- There are various ways that you can manipulate the number of stitches to accommodate a border that hasn't been specifically designed for your blanket. You can add an increase, a decrease or even skip a stitch to get the stitches to the number you want. It can be a little trial and error and I often find that the best place to add/skip stitches are at the corners as it's less noticeable.
- If you want to add extra rounds to the border you will need to increase the stitches a little just like I did in the third round of the shells. If you don't do this your border will gradually start to pull inwards. You may not need to do this on every round, maybe just every other, again it is a little trial and error!
I hope that helps with any questions you might have about the border. I don't consider myself a crochet designer as such and I often wing this kind of thing and hope for the best!
My blanket came out approx 75cm square
Part 3
I’ve got around 45g -50g of each colour left (except off white, bit lighter on that one!) but I’m hoping I’ll have enough for a third blanket, a small ripple.
I’m using Attic 24’s neat ripple pattern but working into the back loop on the first row of each stripe for extra texture. I’ve done 7 pattern repeats for my foundation chain so it will come out a nice baby size when done.
I finished this little ripple off with a simple moss stitch border with Linen and Off White
How to straighten wavy edges on an Attic24 neat ripple
I still have a little yarn left from these three blankets which I will now add to my scraps basket!
I used one 100g ball of each colour for the three blankets except for off white which I used just under two balls of and beige/linen which was just under three balls in total
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Thank you and happy crocheting
Faye :)
