My Granny Square Obsession

Welcome to The Chatter of Craft! Here is where I chat to you about what I've been up to, what I've been loving and things like that. If you've been watching my last couple of knitting/crochet podcasts, then you will know that I have a new-found love of granny squares. At least, I thought it was a new-found love!

After seeing a post by Norah George Yarn on Instagram, about a sock weight granny square blanket she'd made, I decided to grab my box of scraps (we all have them...) and start my own scrappy blanket. I do actually have a cosy memories blanket on the go (which is just a basic mitred square blanket) but the squares take me SO long to knit... and truth be told, I probably made the damn thing too wide. I'm sure I'll go back to it eventually.

The beauty of the granny square blanket is that each square crochets up so quickly! There's no time to get bored while making it. They're quite mindless, so they're the perfect thing for me to work on while we play Dungeons & Dragons. Another great thing is that I'm still able to support my friends' indie dyer businesses without adding to my stash too much, just by buying the mini-skeins set they offer!

"We Are Explorers" mini-skeins from Castle View Yarns

The basic recipe I'm using for my blanket, and this is in no way a pattern, is:

* 4ply/sock scraps (each square is 5-6g!)
* 3mm crochet hook (I believe it's a D-3)
* 6 rounds of granny squaring - and yes, that is the technical term
* Join-As-You-Go with a skein of undyed 4ply!
* My blanket is 10 squares wide, but I can always add more if I deem it necessary

It's honestly as easy as that. Great way to use up some scraps, and have a quick and easy (and portable) project. I tend to make up about 20-odd, then lay them out so I don't have similar colours together, or two sparkle yarns together etc. But make it yours! That's the beauty of them.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I thought that my love for a granny square blanket was new, but when I was clearing out my childhood bedroom, I found TWO crochet blankets! One is at least 7 years old, and the other is my crochet mood blanket from 2014. The premise of the mood blanket was to crochet a square everyday to reflect your mood, although it appears that I just went ham with random colours.

For some reason, I thought it perfectly reasonable to make my mood blanket be 17 squares wide. It is a beast of a blanket. It was using leftovers of DK acrylic yarn, with white around the edge. Of course, using my fave method of join-as-you-go to link them all together. I believe I attached a new square every day, so didn't worry about what colours went where...

The other afghan that I'd been working on was just a random selection of crochet squares that I'd found patterns for on Ravelry. They're all different sizes, various yarn weights... I don't know what to do with them but clearly I didn't know what I was doing.

I have LOVED seeing people tag me (@thecornerofcraft on Instagram) in their scrappy granny squares blanket posts! I mean, I feel partially responsible for you having a new WIP on the go, but it's so much fun to do, I can't say I'm guilty...

So come and join us! Join the scrappy granny square party and live your best granny square filled life!

#GrannySquareParty

Finally, here is the super old tutorial I posted to YouTube about my fave method to join together crochet granny squares!