Giant Granny Patches

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U P D A T E

This blanket is now available as a downloadable PDF

Giant Granny Patches

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Yay, my knight on his white charger did work his magic.  The internet back again and I can post again.  Yippee!

Thank you everyone for all of your lovely comments and congratulations recently.  I’m afraid I’m finding time a little short at the moment what with illness and babies and holidays to content with and so I’m struggling to get back to everyone.  I do try, but if I didn’t manage to get around to you this time, then I’m sorry, but thank you very much!

I’m very excited about what I have to share today though.  It’s a huge ta-dah moment for me, that’s for sure.

Do you remember me talking about my Giant Grannie Patches blanket?  You’ve seen it in various stages of completion but guess what?  I did it. I actually finished it.  All 672 squares and 11 border rows of it!  See what I mean? Pretty exciting, I hope you’ll agree.

I can’t really say why on earth I took it into my head to start such a mammoth project.  I think it was mostly because I still hadn’t got that blanket fixation out of my head and for some reason or other I fancied taking on something big.  Maybe just because it’s been a while since I tackled something that would take me longer than a few weeks.

Whatever the reason, I went to my trusty acrylic store and started picking out colours.  Don’t you just love this bit?  A whole world of possibilities and combinations, which to choose?

I didn’t want the colours to be too fresh and bright this time, I wanted more of an aged, vintage, ‘granny made this one years ago’ type feel to it.  I also knew that I wanted a lovely strong, deep red to pull it all together and so, slowly, selections were made and the blanket was begun.

With all of these millions of squares to make there was no way I could face sewing them all together, so I had to go with the Join As You Go method.  Although this should be the perfect solution to joining, it’s not my favourite to use.  I have to say though, 672 squares later I don’t think I have any problems with it any more and I certainly wouldn’t have got this blanket done without it!

The border is of my own devising, although I’m sure it’s not a remotely new idea.  I thought this part would be so easy as I had this border idea in my mind from almost the start of the blanket.  I wanted it to be wide and I wanted it to be colourful.

So often you see, I have these grand plans to do a wonderful colourful border, but by the end of the blanket I’ve wimped out and decided that it’d be too much and overwhelm the colours and pattern of the blanket itself.  Not this time though.  This time, I was determined!

It wasn’t easy though, oh no.  What you see here is the third attempt and quick frankly it’s still not right.  The pattern of it, I love.  It’s nice and colourful and wide, which is just what I wanted.  It lays  flat and doesn’t wrinkle or wave, which is great.  But... I’m still not completely happy with my colour choices.  The red, purple, pink, teal at the edge is perfect but those middle greeny, peachy, bluey colours don’t sit right with me.  They are a little too pale for my liking.

I wanted the border to reflect the overall ‘feel’ of the blanket and it doesn’t quite do that.  I guess you might think I’m being very picky and maybe even over critical and you’re probably right but there it is.  It doesn’t ruin the blanket for me or anything, I still love it to pieces but it's just not perfect, ya know?

Anyway, enough of my whining, let’s have some more blanket shots:

Huge isn’t it?  That’s my king size double bed and it’s even draping down the sides of it!  I didn’t think I had it in me, I honesty didn’t.

And, for everyone who wants to know the more practical details, here’s a breakdown for you:

The Stats

Ravelry page: Giant Grannie Patches
Weight: 2100g
Size: 178 x 188cm / 71 x 75”
Yards: 6825 (approx)

Yarn type and colour:

1 - Stylecraft Special DK, Grape (1067)
2 - Stylecraft Special DK, Pale Rose (1080)
3 - Stylecraft Special DK, Silver (1203)
4 - Stylecraft Special DK, Teal (1062)
5 - Stylecraft Special DK, Cloud Blue (1019)
6 - Rowan Wool Cotton, Goldilocks (971 - discontinued unfortunately)
7 - Stylecraft Special DK, Claret (1123)
8 - Hayfield/Sirdar Bonus DK, Teal (890)
9 - Stylecraft Special DK, Shrimp (1132)
10 - Stylecraft Life DK, Mint (2342)
11 - Stylecraft Special DK, Copper (1029)
12 - Stylecraft Special DK, Aster (1003)
13 - Stylecraft Special DK, Soft Peach (1240)
14 - Stylecraft Special DK, Sherbert (1034)
15 - King Cole Big Value DK, Lawn Green (011)
16 - Stylecraft Special DK, Mocha (1064)
17 - Stylecraft Special DK, Raspberry (1023)

Number of colours used: 17
Yarn weight: DK
Hook size: 4.00mm (USA - G)
Square size: 6 x 6cm / 2 1/2 x 2 1/2”
Square pattern: 3 rounds of granny square
Number of squares: 672
Border thickness: 9 cm / 3 1/2”
Number of border rows: 13 rounds (11 colours used)

Well, that’s everything I can possibly think of but if I missed something, let me know...

I hope you like my huge, huge blanket of tiny, tiny squares. 

I confess that I do and I feel like I’ve passed some sort of crochet milestone or a right of passage or something.  Maybe my self belief even grew a little bit today...


S x

: :

U P D A T E

This blanket is now available as a downloadable PDF

Giant Granny Patches

: :