Granny is Square!

I'm currently making a blanket.  It all started out quite slow, but I think this project is gaining momentum.  It's actually inspired by a skirt I made quite a couple of years ago.

Normally I'd direct you to the relevant post, but as I seem to be turning from blogger to podcaster lately, all the chat is in video form.  You can see a picture here though if you scroll down a bit...  Episode 26 - Pod Notes.

The original skirt was made from scraps of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino that I wanted to use up and I loved the way that skirt turned out.  But even at the time, seeing those mini grannies come together made me yearn for a blanket full.  I didn't have enough scraps to make an entire throw then, but the idea has stayed fixed in my mind.


Last year I enjoyed having my Battenberg Blanket project on the go.  It was a slow burner that took me a year to complete and not only did I enjoy making it, I really loved the gentle pace of it coming together and wanted something similar to work on during this year and into the next too.  So it seemed like a good time to revive the 'blanket from the skirt' notion.

With a whole blanket to make, this time I wanted something a little more manageable on the pocket yarn wise, so I plumped for one of my new favourite yarns, Stylecraft Belissima/Bambino.  It's an acrylic yarn, so it's affordable and I really love the way it looks and feels too.

The only problem I had was matching some of the colours.  I wanted to re-create the look of the skirt and so I planned on matching those shades as closely as possible.  I did well on the yellow, reds, pinks, and blues from the Belissima and Bambino yarns, but had to hunt down something else for the greens and dark brown.

It was hard to find close matches to the texture and feel of the yarn, I tried a few things and the next best one that I came up with was a Rico yarn, which I used for the darker brown.  For the greens I struggled more to find nice shades in a similar feel yarn.  Eventually I decided on King Cole Smooth for the paler green and Patons Smootie for the darker green.

The King Cole yarn is quite nice but a little splity and has much more of a sheen than the Belissima does.  The Patons one I like less, it's very splity and thicker than my other yarns too, but the colour was good and I couldn't find anything remotely similar, so needs must!

I've toodled along since January working on these mini squares here and there between other things.  Once I had about the quarter of the number that I'll need all together, I thought I'd join them and I think it's looking good.  I've decided to use a continuous style join as you go for the first time and it's so speedy, I love it.  I used lovely Heather's (from Patchwork Heart) tutorial to get me started.  I've adapted it ever so slightly for my blanket, but you can find Heather's original tutorial here.

After that little joining session, the blanket laid dormant for quite a while, until recently when I got the urge to make all of the remaining square centres in one go.  It suddenly seemed necessary to get that job out of the way for some reason.

Somehow this blanket isn't quite so enjoyable to just pick up as the Battenberg.  Probably because these colours are all the same this time and so there is no element of discovery like there was with the Battenberg minis...  I'm not sure.

Either way, I now find myself in 'powering through mode' and so I've started working on round two.  Bizarrely, even with all those ends to cope with, I find it more enjoyable to whizz through them in this way than I did when I was taking my time.  Obviously it's just not the right 'slow' project for me.  Oh well, you live and learn.

At this rate, there is a chance this blanket might be finished in this year rather than taking me through next year too as I'd originally imagined.  It's actually quite a tempting thought... watch this space I guess!

: :


I had some questions about all of the colours and the pattern I'm using for this one, so here's all the details so far for you...

Colours

Stylecraft Belissima
1. Toasted Almonds (3922)
2. Mellow Yellow (3925)
3. Rio Red (3932)
4. Crushed Plum (3933)

Stylecraft Bambino
5. Denim Dungarees (3943)
6. Clotted Cream (7112)
7. Soft Pink (7113)
8. Sage (7117) - joining colour

Rico Baby So Soft
9. Dark Brown (023)

King Cole Smooth DK
10. Sage (3055)

Patons Smoothie DK
11. Pine (1024)

Pattern
I'm basically making this up, but as it's just plain ol' granny squares, it's quite simple so far!
Here's a tutorial to show how I make my Granny Squares, although you'll only need to follow the first two rounds of course:

My Grannie Square

Joining
I'm using a continuous join as you go technique which is based on this tutorial by Heather:

Patchwork Heart's Continuous Join As You Go

S x

♥

#CherryHeart

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