Greyscale Granny Square Mini-Blanket

Look! I made a thing!




Not the rocking horse. My dad made that when I was a toddler. I'm talking about the little blanket on its back.

I had all this yarn from a sweater I pulled apart once and I've been on a stash diet, so I decided I was going to make something with it. I can't let it sit there forever. So I made a little square blanket.




The square pattern is based on a pattern that I've seen used on Attic24's blog, but I can't find the right blanket. But if you like crochet and/or color, you should be checking out her blog anyway.




Should I talk about my stash diet? I'm going to talk about my stash diet.

I started this diet last year and it... sort of worked for me. It worked better than the years when I didn't have any sort of plan for my yarn stash, so improvement is good.

So here's the Freakish Lemon Stash Diet!

January - Freebie month! Post-Christmas selfishness and my birthday, so there is allowed to be a little splurging on fancy or expensive yarns.

February to Late September - Yarn Fasting

• Personal projects must be made from already stashed yarn.
  
• New yarn cannot be purchased for personal projects unless there is clearance/sale that puts a yarn already coveted down to less than $1.00 per skein (this is so rare, that it will happen only once if at all).
  
• Yarn can only be purchased at regular or other sale prices if it is for the Etsy shop or for special gifts (last year this was for my friend's second baby, so I faltered in my rules more than I should have there).
  
• Due to plans made by family or with friends, any yarn purchased at Renaissance Faires must be included as part of the Faire budget. No extra money will be used to buy Faire yarn.

Late September to December - Late September starts the time of sheep/wool/yarn festivals. This year my mother and I plan on Fiber Twist weekend at the Coventry Farmers' Market, Stitches East, and the Fiber Festival of New England. Personal yarn and yarn for Christmas presents can be bought freely within budget.


Again, varying degrees of success, but the stash has stayed steady without growing overmuch. I've already faltered a little for my own rules this year due to the Southington Jo-Ann Fabrics and the Torrington Jo-Ann Fabrics opening up within a month of each other, but I have been good since then. So huzzah!



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Forest Granny Square Blanket

Hook: US H8/5.00 mm
Yarn: Sensations Sincerely in Oatmeal, Cream, Green, and Emerald Green
Pattern: I drew this one out myself. I used the same basic granny square shape as I did on my other granny square blanket.




To be honest, I was going to give this one as a gift to someone for Christmas, but it didn't turn out quite the way I had thought. There isn't enough contract between the "light" and "dark" squares and I'm not sure the color combinations worked as well as I had planned either. I mean, it's not terrible, but it wasn't up to my expectations.

So I kept it, folded it in half, and slung it over the top of my craft storage thing as a sort of table cloth. I will probably end up using it as a lap blanket while I'm sitting at the computer at some point, but it's entirely possible that this project may get frogged within the next few years.

Works In Progress

Procrastination

This thing about NaNoWriMo is that it allows you to find new and interesting ways to procrastinate. This is especially true on the weekends when you know that you have the entire day to write in and your brain is convinced that hours are longer than they actual are.

And as this is the first weekend of this year's NaNoWriMo, I'd like to show you exactly what my brain decides is the proper distraction from my novel.









Yes. Apparently, my subconscious felt that this granny square blanket that I made months ago needed a border TODAY. RIGHT THIS MINUTE. So urgent, in fact, that I needed to use the skein of maroon in my sister's stash rather than take the time to sort through my own stash and find an alternative color.

Don't worry. I did ask permission and she said it was okay, so long as I put back what's left. Which was a lot more than I thought would be, so that's nice.

I'm telling you this because not five minutes ago, I took a look at my curtains and wondered how hard it would be to knit myself some new curtains for the winter so that my bedroom is better insulated.

Knitted curtains? Does anyone even do that? I do not know.

This may still happen at some point, but you all need to stop me if I even hint at starting a bigger project like that right now. This is absurd.

Granny Square Blanket

There are certain projects within the crocheting and knitting communities that act as levels of achievement when you are learning new skills. You always start small – scarves, hats, mittens. As you learn new skills, you move on to different variations of these things – different colors, knit/purl patterns, different crochet stitches, cabling. If you’re like me, you stick with learning skills in these areas before moving on to things like amigurumi dolls and knitted and crocheted covers (iPods, phones, seat, etc.). Eventually, of course, you get there and it’s time to move on to the big stuff.



I conquered socks last semester. Knitting socks feels like becoming an official knitter. The only real challenge left then is a sweater and then I’ll have officially become a crazy knitter.

I decided to do the same with crocheting. I attempted the granny square blanket. Who knows where my brain was when all this deciding was going on.

The thing about granny square blankets is that they are the marathons of crafting. It takes planning, training, and stamina. You have to plan out your colors, draw out the blanket, and count out how many squares you will need. If you are creating your own square pattern, you need to plan and experiment and develop that square. These things alone take time.



I determined immediately that I would use colors of yarn I already had in a kind of haphazard arrangement. I wasn’t planning colors or patterns, just texture. I did, however, work out the square pattern on my own. It is based on a square pattern developed by Attic24 here and comes pretty close, if I do say so myself.

Then comes the actual creation of the squares. This takes FOREVER. I opted for a blanket 20 by 30 squares, which is 600 squares. That is a lot of squares to crochet.

After that is the actual construction of the blanket. Sewing together 600 squares will drive you nuts, but it is particularly satisfying to complete. You feel like you’ve achieved something significant. It’s like winning.



Hook Size: USH8/5.00MM

Yarn Type: Red Heart Super Saver