Multicoloured Granny Square Baby Blanket

…11 years in the making!

Some time around 2013, I started making granny squares out of all my variegated yarns, as I liked seeing the different patterns that different kinds of variegation made. I only had about ten at the time, so when I was finished I asked my sister if I could make squares out of her variegated yarns as well. Once I’d finished those, I wondered “Now what am I supposed to do with all these squares??” So I decided I would make a blanket out of them.

I settled on a baby blanket size, so that in the future it could be given to either mine or my sister’s first baby (whichever came first). On doing some research on how big baby blankets are in comparison with the size of my squares, I worked out that I would make a 10 x 8 array, meaning I would need 80 squares!

This lead to me asking for balls of variegated yarns for every birthday and every Christmas, making at least one square out of each one (sometimes I would make more than one with a ball so I could include all its colours). Around the 60th square, I decided I would give them all fun names:

These five squares were made from the same ball of yarn!

One of the balls of yarn I received was Chunky weight instead of DK like all the rest I’d used. It was also the same colours as another square I’d made. This one I used to crochet a star shape, which I sewed onto a square made of plain off-white Chunky yarn. This one came out twice the size of the rest, perfect to place in a 2x2 slot in the middle of the array. This meant I only needed to make 77 squares.

When my family heard what I was doing, they all wanted to make a square for it - even my dad, who doesn’t crochet! - taking the number down to 74.

Left to right: “Cool Lagoon” by my sister, “Floating Blossom” by my mum (made from the outside inwards instead of from the inside outwards!), “Pink Daisy” by my dad

Finally, after Christmas 2023, I only needed one more square. So I found the ball of yarn I wanted and bought it for myself, then made the square a couple of weeks ago.

Left: the first square I made; Right: the last square I made.

Then all I needed to do was sew all the squares together and crochet a double crochet (US single crochet) border.

The only question is…what do I do with myself now?😅

Happy Crafting!

~KC 🐨🧶