All done! Nicole’s granny square blanket is ready to adorn the new couch in her new home. I had a great time making this granny square blanket and I’ll do it again in a heartbeat!

The border had to round off the blanket and be understated enough not to distract from the granny squares. I didn’t do anything fancy; just 4 rounds of shells and a SC row, but I included two colours. Picking only two colours out of 15 was tough! I changed my mind a hundred times. Even when I had settled on two colours, I still had to decide which one to use for the shell row and which for the SC row. So many choices! In the end John helped me settle on bright turquoise and bright purple. We worked out that the blanket looked best with the darkest colour for the absolute final row so that narrowed things down quickly.

Here you can see the blanket in its full glory. Do the rounds of each granny and the square arrangement look random? I planned it that way you know 😉

The nitty gritty of the blanket:

• Yarn: Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK colour pack from Deramores. I used all the colours in the pack, except Pink. The grey is Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK in shade 814 – Light Grey Mix. The Deramores pack is a brilliant idea and the key to the success of this blanket I think.
• Hook: 4 mm
• Pattern: 70 traditional granny squares consisting of 6 rounds each, arranged 7 wide x 10 long. The 6th row of each granny is done in Light Grey.
• Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
• Border: Two rows of granny stripe shells in Light Grey, a row in Bright Turquoise, a row in Light Grey and then finally a row of SC in Bright Purple. To get the border to lie flat, I used Bunny Mummy’s technique that she explains here.  I also followed Lucy’s tip on steam blocking acrylic yarn so that the final SC row wouldn’t curl up. It worked liked a charm!
• Finished size: 140cm x 96 cm
• Time spent: I started on the first Bank Holiday Monday in May, and finished on the second Bank Holiday Monday in May, so 22 days.

Liezel and I will be meeting Nicole on the 15th of June to hand over the blanket. Liezel came along because it was through Liezel’s Instagram feed that Nicole found me and asked me to crochet the granny square blanket for her. I’ve never met Nicole, and Liezel has only met her once. Can you believe it?! The power of Instagram, iPhones and mutual friends is a thing of beauty!

Nicole, I hope the love and joy in each crochet stitch will bring you years of snuggly happiness and blessings in your new home.