Winter is finally allowed to happen...

Seven years ago I lived in a very cold flat.  Seven years ago my mum taught me how to crochet granny squares.  I put these two together and had a brainwave, "I know, I'll crochet a granny square blanket for the bed".  What a great idea.  Have you ever started something, without quite realising what you are getting yourself into?  This was definitely one of those projects.  I previously blogged about this blanket here, here and here.  And last night I finally finished the blanket - hurrah!

Here are four things I have learnt about making a granny square blanket:

1. Pick a yarn that isn't about to be discontinued.  I really liked the tweedy look of Sirdar Donegal, what I didn't realise was that after I had brought half the quantity for the blanket, it was discontinued.  Cue some panic buying on ebay.
2. Make BIG squares.  I made this blanket from some rather cute and compact 10cm squares.  In hindsight I would have made my squares much bigger.  This blanket is made from 256 of those cute and compact 10cm squares.  They stop feeling quite so cute after the first 100 or so.
3. Crochet them together.  Crochet is way quicker than sewing.  Yet for some reason I started to hand sew them together, and then continued this way.
4. Leave a long tail on each square to aid joining them together.  For the majority of the squares, I left a short tail, sewed it in, and then had to use a separate piece of yarn to join the squares together, creating extra work for myself! 

So finally 256 granny squares, with 12 rows of granny stripe border, over and done with.  I have ignored washing and blocking, in favour of putting straight on the bed.  I can confirm the blanket works, and it is certainly very cosy!