Crochet
Granny stripe is finished!
In the last few weeks, in between my own projects and designs, I’ve been making a granny stripe using the patterns and colours by Lucy at Attic24, and taking part in her Sunny crochet-along. Partly made as a stash buster to use up my Stylecraft Special DK colours and partly as a present to myself!
And what a yummy looking present it is! When I posted this on Facebook I had several comments likening it to a candy roll or a stick of rock…
A granny stripe sofa blanket
Rather than make a single bed sized blanket, which I wouldn’t use as a bed cover, I made a slightly smaller version that is just over 3ft by 4 ft 6 inches (approximately 100 cm by 135 cm). Its the perfect size for me when I am sitting on the sofa either using my laptop or crocheting as it covers me from the bottom of my feet just just above the waist. Its not too big to get caught up in and its neat enough to fold up and sit on the arm of the sofa during the day. Here it is, newly finished, on my two-seater sofa…
Granny stripe vital statistics
My starting chain was 143 chains, and each row was 141 stitches, with 47 granny clusters and the edges. In total I worked 65 stripes and used turquoise as the first round of my edging, with plum, bright pink and petrol as my border colours, made to Lucy’s narrow spot-on border design.
All the colours are the same as Lucy’s sunny colours and I mostly followed the same order until about half way through. I deviated slightly from there so that I could use up the colours I had left rather than buy new ones.
I actually finished the border last night and although today was a bit dark and gloomy again, I have a new phone and wanted to see if it took better pictures than my old phone, which struggled in low light. I’m really pleased with these first few tryouts…
Why the granny stripe is a great blanket pattern
I can’t find anything negative about it at all. Its easy, easy enough for beginners to attempt relatively easily following the Attic24 detailed tutorial. Its a no-worry project because you can chose to follow the colours picked by Lucy and even buy the pack with them all included.
For more experienced crocheters its just pure pleasure and relaxation. No complicated stitches or counting, you can crochet away while watching TV, in the car (not while driving obvs), on a train in the early stages before it gets too big, or at a knit and natter group. Its one of the few patterns I can do and talk at the same time!
The regular colour changes provide a lot of colour therapy and as well as relaxing hooking and you can pick it up and put it down again without losing your place. The blanket works up very quickly and it can be made as big or as small as you like.
And the log cabin square blanket is coming along
The sunny colours crochet along is still going and the main blanket is the log cabin squares blanket. I started making one square and was going to make it bigger to make a fat bottomed bag but I just fell in love with the way it was looking as it grew. I’ve now abandoned the bag idea and am carrying on with this and will be doing more rounds in the next few weeks, aiming to make a giant log cabin square as another sofa blanket.
Check out my patterns on Craftsy – £1 or $1.50 – UK and US versions available…
The faux knit rainbow mitt pattern has the UK and US version in the pdf. The stormy skies mitts and the Sammhain scarf have the US version available for download and if you need the UK version, I can email it to you free of charge after purchase. Just email me at crafternoontreats@gmail.com
What beautiful colour these are, I’d never thought of a granny stripe blanket. I think your phone camera is really good and I am sure you will get suitable photos for your tutorials. There also seem to be anti shake features sometimes. The log cabin colours are also amazing but ha ha, if you are doing the project as a ‘use up’ you WILL end up having to buy more wool, and then you will have to have another use up project – and so it seems to go on with me anyway.
Yes Anne Marie you are probably right 🙂 I have enough to sink a ship already though so I have to make an effort. I’m planning some blanket projects as well as bags this year and more wearables so I will need to be strict on doing some making before I buy again 🙂
I love it! If I didn’t have three other projects on the go right now, I would definitely start one of these blankets.
It looks beautiful 🙂
Thanks Karen xxx
Love the beautiful colours, it looks wonderful.
Love from DownUnder😎
Thank you Margaret – I’m enjoying snuggling under it right now!