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This is going to be called the Grandma Nora Afghan because I’m going to do it with a black background like one of the many granny square blankets that my maternal Grandma made over the years. We had one in our house growing up, made from wool scraps, and I remember seeing them at my aunts’ and uncles’ houses too. My Grandma was a very crafty (and sweet) lady but I don’t remember seeing anything crochet that she made except for these blankets. Like Grandma’s afghans, this one will be a scrap blanket using some of the odds and ends from other projects, though I will have to buy a few more skeins of black to finish it off.
I was going to update my blanket by making modern granny squares, but I’ve changed my mind and I’m going to stick to Grandma’s four-round classic. My goal now is to find a recipe for the perfect granny square (no seam, no twisting, etc.) I will join each square as I make it.
I will start this as part of the #grannycal18 from Zeens & Roger, but I will not finish it in that CAL’s timeframe. I expect for it to be a very long-term project since I plan to only classify left-over balls of less than 50g as scraps.
May 13, 2018
I was visiting my Mom today for Mother’s Day and I noticed the original blanket on a footstool in her den. I’ve added a few pictures of Grandma’s afghan. It’s amazing how well my memory served me. The original blanket is 11 squares x 13 squares.
January 28, 2019
Well, that was silly of me. I’ve added two more granny squares to this blanket and they are horrible. I am debating whether to take them off. (I used the the wrong hook and I did a different number of chains between clusters because I didn’t write proper notes.) Sigh.
January 29, 2019
Just for future me, these are the details on how I am making these Granny Squares:
- Start with a ch 3+ss ring (work over tail then pull tight), sc+ch as second dc of first corner dc shell.
- Last stitch is first dc of shell where you started, then join with invisible join (and weave in ends as you go).
- Subsequent rounds: standing dc without a slip knot as second dc of first corner 3 dc shell.
- Start each round in a different corner.
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Turn after each round (to keep from twisting). I stopped doing this because I prefer the look of the front.
- 1 sc between clusters, 2 sc in the corners.
- JAYG with ss ch1 into corners and ss in place of ch1 between shells.
March 17, 2019
I finished the 20th square today. I’ve decided I’ll do this 8x10, so I’m 25% done with the squares. I just finished my first skein of black and I have three left. I’ll need to buy at least one more to finish the border, so I’ll eventually get 2 so that I don’t have to worry about running out of yarn.
April 26, 2019
The blanket is now 8x4, so I’m 40% done with the top, and last week I bought 2 more skeins of black, so steady as she goes.
July 16, 2019
I’ve just finished 48/80 squares. I recently finished two other blankets so this is actually the only one I have on-the-go at the moment. I’m going to be monogamous on it (at least as far as blankets go) until I’m done, probably by the end of the month of July.
July 24, 2019
I added row 9 (72/80 squares) this morning. One last row and then the border.
For the border, first, I’d like to do a round of sc in between the posts of the stitches to straighten out the edge, particularly where the squares meet. I may do an sc in the corner ch sp, hdc in the sl st join, sc in the next corner ch sp at the joins to even them off.
The original Grandma Nora blanket is a little matted at the edge, but it looks like she did a simple sc, ch3 in each of the chain spaces around the edge, then 4 dc in each ch3 space on the second round.
July 25, 2019
Finished this tonight. I’m loving how retro this looks and I think I got the border quite close to the original blanket by my Grandma. My Aran scrap drawer is down to a single layer at the bottom!
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