In the beginning

Some things are just worth holding on to, don’t you think? The picture above is of the first blanket I ever made.  I was 10 years old, and staying with my aunt and her family for the summer.  They lived in Florida, so for this New Yorker it was a huge treat.  But what was my aunt going to do with me all summer when we weren’t at Disney World or at the beach?  Being an avid “crocheter” herself, she started me on my first blanket.

granny “squares” that were anything but squares

The blanket has done fairly well over the past 30 plus years! But recently it became clear it was in need of some serious repair. My aunt had me sew the squares together, instead of crochet them, and the sewing was coming apart.  I think I figured out why she had me sew them together instead of crochet: they weren’t squares at all!  I did a TERRIBLE job of counting my stitches, so none of the squares were the same shape.

every shape imaginable except “square”

Yeah, I was 10.   🙂  So I decided to “Square them up”!  I did the same border on all of the squares so I’d have the same number of stitches.

crocheting everything together

There are a million and one different styles for granny square blankets.  I looked at ALL of them on Pinterest!  I like nice clean white lines.  It is so easy.  And neat. I like that.

crochet together with a simple stitch

Next to decide: the border. I like to try something different with each project, so I played around with the border.

White & Pink edging

I wanted to make the blanket a little more substantial, so I went a few times around, each time with a different stitch.

White, Pink, White, Yellow & White border

I love the yellow border best.  They are like little puff balls all the way around.  The funny thing is, that is the BACK of them.  I crocheted them the entire way around before I discovered the “puff” that I liked so much was on the back of the blanket!  So I undid it, and turned the blanket around, and crocheted them on “backwards”.  I felt better after I did that.

almost finished … one more border to go

I was tempted to call it quits after the yellow border.  VERY tempted.  But I decided to see how it would look edged in a frilly white.

frilly white edging

This gives it a bit of a different look, but I like it for this blanket.

full blanket all finished

I’m really happy with it, and glad that I took the time to remake it.  That summer was pretty special to me, especially since we didn’t go down to Florida very often.  That side of the family is my American-Italian side, and there is something quite special about that heritage. I have very fond memories, especially of my aunt.   Unfortunately, she has since passed away, and this blanket is my special connection to her.

blanket remake

really happy with the end result

I don’t spend a lot of time crocheting, and I tend to take long breaks between projects!  But I do love it, and I find it to be a relaxing past-time.

What about you?  Any projects keeping you busy at the moment?

In peace,
Dana

The garden with its fall color on