A Crafter's Life, Knit and Crochet Away!

48 Granny Squares Now Connected

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was so inspired by your awesome comments on my post 137 Sunflower Granny Squares Completed that I decided to make a big push yesterday to start getting the blanket assembled from a year’s+ of granny squares made while on the road (as a passenger of course, it’s difficult to crochet while driving, ha!).

“Fantastic! A truly graphic representation of the miles spent on the road”

“All those little squares of sunshine!”

“It will be so beautiful to sleep in a field of flowers!”

“Miles of travel and happy memories, a field of flowers to keep you warm.”

“A certain amount of serendipity seems to fit in with the carefree sunflower theme.”

I searched YouTube for the best method to put them together and decided to go with single crochet. I looked at a bunch of videos and went with this simple one:

So here are 48 of the blocks joined into 4 rows and laid upon the “Design Carpet”.

I have 137 as I mentioned in the previous post on this project, and I am thinking instead of using 120 for a 10 by 12 block layout, I should use 132 for a 11 by 12 block layout.

In case you are curious of what my plan is, first I am crocheting vertical rows and once all those are together, then I was connect the horizontal rows with single crochet. So it will be a bit unwieldy until that part but it will make less ends to weave in.

It was actually very relaxing once I got my rhythm to join the granny squares together. While joining them I fell into some sort of strange YouTube rabbit hole and ended up binge watching Barry Manilow performance videos.

Okay so I shared a little about this back in 2016 in this post Shameless “Thrifting” (wow I have been blogging so long) but when I was 12 or so I was OBSESSED with Barry Manilow.

While other kids of my demographic were obsessed with the Jackson 5/Michael Jackson, I was totally in love with Barry Manilow. I remember having a giant poster of him in my room (not sure where I got it) and my father walking into my room and being appalled (my parents were more traditional R&B and Jazz music people).

So I remember when I was around 12, Barry Manilow had his first TV special. It was like 1977 and there were no VCR, TiVo, etc. recording options and most things were not replayed from live telecasts. My parents made my sister (my brother wasn’t born yet) and I go to a party with them on the night on the Barry Manilow Special.

I had a complete meltdown and thought my world was ending because I had to miss the Barry Manilow Special. My parents were not understanding and I was made to go to the party.

Not me but image from web

(Note this is not me but image from web)

While working on the blanket last evening and falling into the “Barry Manilow Rabbit Hole”, I did search YouTube for any videos/clips from that special I missed back in 1977 (which Barry Manilow ended up winning at Grammy for so it must have been good!) and I found a couple but could not find the full special. That would have been fun to sit back all these years later and finally watch it.

My musical tastes have changed quite a bit over the years but whenever I hear Barry Manilow I get nostalgic for that innocence of a 12 year old girl who thought his songs were all that love and relationships were about.

Well I am sure that is more about me than you wanted to know but occasionally we overshare while blogging, ha!

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

32 thoughts on “48 Granny Squares Now Connected”

  3. Your granny squares are gorgeous, so many combinations of colors. And Barry Manilow! Wow, I haven’t thought about him in a long time. Fun to see him perform on YouTube. I may have to binge watch now, too. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Well, I am a wee bit older than you, being a senior in high school when that aired and yes, I watched it. I was a huge fan and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how he could sing so well, but be so awkward on stage LOL. I can still see him singing At The Copa with those frilly sleeves going on. Anyhoo, I’m liking your progress on your sunshine blocks, which also make me think of a home ec project back in that era. But that’s for another story!

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  5. I can’t wait to see the finished blanket. I like Barry manilow fine but even better I enjoyed the reminiscence of how TV was an appointment kind of thing- I remember well being disappointed and I am sure sulking in the same way for having to miss a show for some thing my parents wanted us to do instead. !!!

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  7. Thanks for the ‘overshare’ Tierney! While Barry wasn’t my cuppa…(but then I wasn’t 12 when he came on the scene – HA!) I’m relieved that you didn’t go ‘ga-ga’ over The Jackson 5’s top hit: ‘Ben’ 😉 I mean, ya know – a love song to a Rat? 😉
    However, if it means listening to Barry gets you in the groove of working on this latest obsession of yours – then have at it, girl!

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  9. Not over sharing at all. I too loved Barry Manilow. I’m so sorry you had to miss his special. Those things feel like life and death to a 12-year-old.

    Great progress on the sunflower blanket. Single crochet has a rhythm that makes it relaxing once you get going.

    Thank you for sharing your progress.

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  11. love your meltdown picture (also amazed that someone took the picture), I remember having a similar response at about the same age and ending up being banished to my bedroom. Your sunflowers are beautiful, can’t wait to see them finished but don’t envy you doing all the joining.

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  12. The squares are coming together nicely and I LOVED hearing about the Barry Manilow youtube rabbit hole – and then sharing about missing the special – and you reminded me of those days when we could NOT stream it or just watch it on demand. The Christmas specials were like that – like not missing the Charlie Brown special and Rudolph – 🙂

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  13. Pingback: Update on Sunflower Blanket and Picking Knitting a Hat Back Up – tierneycreates

      1. You’re very much welcome. We all need the visits, support, liking, and comments.
        Have a blessed, safe, and creative day,
        Mtetar at Basic Is Simple

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  15. Your sunflower blanket is lovely so far! So bright and happy 🙂 OMG, I remember those days – if you didn’t see it when it was on, you were out of luck! And Barry Manilow sounds good – no doubt about it. My parents like Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie and people like that. I loved Devo and the B-52s and eventually got into goth and punk music, and my brother turned into a metalhead. They always wondered what they did to deserve kids who didn’t appreciate good music!

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