Tag: granny square blanket

A Crafter's Life, Knit and Crochet Away!, Special Events, Sunflowers!

Sunflower Granny Square Blanket Assembled (and Holiday Decorating)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

All the Sunflower GS Blocks are Together!

Ok here is an update on the post Big Progress on the Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Pumpkin Muffins.

I made big progress and got the whole Sunflower themed Granny Square blanket all attached (horizontal and vertical) using a single crochet stitch to join the squares in both directions.

Here it is on the “Design Carpet”:

Here is another photo:

Now I am adding a single crochet border around the whole thing, likely several rows of single crochet, I’ll decide as I go along.

And then it will be time to weave in all the thread tails that are hiding in the back!

Oh I did try to make finishing the granny square blanket a portable project on like to I did with the individual granny squares, where I would work on them while riding in the car…

But it was a disaster and we had the “Great Hunt for the Lost Crochet Hook” in the car as well yarn tangling and blanket in my feet tangling disasters. So I had to finish it in my living room sitting in a chair to limit the drama – ha!

House Holiday Decorating

After I got the blanket assembled I felt very industrious and with the help of John got the Christmas tree up and the fireplace mantle decorated for the holidays!

It was fun to pull out our ornaments and various decorations and see them again! I missed these three holiday bears that I’ve had for over 25 years – they’ve held up pretty well:

I also put up this copy of The Night Before Christmas that John has had since he was a child.

The pages are on the verge of falling apart but I like reread it every year.

Knit and Crochet Away!, Special Events, Sunflowers!

Update on Sunflower Blanket and Picking Knitting a Hat Back Up

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Sunflower Granny Square Blanket

Update on the post 48 Granny Squares Now Connected – I now have 84 sunflower granny squares joined together vertically! I am plugging along 🙂

So 7 out of the 11 rows of 12 granny square each, are done and just 4 more rows (48 granny squares) to go.

Then I am of course going to single crochet them together horizontally and add a single crochet border all the way around to anchor everything. After that I will decide if I want to make a fancy border, etc.

Revisiting a Hat I Started Last Winter

I made 137 sunflower granny squares while riding in cars, planes, trains and sitting at events beginning May 2024. Now that the making of the individual sunflower granny squares is done (and the blanket is finally being assembled) I needed another portable project.

So I pulled out at hat project that I last posted about in December 2024 – The Purple/Violet has Returned!

I used a variegated ball of yarn I found thrifting with little idea of what the different colors would be since it was already rolled into a ball and I could only see a little of the color changes!

It was my leap of faith hat!

So on Friday John’s son Z was visiting and we took him to the Denver Film Festival and saw the premiere of the film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, starring Danile Craig, I brought my hat and worked on it in the car on the way to the event and at the event before the film showing began (we arrived early to get good seats and had a bit of a wait before the movie started).

Here’s some additional images from the festival including the lovely Chihuly chandelier that hangs in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House where the film was premiering.

The film was really fun and I recommend it when it premieres on Netflix in December.

Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!

137 Sunflower Granny Squares Completed

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s an update on this post from September 2025 What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket.

After lots of time on the road during various roadtrips in 2025 I’ve exhausted my supply of “center flower” yarn for the Sunflower themed Granny Square blanket I’ve been crocheting while riding in the car.

So it is time to make it into a blanket!

There are a total of 137 granny squares!

This might seem tedious but I counted and photographed how many of each different mix of yarns squares (21 different versions of the square*) of the 137 squares I made (the count of each type in lower right hand corner):

I’m not using all 137 squares in the blanket. I figure I will make a 10 square by 12 square blanket and use 120 squares and save the rest (17) for a couple small projects like a pillow or something like that.

I decided not to use the “design carpet” to lay out the sunflower granny squares. Instead I separated them into VERY ARBITRARY “light” and “dark” piles, trying to make the piles as even as possible:

So I’ll post my progress as I crochet together alternating “light” and “dark” squares to make the blanket!

*(Why so many different versions for the granny squares? Well I was using up miscellaneous yarn I had thrifted over the years)

Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!

What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Progress on Sunflower GS Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s a follow up on my post from August 2024 Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Cool Community Garden.

It might seem like progress is slow but I now have 39 completed blocks on the sunflower themed granny square blanket I work on whenever I am in the car, traveling on a plane or train, or just hanging out somewhere.

Here’s what August 2024 looked like:

And here we are in January 2025:

39 blocks done! I would have more done but there are 4 time consuming rows to each block (which I work on in batches “production style”).

I have a stash of 23 more blocks completed through row 3 to finish up that will bring me to 62 blocks:

Then I will decide when I have 62 blocks done just how big I want to make the blanket.

For now I’ll keep taking my zipper bag with my blocks in progress and yarn around with me!

Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!

Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Cool Community Garden

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post is an update on the June 27th post Update on Sunflower Granny Squares and an Agriculture Report, and I wanted to share a cool community garden I stumbled across.

Sunflower Granny Square Blanket Progress

I’ve completed 21 blocks for the sunflower themed crochet blanket I am working on. Here they are on the “design carpet”.

Here is a close up of one of the blocks:

I am using 6 different yarns: a variegated brown for the center of each flower; 3 different yarns for the petals in oranges and yellows; a green for the “partially opened flowers”; and an oatmeal for the background.

It’s been fun coming up with different color combinations (but making sure they still sort of resemble sunflowers) as I work on it. I might add a 4th petal yarn if I find another one in my stash that works.

I think I will make 100 granny squares and I’ve already started 20 more centers to make my next round of 20 or so.

Cool Community Garden

I was killing time before my dentist appointment last week and went for a little walk in the area near the dentist office, and discovered a cool community garden at an apartment complex.

I am not sure how it works and how the apartment community residents split up the harvest but here are some photos from my walk around of the garden (and I was smiling the whole time).

Agriculture Report, Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!

Update on Sunflower Granny Squares and an Agriculture Report

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update to the post Another Hat, Sunflower GS, “Agriculture Report”, and some Pickles.

I’ve made some progress on the sunflower inspired granny square blocks (which someday will be a blanket) that I’ve been working on, primarily while riding in the car as a passenger.

Here is what my first one looked like that I shared in the post I linked:

I decided to add some green to represent newly opening sunflowers and with the rust, yellow and green yarn in play here is how the blocks are progressing:

A couple close up of the various blocks in progress:

I am making the centers to the first 20 – 21 blocks and then I will be adding the oatmeal colored border yarn to complete the granny square blocks. I’ll share an update when I get the first 20 – 21 done.

I also thought I would share an “Agriculture Report” (inspired by  @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report”) and the tomatoes on my upper deck keep getting taller and taller and will end up taller plants than previous years by the time they fruit:

We were also able to harvest ONE strawberry so far (we shared it and savored each bite) from the first strawberry plant I am growing in Colorado:

Also the FREE seeds I planted courtesy of the local library (see post Explored a new library, tried a new group) are doing really well in the new raised bed John built from leftovers from our rebuild of the back deck (see posts John gets “ScrapHappy” too – new raised bed and Guest Blogger Post: Managing Humans Demolishing and Rebuilding a Deck):

We put netting on the raised bed to try to prevent the naughty squirrels and other critters feasting on our growing vegetables.

Okay now I need to start catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts, I’ve fallen behind again as it’s been a busy summer so far 🙂

Guest Blogger, Knit and Crochet Away!, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures

Guest Blogger Post: Finally the Latest Granny Square Blanket is Done!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello everyone, this is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer guest posting on the tierneycreates blog. This is a follow up to my post from February 2024 – Guest Blogger Post: The Granny Square Blanket SHOULD Be Done…

I do a great job typing without opposable thumbs…

FINALLY in April 2024, Tierney has finish the blanket and has put it on the upstairs guest bed as the warmer weather season covering (though she appears to be confused as it is not officially “warmer weather”, we are just getting warm days here and there):

I know, I know, you were hoping to see me stretched out on this bed relaxing like you did in other posts, however I am boycotting this blanket as I wanted it to only be for ME as she led me to believe while she was making it!

Happier times when the blanket was in a configuration that worked for ME…

Oh Tierney has come in the room and bugged me while I am writing…

Don’t bug me while I am writing! A lot of concentration is required when you don’t have opposable thumbs!

Oh, Tierney stopped by to ask me to tell you she got a cute new radio while thrifting last year during her trip to Florida with her sister (see the post Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida) that she placed next to the bed in this room:

She says it is a “Tivoli Radio” and she got it for only $5 when normally it would retail for over $100 and it has a wonderful sound. This means nothing to me as a dog, but I am passing this along at her request (why doesn’t she just write her own darn posts if she wants to share something??!?).

Okay I have to go find somewhere to nap now after all this typing and I can’t just go lay down on the bed behind me as I am boycotting it…

(Oh and I am not going to even address that weird post Tierney had yesterday – Imagining Mike Playing Sports  – I am going to learn how to use that app and write a guest blog post with images of Tierney playing sports!)

Guest Blogger, Knit and Crochet Away!, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures

Guest Blog Post: Progress on “My Blanket”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is Mike, the Miniature Schnauzer that lives with Tierney and John. If you are new to this blog I guest blog post time to time.

Tierney has been doing something weird the past month or so and only posting to this blog once a week. I am trying to work with her to increase her frequency. She went from torturing you all to daily posts in the month of October, this blog’s 10th anniversary, to BOOM once a week posts.

So I had to step in and blog about the progress on “my blanket”.

My writing station at “my blanket” in progress

Tierney previous posted her progress on this blanket these post Update on Various Projects and 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, but she has made quite a bit of progress since these posts – she now has 5 rows of 8 granny squares joined:

Look at all the progress I’ve encouraged her to make!

In case you are wondering why I refer to it as “my blanket” – isn’t it obvious she is making it for me when it coordinates with my fur so wonderfully?

Try not to become overwhelmed with my cuteness

She has 5 more rows of 8 blocks to join to it to make it an 8 by 10, 80 block blanket. But at this point it is sufficient enough for me to snuggle under. For some reason she wants to keep working on it.

I’ve caught her cuddling under it while working on it and she even wrangled it into the car when John is driving to work on.

Here she is working on it while in the back seat when we had a holiday visitor; and I am trying to snuggle in it too:

It should be covering me but she said that won’t work while she is crocheting

Well hopefully it will be done soon.

That’s the end of my guest post and I am going to return to guarding the house from my sunny guard post on the upstairs guest bed surrounded by my natural habitats: blankets (fleece!) and quilts.

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Knit and Crochet Away!, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures, Quiltfolk Issue 28, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve been taking a break from blogging after my push to do a daily blog post for the 31 days of October, my 10th anniversary month of blogging. Additionally recently I had a wonderful visit with out of town family that of course kept me from sitting down and blogging.

Here are some updates on my current adventures in creativity.

THE DESIGN WALL

Here is a follow up to the post ScrapHappy October 2023 – Recycled Jeans and Home Decor Fabric Scraps.

I now have 66 blocks completed and 15 more to go to make 81 blocks for a 9 by 9 layout:

This is not even close to the final layout, just blocks put up on the design wall to track my progress. I have a lot of cleaning to do on my sewing machine after all that lint from sewing denim and home decor fabrics!

THE DESIGN CARPET

This is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”.

I’ve completed the 80 crocheted granny square blocks for the next granny square blanket I am making. I am doing a 8 by 10 layout of the blocks and will set them in dark gray yarn as the lattice.

Mike the Miniature Schnauzer couldn’t wait to lay on the laid out blocks as soon as I moved away from them!

This also is not the final layout, just a general layout to show all the blocks (and a Miniature Schnauzer, ha!).

THE WALL

This is a follow up to the posts Quiltfolk Issue #28 Colorado Released (and I am in it!), Magazine in Hand, and Magazine in Hand, Addendum…. One of the other quilters featured in Issue 28: Colorado of Quiltfolk Magazine, reached out to me and shared pages from an extra copy of the magazine she had purchased in order to take it apart and put the pages featuring her in her portfolio.

I used the pages she sent me to make a display in my studio of the article I am in using these cool 11 inch by 17 inch frames I found. John did a great job helping me hang them.

I’ll close this post with a cute meme my sister sent me the other day as we all struggle with Daylight Savings Time (setting the clocks back 1 hour in the Fall and 1 hour forward in the Spring); that is US states that agree to play along with it (Hawaii and Arizona do not participate).

Knit and Crochet Away!, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the “Design Carpet”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am continuing on my challenge to post to my blog every day in celebration of October 2023 being my 10th anniversary of blogging month. And if you all can’t keep up no worries, this is WAY too much posting – ha! I think once October is over I will go to a once a week posting schedule (or perhaps a little more frequent than that…we’ll see…).

For today’s post, here is an update on this post from July 2023 – What’s On the “Design Carpet” – Road Trip Granny Squares.

I continue to crochet granny squares for a distraction while traveling as a passenger in a car or while traveling in general. I am currently working on an 80 square blanket (8 by 10) and I’ve progressed from this in July 2023:

To this (only 7 more granny squares to complete to make 80):

I don’t have them in their final order before they are joined together, I just semi randomly put them together for this update photo.

I store them in this bucket bag I made a couple years ago, as I complete them:

I have mixed feelings of getting near the end as it will be 1) time to work on joining them (a sort of pain in the booty) and 2) I’ll have to start work on a new one (and I am sort of attached to this one, ha) when I am a passenger in a car/traveling.

Luckily I have a couple blocks of this one already started (see post Plastic Yarn?) so this will be my next “road trip blanket” to work on!

Knit and Crochet Away!

What’s On the “Design Carpet” – Road Trip Granny Squares

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I hate being behind on reading my blogging buddies posts, so I wasn’t going to post again until I caught up. I haven’t caught up yet but I am only like 3 – 4 days behind now so I am allowing myself to do this quick post!

As I mentioned in the February 6, 2023 post  What’s On the “Design Carpet”, I am a nervous front seat passenger in a car. My best bet is to do something to distract me while I am a front seat passenger (especially when my partner John is driving, ha!). So I’ve been taking a granny square crochet project on the road whenever I am a passenger and I’ve made a bit of progress.

Instead of the “Design Wall” in my studio, I thought I’d show you my progress on the “Design Carpet” in my living room – ha!

Here is what the granny squares looked like in the beginning of the project:

I decided to add to more rows in a different color gray to float the centers:

And now 5 month later, I have 50 granny squares completed:

You might notice one very dark gray bordered granny square in the image above:

Well I have 30 more granny squares to complete and I plan to make a lot of them with that darker gray yarn (Currently I plan to make an 8 by 10 granny square blanket, so I need 80 blocks to complete it).

If you haven’t guessed it, I’ve been using up my collection of random gray acrylic and acrylic/wool blend yarn, including two different variegated grays/blacks yarns from my stash. So it will be another “scrappy” granny square blanket like these two I made previously:

I seem to have a thing about gray yarn as I notice there is a lot of gray in that blanket above!

I’d love to someday make a super “scrappy” granny square afghan like the one I came across in the blog post Scrappy July by View From Our Hill. She has like 16 different yarns in each granny square block – check out the link!

Knit and Crochet Away!, What's on the Design Wall

What’s On the “Design Carpet”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am a nervous front seat passenger in a car. My best bet is to do something to distract me while I am a front seat passenger (especially when my partner John is driving, ha!)

So I started carrying around either a little knitting to work on in the car or a crochet project (usually granny squares) in this bag:

Last year, after I finished making the granny squares for the granny square blanket I share my finish of this in this – First Finish of 2023 – Granny Square Crochet Blanket Done, I began a new set of granny squares for a future blanket to have something to work on in the car. Here is what I have completed so far, laid out on the “design carpet”:

I am using black and gray acrylic yarn I got from the thrift store, including a variegated yarn of grays and black. So far I have 34 done and I think I will eventually make 100 granny squares to someday join into a blanket.

I am working very casually on this project (only when a passenger in the car with John and only if I am not working on knitting a hat) so who knows when it will be done!

A Year of Finishes - 2023, Knit and Crochet Away!

First Finish of 2023 – Granny Square Crochet Blanket Done

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s a follow up to the post from January 9, 2023 Update on Autumn Colors Granny Square Afghan :

It only took me a year but I finally finished the Autumnal Colors Granny Square blanket.

It measures approximately 70 inches by 70 inches and is made with 100 crocheted Granny Square blocks.

I wanted 2023 to be a year of finishing up old projects and now I have one down (and oh so many to go!)

It was a great project to finish up while I spend a lot of time in the recliner in our living room since breaking my ankle last week:

And now the blanket is on the top of my recliner awaiting my snuggle under it:

I had John take photos for me since I can only use one leg these days, and at first he took this photo (as a joke, little did I know) for this blog post:

I thought at first he thought this was a good photo for the post!

Now to decide what outstanding project to work on next…

Yesterday John helped me get my studio (from main bedroom, see post A “New” Studio) better set up to sew and craft in ready with my new reality – the knee scooter:

I am going to try spending part of the day tomorrow sewing in my studio instead of sitting in my recliner with hand projects (moping that I am no longer as mobile as I used to be).

Oh and I have to close this post with a photo my friend Wendy sent me from @themercerie on Instagram:

Is that not the ultimate granny square sampler? That would only take me 5 years to finish 🙂

Knit and Crochet Away!

Update on Autumn Colors Granny Square Afghan

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was going to write a post about my 2022 travel next (my excuse for the lack of completed projects in 2022 as I discovered when I wrote my previous post 2022 in Review: Crafting Projects Completed) but I decided to write about a project I am working on completing – a granny square afghan in Autumn colors.

Previous posts on this blanket are:

Update on Latest Granny Square Blanket

Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket

What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket

Granny Squaring Again!

Those are a lot of posts for a blanket that is still not completed. Luckily some of the previous posts included cute photos of Mike the Miniature Schnauzer with the blanket in progress to distract you – ha!

Searched through those posts to see when I started working on it – and the answer is January 2022 (whew it is barely a year old, ha!)

Part of my New Years Resolutions are to complete the projects I have uncompleted. I want 2023 to be a “Year of Completions”. So a couple of days ago I pulled out this dusty project and made a lot of progress (seven out of ten rows now done!!!):

I was laughing to myself as my original plan was to have this afghan completed by Autumn since it has Autumnal colors but then I realize the colors are all season as far as my house as they coordinate with my living room decor:

I have 7 rows completed and 3 more rows to go and then the border.

In previous posts about this blanket I discussed putting several rows of borders on using several of the colors in the individual granny squares.

I thought more about that and I think that will be too busy. I am just going to border it with one row of the brown I am using to attach the granny squares together.

Plan = focus on completing this project, work on it every evening while watching TV and get it done!

Knit and Crochet Away!

Update on Latest Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was hoping to be further along, but at least I am progressing a little with crocheting together the 100 granny squares I made for my second granny square blanket.

Last time I updated you on my progress was on April 12, 2022 in the post Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket, where Mike the Miniature Schnauzer was wearing one of the granny squares on his head:

Well now he can actually nap under the blanket as I’ve finished 4 of the 10 rows (and two additional squares – I am now 42% of the way done):

Here is the basket I use to house the rest of the squares for the remaining rows awaiting to be added; and the blanket in progress:

Here is my living room crafting area, where slowly I work on putting the blanket together (it is also where I am writing this blog post right now) while watching TV in the evening:

And to close this post, here is Mike napping under the partially completed blanket:

Knit and Crochet Away!

Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Howdy, this post is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket.

I’ve completed crocheting a 100 granny square blocks! Here they are in piles based on yarn combinations:

You will notice I do not have an even distribution of color combinations. That is because the blanket is very “scrappy” as it is made from a collection of coordinating thrift store yarns. I had similar but not exact colors and varying amounts of each color.

After sorting piles it was time to do the daunting task of laying it out on the “design carpet” of my living room.

My eyes were crossing as I tried to find a way not to have the same (or similar) squares touch each other but after a while I gave up and said “good enough” and settled on the layout above.

Mike the Miniature Schnauzer tried to distract me while I was sorting and laying out the squares, with his cuteness:

So I decided it was time for him to try on a granny square hat:

I am going to join the granny squares with brown yarn to make a lattice between the squares and then finish off the blanket with a green border, and perhaps a rust border too. We’ll see how it evolves, but first I have to put on a YouTube video on how to join the granny square blocks again (I forgot what I did on my first granny square blanket – Attack of the Giant Granny Square Blanket).

But before I work on joining the squares, I had to organize them into the layout I decided in someway, as I could not just leave them out on the “design carpet”.

So I figured out putting them in piles, with the top of the pile being the first square on the left for each row; and then numbering the rows. Here are the piles laid out:

As you can see in the images above, I ran a piece of yarn through each pile, so they did not get separated/out of order if a pile accidentally got knocked over.

I’ve been traveling a lot lately with my partner John going on his business trips with him and since I actually finished these 100 blocks a couple weeks ago now (so behind on blogging) and I can’t take all of them with me when traveling to start joining them into a blanket, I’ve started another granny square block series to work on while traveling!

I seem to be a little obsessed with making granny squares, they are the perfect portable travel project!

Knit and Crochet Away!

What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update on the second granny square blanket I am working on (the first post on it was in January – Granny Squaring Again!).

The weather has been weird in the Denver Metro area. We get teased with Spring with 60 degree Celsius days, and then the next day it is 20 degrees Celsius and a blizzard! I’ve been spending some of those blizzard days staying warm with a cup of tea and crocheting granny squares for my second granny square blanket.

Notice artificial sunflower in the background reminding me warm weather will return someday
Stack of granny square blocks on the blocking board John made me

I completed 63 granny square squares so it was time to lay out what I’ve made so far on the “Design Carpet” so I could decide how many more I need to make for a decent sized blanket:

Getting ready to lay out on the “Design Carpet”…
On the “Design Carpet”

I decided to make the blanket 10 x 10, which is a 100 blocks, so I needed 37 more blocks.

I also realized I need some additional combinations to keep the blanket visually interesting. It is made from thrifted acrylic yarn (I paid one dollar or less for each skein) and I worked with what I had so it is very “scrappy”.

Here are the combinations I have so far:

Since taking these photos, I’ve started working on new combinations and here are some of the centers I’ve made:

Making centers (lower middle of image) for 37 additional blocks..

I still haven’t decided what color I am going to set the blocks in (like a sashing crocheted between them) but I am still leaning towards brown. I made sure not to make the outer color of any blocks brown so they will not blend into the setting yarn color and look smaller than the other blocks.

I just love working on these little crochet squares and it is mindless perfect crafting for in front of the TV in the evening or even sitting around visiting with friends.

Knit and Crochet Away!

Granny Squaring Again!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In November 2020 I finished my first crocheted “Granny Square” blanket after teaching myself via YouTube videos to make a granny square:

I’ve been itching to work on granny squares again – they are a portable hand work project and great to keep your hands busy while riding in the car, waiting around, or just sitting about watching television in the evening.

In my yarn stash I found some variegated yarn and some coordinating yarns that I thought would make a cool granny square blanket:

Here are the centers I started making:

And here are the granny squares in progress and completed:

I have two different types: 1) center green, surrounded by variegated yarn, framed by rust colored yarn; and 2) center rust, surrounded by variegated yarn, framed by green yarn.

I will update you on my progress on the blanket as it progresses!

Knit and Crochet Away!

Attack of the Giant Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s done!

Well sort of – I still have to weave in the ends from joining the squares.

“Tierney, what are you talking about?”

Well I am following up on the guest blogger post from earlier this month by my impatient miniature schnauzer Mike: The Inpatient Schnauzer: Update on the Granny Square Afghan (Guest Blogger).

Mike looking impatient

Yes, of course my miniature schnauzer knows how to write blog posts, why are you asking?

Well Mike no longer has to be impatient as I’ve finished my first granny square blanket. I used the word “finished” loosely as I have many yarn strands hanging about it waiting to be woven in.

I wove in the ends as I finished each block but I got lazy when I was joining the 90 blocks into ten (10) rows of nine (9) blocks.

It measures approximately 70 inches by 74 inches (178 cm x 188 cm) and it is much bigger than I thought it would be.

Here is Mike stretched out on it as I tried to photograph it for this post:

Here it is once I removed the miniature schnauzer from it:

After joining the blocks with a dark grey yarn, I added a single border around the whole piece.

I am pretty pleased with myself now that I’ve taught myself via YouTube videos how to crochet granny square blocks and to join them into a blanket. Here are all the posts if you really need something to fill your day (smile, wink) of my first granny square blanket journey. Some of these posts include links to the YouTube videos I used to learn.

Making My Own Granny Square Afghan

Granny Square Madness 

Update on the “Granny Square Madness” 

The Inpatient Schnauzer: Update on the Granny Square Afghan (Guest Blogger) 

Now that I’ve finished the blanket (except for the weeks and weeks of weaving in ends..ha..ahead of me), it is time to finish up hand sewing my quilt Seattle Scrappy (see most recent post on this scrappy quilt – An Update on “Seattle Scrappy” – Haphazard Stitching… ).

Seattle Scrappy waiting to be finished…

I notice a pattern – I seem to be really into grey lately (or is it “gray” I can never decided which one to use).

I want to start my next granny square blanket (I’ve been watching more granny square YouTube videos) but I should not start a new project when there are old ones awaiting some love!

Postscript

How about that pandemic thing going around. Oh yes it still sucks and I have complete “pandemic fatigue” at this point (I know you are thinking: “join the club”).

A couple of my friends were recently diagnosed with COVID (I was not exposed) and have been on quarantine for a couple weeks. I did drop someone homemade chocolate chip cookies on their porch. They are doing okay and their worse symptom was not being able to smell.

Chocolate Chip cookies have special healing properties

But I will keep on crafting my way through and I might have some news in the next couple of weeks.

Oh and Mike the miniature schnauzer has been concerned that since he’s been a guest blogger on this blog a couple times (The Inpatient Schnauzer: Update on the Granny Square Afghan (Guest Blogger) and Guest Blog Post: A Whole Lot of Remodeling Going On) he might be recognized by his growing fan base, so he’s asked to start wearing sunglasses when he goes out to keep a low profile:

Trying to avoid paparazzi…