Is it possible to crochet a granny square baby blanket for a one year-old in half a day so you’ll have a gift to give him at his birthday party on the same day? I found out the answer to this question when I tried to do it. No, it isn’t possible. In fact, it took me approximately two weeks to finish this fuchsia and yellow granny square afghan for the young man in question.

My fuchsia and yellow granny square baby blanket (ends haven’t been woven in yet)I used yarn I already had in my stash (no time to run out and buy some), Lily Sugar and Cream cotton yarn, a reasonable fiber for Hawai’i’s warm weather.

I wrote an article  about how versatile the granny square is when it comes to making “lapghans” and what great Christmas gifts they make. (Note: This article was published on HubPages where I no longer have an account. I’ll be re-posting it here soon.) The small afghans I feature in the article were made from one continuously growing granny square, whereas my baby blanket consists of 20 granny squares that are sewn together to create the blanket.

Problems Lead to Some Nice Refinements

This was a fairly simple project to complete and is probably why I thought I could do it in half a day. And despite the fact that I have been crocheting granny squares for more years than I’d care to recall, I encountered a few problems that lead to some refinements that I’ll incorporate in the next one I make.

Tension

Because I was rushing to complete the blanket so that the birthday boy was still young enough to enjoy it, I didn’t pay too much attention to gauge and tension. My tension is typically tight when I crochet, and for some reason, I think this is wrong. So I’ll often begin a project in what I think is a reasonable tension but as I progress, my tension gets tighter and tighter. The end result is that my granny squares were not all the same size.

But I figured this wouldn’t be a problem once I sewed them all together and put a border on the afghan. However, you can see from the photo above that the afghan isn’t the perfect rectangle that I wanted it to be. Oh well … I figured the young man wouldn’t be able to tell and certainly wouldn’t care.

Weaving in A Thousand End

Once I had all the squares sewn together in a 5 by 4 matrix, I was confronted with the task of weaving in countless ends because I changed colors several times. Because it is a “lacey” motif, the granny square doesn’t lend itself well to woven-in ends because there aren’t enough stitches you can use to hide the ends. Fortunately, I came across a video that I include in my article on the granny square afghan that demonstrates not only how to change colors but to do it so you only have two ends to weave in per granny square – the tails at the beginning and end of the granny square.

Ending and Beginning Rounds

There are several ways to begin and end rounds in a granny square. My method for this blanket was to end rounds after the last chain (ch)-1 and slip stitch (sl st) to the beginning double crochet of the first corner. This means I have to slip stitch over to the ch-2 corner to begin my next round. In the photo below, I slip stitched to the top of the first double crochet (dc), then slip stitched across the next two, a good way to disguise the sl sts. You can hardly tell they’re there.

Another video I include in my granny square article demonstrates how to avoid this slip stitching across the top of the 3-dc group. Instead of making a complete “3 dc, ch-2, 3 dc” corner, you crochet one 3-dc group, then ch-1 and continue crocheting in the established pattern until you’re back where you started. Then you make “3 dc,  ch-2” to complete the first corner and sl st to the top of the first dc of the beginning 3-dc group. Now you’re ready to start the next round without having to sl st over any stitches.

The “Ch-3” DC Stitch – Ugh!

Beginning rounds (or rows) with a dc stitch has always been a vexing dilemma for me because, like many crocheters, I do not like the ch-3 that represents the first dc. It doesn’t have the girth of a dc stitch and often leaves a gap between it and the second dc. The videographer who demonstrates how to begin the first corner of a round uses a “sc, ch 2” as her first dc, creating a stitch that’s a bit fatter than a ch 3. A “sc, ch 1” would probably suffice as well if you made them a little loosely.

Uneven Border

I created a border for this afghan by crocheting a round of single crochet and then a second round of reverse single crochet or crab stitch.

The first round is a bit tricky because when I reach a seam, I have to insert the hook into the seam thread which is a little lower than the top of the stitches on either side of it. This creates a dip in what I want to be a straight line. I solved this problem by crocheting a slightly taller, half double crochet (hdc) stitch (dc was too tall) in the seam, to bring the stitch up to the level of the sc stitches I crocheted on either side of it. I could probably have made my hdc’s a little taller because they are still a little lower than the sc’s on either side.

Baby Blankets for Toddlers Need to Be Sturdy

Despite these problems, the birthday boy and his mom loved my hastily made granny square blanket. I cringed a bit as he dragged it across the floor and slung it over his head (wish I had a photo), which made me realize that a baby blanket for a rambunctious one-year-old, boy or girl, needs to be fairly sturdy. I’m just praying all those woven-in ends stay put

If I ever make this blanket again, I’ll incorporate the above refinements and give myself more than enough time to do it right.