When I first became ill during UK lockdown, I soon realised anything needing brainpower wasn’t going to happen: reading, writing or using the computer gave me intense headaches and fogginess and made me want to be sick. I tune out with audio so that wasn’t an option. But, I couldn’t just lie there and instead I turned something I love doing but often won’t give myself time for. Crochet.
My project criteria was that it had to be done piece by piece. Nothing too huge. I wanted a project that wouldn’t overwhelm me. Granny squares were the obvious answer and when I raided my yarn stash, I realised I had a load of rainbow Stylecraft DK that was crying out to be used.
Embarrassingly, it had been so long since I’d made a Granny square, I couldn’t remember how to do it – which stitches, how many or where. I found a super simple Granny square video for absolute beginners on YouTube and once I’d watched it once, I was away.
I decided to make seven squares of each color and arrange them in a square (top left of image below). After a bit of trial and error, I’d decided the size and more importantly, which order the colours should go in. The colour balance was best with a red stripe across the diagonal (middle image)
Next, I needed to join all the squares. I hate joining so hopped back on to trusty YouTube to find a ‘granny square continuous join as you go‘ (CJAYG) technique. I used a complementary grey yarn and because I’m left handed, started in the bottom left corner. I don’t know it worked out quite as it should (bottom left image), but on the final blanket, it looked good.
My final task was to create a border. Continuing with the granny stitch, I completed two rounds in grey–the first to finish off the CJAYG and the second to create balance–before completing a round in each of the rainbow colours in order.
The best thing for me, other than having a project that was achievable and looks amazing, was that I was able to only half focus on the blanket and discovered that if I am crocheting, I can also listen to podcasts and not tune out. Double win, I think!