Monday 11 March 2013

Granny Square Blanket

I have so, so enjoyed making this Granny Square blanket as part of my 2013 Stash Buster project for Greenfields Africa It is made entirely of organic cotton, so not only is it going to a good cause, it's good for the environment too.! I often talk about the rhythm of the stitch being just like yoga, and this was so true in this case.
I keep really tiny pieces of cotton yarn - and I mean really tiny!
I'm not totally crackers - being cotton, they are good for little bits of bold embroidery on children's clothes, pencil cases etc where you don't want anything too fine, just some eye catching stitches.
But as this is stash busting time, they were the start of the grannies.
Next came the slighlty bigger oddments, the sort of size that most people hold on to.



and finally the larger balls.
And then of course the large balls become small balls, and the small balls become tiny balls and so the blissful rhythm carries on, and we have have one calm, collected, wonderfully relaxed Julie!
I had great fun experimenting with colours - putting together shades that I wouldn't normally risk putting together, without asking a few people's opinion - red and pink, for instance.....
I played around with the finished squares, seeing which combinations made me happiest (no stressing,... just play!)
The off white that I had for the outer two rows of each granny, wasn't all of the same shade, which is probably a good job as far as Greenfields is concerned, or I would have wanted to keep this blanket for myself.
I struggled to find enough of the same weight cotton for the border, but I'm happy enough with it.
It's one useful, eco friendly blanket that I wouldn't have made if it wasn't for this challenge, and I really want to make another one before the year is up.
 
Onto other things - it was Mother's Day here in the UK, yesterday and we had a lovely family walk in the Lickey Hills
It was cold and snowing slightly, but it was really good to spend some time out of doors.
 
Finally, I want to tell you about a new feature I'm starting here on my blog, this week. I'm calling it Wishful Wednesday and basically it's a round up of what I wish I had time to make in the week, if I had all the time in the world! There will be a bit of knitting, sewing, quilting... anything that I really would like to make. There will be lots of pictures, info on where to get the patterns and what my fabric or colour choices would be. Hopefully a lot of inspiration to get everyone's creativity jump started.
 

 



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8 comments:

  1. What a lovely blanket! It's made me want to get my crochet hook out. Did you see the bit of crochet therapy on Call the Midwife last night? It was very poignant.

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    1. Ooh, I've recorded it, but not watched it yet. I shall have to prioritise it now!

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  2. The blanket is SO BEAUTIFUL! I can imagine it will be hard to part away...but let it be for a worthy cause.
    I will be looking forward to the mid-week inspiration...

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  3. I love your granny blanket and that's one lucky person who will receive it via Greenfields. Love the Lickeys too - almost our back garden, we're literally 2 minutes walk away. The pups and I are always walking there.. perhaps we've even passed and said hello! I think perhaps one day in the not too distant future we should have a Midlands bloggers get-together - what do you think? There seem to be a few of us around. And Wishful Wednesday sounds like a fab idea too - look forward to your post.
    Hope you're staying toasty warm indoors today - one minute it's sunny and the next it's blizzardy!
    xx

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    1. Midlands Bloggers meet-up seems like a good idea. You are so lucky having the Lickeys on your doorstep - but I wouldn't go today, branches are blowing down all over the place here!

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    2. Fab, once the weather warms up I'll get organising! And no walkies with the pups today, that wind was just too icy. Xx

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  4. I love the blanket Julie, it's beautiful! what type of cotton did you use, I always find it difficult to find cotton yarn here in the Uk as it all seems to be merchandised cotton which is nice enough but expensive. Thanks for linking :)

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  5. I'm totally hooked (pardon the pun!!) on organic cotton, Linda, so in the main it's Debbie Bliss Eco Baby. There is also a bit of Rowan Cotton Glace from before organic cotton was around - they matched up in weight pretty well. I love the soft feel of organic cotton, but I notice a few ranges are being discontinued so I'm obviously in the minority on this one!!

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