a quick and easy baby blanket

Next weekend I will be running my first ever 'learn to crochet' class with the lovely people at Artesano. I've spent the last three weeks preparing for that class, and by preparing I mean sweating, hooking, prepping, panicking, swotting, snapping and mostly trying to remember to breathe, and I think I'm almost there. I just have to write up and check the photography for a 'how to crochet a granny square' tutorial and then I will be done.

I won't lie to you, it's been an arduous journey. It's one thing to be a creative but to write down and describe that creativity in a way that captures the magic of it whilst still explaining it really bloody clearly, that my friends is a right bugger.

But there have been high points of this particular journey, most specifically the opportunity to make something gorgeous using a granny square to show the students what can be achieved from one simple crochet concept - I frigging love that magic.

Also I got to use the amazingly soft and beautiful Artesano Pure Alpaca DK and having never made a granny square blanket in pure alpaca before, I now don't think that I will be able to stop! Slightly hairy but the softest and plumpest thing you can ever expect to feel, aside from baby thighs, baby thighs are pretty bloody soft too, Betsy never had big old plump thighs, we felt slightly robbed.

The other thing that was new about this blanket was the use of a repeating pattern. I always thought a repeating pattern on a granny would look too regimented and orderly, I prefer my grannies to be wild and free, but actually it looks pretty darn smart, I'm well chuffed.

Would you like to make one too? Why not. Here is what you will need:

One skein of each of the following colours together with a 4mm hook:

Ecuador (yellow)

Belize (hot pink)

Sweet Pea (baby pink)

Venezuela (burgundy)

Colombia (bright blue)

Cream

Uruguay (dark blue)

Anemone (baby blue)

All you do, is crochet a basic granny square, instructions here if you need them, using these yarns in the order mentioned above. To get the baby sized blanket I made, you do four rounds of the eight colours.

I finished off with some pom poms (of course) but the beauty of a granny square blanket is that it very rarely needs a border or a trim or any other embellishment because its just too darn cute already. Pom poms are cool though, they add to the beauty, make more.

Hope you like this one, I'm pretty much in love with it and won't be letting it out of my sight for a good long while. Happy hooking.