Background project . . .

I've had a notion for some time to undertake a personal 'background' project - I came across Pip's 'A Granny a Day' project over the weekend, and felt a little inspired to join up and make something on a bigger scale ie. a crochet afghan/blanket. The whole notion has evolved over the last couple of days - initially I had the idea of making a coverlet for one of the boys bedrooms, so it has to be something funky, colourful - and not too 'lacey', so the typical granny blanket isn't what I have in mind. I seem to have a slightly different take on the granny square idea - but I think the concept is to provide motivation to have fun and be creative with crochet squares on a 'possibly' daily basis.

I tried to make one of the fabulous crochet blocks from my '201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas' book by Melody Griffiths on Sunday - I loved the look of this log-cabin patchwork inspired block, so I gave it a whirl . . .

I didn't use the colour scheme, but just had to go with what yarns I have, which are pretty limited! It was a test piece but I'm gonna use it anyway as I want my blanket to look quite spontaneous and experimental. I like the idea of it looking a little like lego blocks, a little 'modern art', a little rustic/tribal - it'll be a mish-mash basically!

I don't have a lot of left over yarn, but I do have a huge ball of lovely cream aran yarn, which I'm thinking of using as blocks in between . . .

I started making these little 3 inch treble squares to use in between the larger 6 inch coloured squares, this is all experimental you understand! I did work out that if I wanted to make a single bed coverlet it would require 60 large squares in total, but broken down into 30 large squares and 120 little ones - eeeks!

I joined the four treble squares to the larger patchwork one as I wanted to see if the idea will actually work, I think I'm going to have some trouble with the treble squares pulling against the straight lines of the log-cabin effect square . . .

. . . back to the drawing board maybe, but I might just carry on and let it 'evolve' hehe! I've very little yarn and I'm thinking of just using the dribs and drabs I have and acquiring odd balls of cheap yarn wherever I can find them, over the next few months. If you want to join up to Pip's project just click here

. . . I'll maybe do a monthly post on the progress of the blanket, when there's something of interest to show! I DO hope to continue learning to make different kinds of granny squares/blocks in between (possibly daily, possibly not!) . . . it's all a bit of fun :D

Teenage Son is working towards his BIG exams over the next few weeks, so that's a bit of a major priority at the moment (aside from tweedying and crocheting!) - pity I'm not much use when it comes to Higher Physics but I DO make a good cup of tea!

Alison x