The Great Grannie Reveal

So this is it. Finally. The incredibly self-indulgent post that enables me to boast openly and deliberately about how clever I am. Let's face it - that's the the only reason that I have to show you these photos of the gorgeously delicious Grannie in all her grannilicious completeness.

So do ooh and ah over them and tell how wonderful she is, won't you?

Thank you.

Although I have already moved onto another project, this one of sheer ripply pleasure, Grannie will always remain special. To begin with your first love is always special, isn't it, and before Grannie I had only one solitary Grannie Square to my name. One. You can see her here, if you like. So Grannie will always be my first.

My feelings for Grannie will always be special for another reason, because for me those 204 silky mohair squares contain so many memories. I began her in April, and I worked on her in Japan in May. I crocheted her on the trains, on the Underground, and in the buses. I crocheted in ryokans and hotels and in train stations and kissaten and restaurants. These are lovely memories.

She was already pretty big and beautiful by July when my Dad first felt unwell, and I have wonderful photographs of her draped over his hospital bed. She was therapy to me during those next few short weeks as we came to terms with his terminal diagnosis and determined to live fully every minute that we had him with us. I couldn't sit still in those days. I knitted dishcloths, gloves and cushions, and I worked on Grannie. Obsessively. All the time. I had sore thumbs and wrists and shoulders. And still I crocheted. My Dad thought she was pretty special, and that makes her extra nice as well.

Finally, of course, Grannie will always remind me of dear sweet little Audrey. I wish I had taken a photograph of her curled up sound asleep on Grannie pooled on the floor around her. That would have been lovely. Alas, I didn't, but the memory still remains. Forever.

Yes, Grannie is one special blanket of lovely, lovely memories.

These pictures show Grannie in her intended home, draped over the end of the Guest Bed. I love getting this glimpse of her as I walk past the open door of the guest room on my way down the passage from our bedroom to the kitchen. She never fails to give me a thrill, even now. I am clever, aren't I? Imagine me being able to crochet. Finally. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks after all.

To some details.

Grannie is made of the sublimely huggly cuggly Noro Silk Garden Aran weight yarn in five colourways joined randomly but with some attention to colour placement.
45% Silk
45% Mohair
10% Wool
I joined each square using a round of the neutral colourway number 47, using a join-as-you-go method from YouTube to keep a fairly wabi sabi colour palette that matches our interior decoration. The crochet hook was 4.5mm.

As a border I used six rounds of trebles in the same neutral colourway as my joining colour, edged with a bright final round of six trebles followed by a single crochet stitch in oranges and pinks - colour 84. You can see it here:

I mentioned that Grannie's intended home is the Guest Bed, but she is rarely in residence there. Mostly you'll find her folded at the end of the sitting room chair by the fire, or more often than not, pooled in the middle of the sofa. This makes me sublimely trippingly happy. I love, love, love to see Grannie being used for the lovely snuggling that I intended her for. That's what all blankets are for really, isn't it?

(Bow modestly, and await thunderous applause.)