Homespun Granny Square Baby Blanket

Ah, Homespun. Both a gift and a curse to crochet. This yarn makes a nice finished product that is soft, attractive, glossy, and best of all quite washable! It is ideal for blankets and baby projects for those reasons. However...it is such a pain to work with! The zigzag texture of the yarn is created by a thin thread that is wrapped around the body of the yarn. This thread's main goal in life is to impede the process by getting caught on your crochet hook. Ugh! For me, it's always a struggle weighing the pros and cons of using Homespun.

Having been gifted three skeins by a family friend, I decided to use the yarn in a traditional granny square baby blanket. The simplicity of the blanket made working with the yarn a little less hellish.

To make a traditional granny square, start by forming a ring - chain four and slip stitch together. Alternatively you could use a magic circle, which I prefer and will explain in another post. Chain 3 to count as the first double crochet. Next do 2 double crochet stitches into the ring. Chain 2, 3 double crochet, chain 2, 3 double crochet, chain 2, 3 double crochet. Complete the first round with a slip stitch into the top of the turning chain. You should have something that looks roughly like this:

Congratulations! You have completed the most difficult part of the granny square. It's true! Next, do two slip stitches across your first two double crochet stitches. Time for round two! Chain 3, do 2 dc into the first corner chain space, chain 2, do 3 more dc into the same corner chain. Chain 1. Into the next corner chain, do 3dc, chain 2, 3dc, then ch 1 again. Finish the round in this manner until you reach your turning chain, then slip stitch to join. Simply slip stitch across the first two dc of the second round, chain 3 again to count as the first dc, and off you go! Every time you reach a corner do 3dc+ch2+3dc+ch1, and every time you reach a ch 1 space do 3dc+ch1. Slip stitch across at the end of each row then round and round and round you go! You can make the blanket as big or as small as you like.

I gave this blanket to a friend of mine for her newborn son. It was well received, and she even used it as a photo prop in her son's professional baby pictures. What an honor!

Happy stitching!