The Garden Patch Granny Afghan: Ends In, Seaming Started

I love granny squares!

Obvious by the fact that I am making this blanket.

But like anything, there are disadvantages, and without a doubt one of the major drawbacks to granny squares are all the ends that you are left with as a result of all the color changes.

Each time I start a granny square project, I vow to weave in the ends as I go, hoping to avoid the daunting task of having hundreds of ends left dangling and needing to be put in when the project is complete.

Did I do this with this project?

No. I did not.

I was crocheting my little heart out making square after square and had not weaved in a single end.

Yikes!

So I put the brakes on crocheting and committed to putting in the ends. Since this task is no where near as fun as crocheting squares and seeing the colors come together, I was not as eager to work on it and my overall progress on my blanket did slow considerably.

But after countless, painstaking hours of weaving in ends, I can say that I am caught up - all the ends are in on all the squares that I have crocheted.

And my snip jar is looking phenomenal with all the colorful snips I have added.

As I move forward, crocheting more squares, I am weaving in the ends as I go! (This is my solemn vow)

I have also made myself a blocking board and have begun blocking and then sewing the large, medium and small squares together into rectangles.

I did try sewing the squares together without blocking them but was not all that pleased with the results; some squares looked stretched while others were squashed together, and the few rectangles that I did sew together this way were not the same size.

Blocking the squares into their rectangular arrangements allows me to make sure that the individual squares are all the same size and that the overall rectangles are all the same size.  It also makes sewing the squares together much easier.

My mom is making the same blanket at the same time as me (a fun mother-daughter crochet along) and she helped me block my first rectangle.

This is the above rectangle (rectangle A) blocked and sewn together. With the ends in of course.

I have all the squares for a few more rectangles crocheted and ready to be blocked and sewn together.  I hope to show you those soon.

Right now, I am feeling like the more I accomplish on this afghan, the more there still is left to do...it is a little overwhelming.  Ever felt that way when working on a large project?

But at least I have all the parts underway - crocheting, ends in, seaming started.... I should be good from here on out.

Stay tuned for regular updates.

(For an introduction to this project visit The Garden Patch Granny Afghan: An Introduction)