Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Granny Square Love - The Joys of Monochrome

Granny Squares. They're how I learned to crochet - taught, by the way, by my Great-Aunt Christina. Sure, I can do all kinds of fancy stuff, but these are brainless and comforting, the perfect January project. I always have at least one baby blanket on hand for surprise babies (they pop up all over the place in springtime, the little beasties). The colour scheme is one of  the familiar go-to colour combos that requires little thinking: the joys of monochrome.




True monochrome should start with a darker colour that gradually becomes lighter, as though white paint was being added to the darker colour, bit by bit. When picking out the colours, though, you have to make sure you do it by daylight or there's a possibility that you might make a colour booboo:


What went awry on the left? Well, I had a nice, cool pastel green plus a cool, woody dark green - and I thought I had a suitable green for the middle. Sadly, though, when I looked at it by daylight, I noticed that the middle green was too acidic, a warm apple green that includes a touch of yellow. In other words, it clashed. So out it went.

Now it's done and wrapped up ready to go. On to the next project - Anny's eagle eyes spotted it in the last post, so as soon as we have enough sunshine to take a decent photo, I'll show you My True Scrapblanket: not a single skein was purchased in the making!

10 comments:

barbara l. hale said...

Nice old standby.

Paula said...

What a beautiful blanket, lucky the person that receives this as a gift.

Annie Cholewa said...

An oldie but a goodie ... can't beat monochrome and it looks lovely :D

Paul & Carla said...

Sometimes you just don't want to think, you know? Monochrome may or may not fit the bill. I can still be pretty compulsive (OK, obsessive) about getting the colors juuussssstttt right. But it does pay, as your lovely new "blankie" shows. Beautiful work!

Hartyboys said...

Wow, love the blanket. I am new to crochet so it's great to see some basic but beautiful creations that a beginner can do. Thank you for sharing

Anny said...

That is very pretty but yes I am interested in what is in that basket...looks interesting!!

Emma (GirlAnachronismE) said...

Its a beautiful blanket, and the colours work perfectly together. The squares look really pretty on their own as well, a great way of adding colour.

Mutant Supermodel said...

Is learning crochet from a granny square the best way to go? My children want to learn as does a friend of mine and I get stumped on how to teach them! I taught myself from a book so I don't have a way to relate to learning hands-on from someone else.

Marie/Underground Crafter said...

I love the monochrome scrap blanket!

The Gingerbread Lady said...

Mutant - I've always thought learning to crochet in the round would be easier than crocheting in the wriggly base chain. Of course, I can't really judge because it was so long ago ... I suppose it doesn't matter as long as you have something to practise the stitches into.