Granny Squares

Granny Squares: 20 Crochet Projects with a Vintage Vibe by Susan Pinner -  My daughter has been begging for a bedspread afghan in the eye-bleeding combination of neon yellow and neon pink.  The fastest way for me to accomplish that is with the ever-popular "granny square" blanket.  I tried one once when I re-created Lafayette's afghan from "True Blood" but I made the unfortunate decision to make it with superwash wool.  Superwash, while easy to care for, doesn't grip or react the way regular wool does.  It stretches when wet and can actually slip ends no matter how convolutedly you weave them back into your work.

In short, I ended up with a $150 (in materials, not counting the hours I put into it) blanket that was
full of holes from one end to the other after the first wash.  Very depressing.

So for my daughter's blanket, I wanted to avoid those mistakes and I went searching for new and interesting granny square books which might also have advice on making a sturdy, heirloom-quality product, and I came across this one.

There are cute projects in the book, and they do have some blocks I haven't seen before. Unfortunately a lot of the hints and tips within are of the vague variety which tell you that "different combinations of stitches create different effects" and ask you to play around with it and have fun.  They tell you how to DIY a crochet hook case with an old toothbrush holder, and how to keep your yarn clean with a ziplock bag, but nothing about weaving in ends.  If it's there, it's tucked away on a project page that I wasn't interested in.

There is a helpful section on joining squares as you go, although the illustrations are a bit hard to follow.  Are we joining at every single crochet, or is it just at the chain spaces?

It's a cute book and worth a read at the library, but once you make the one or two projects you like out of it, there's really no reason to keep it in your permanent library.