Grannies Galore

Well, I was going to start this post with a history of the Granny Square, but lo and behold, I couldn't really find one anywhere on the internet. I'm thinking granny squares are one of those things that just ARE. Crochet is notorious for this sort of thing. No one can even really pinpoint when and where crochet first came into being. It just showed up one day.

I can only assume the granny square must have first been done by someone's granny. And really that granny was an ingenious little lady. There are so many variations that are possible that it blows the mind. What I find fascinating is how different they can look depending on size, color choice, yarn choice.

I'll admit, the picture above is somewhat campy. This magazine is from the early 80's when the granny square was just about to go into hibernation after it's heyday in the 60's and 70's. Now it's back again and I've caught the fever. I've been browsing around ravelry and flickr for days now, just ooohing and ahhhing over all the different variations I've seen.

I'm finding myself drawn to the blankets that look sort of vintagey and modern at the same time. I have a friend who is very in to everything 70's and I'd love to make her a granny square throw.
Here are some grannies I found on the side of the road at a place called Lovejoy. I actually asked my husband to climb out of the car and take a picture with his iphone. (What a guy!) The one I really like is the middle one with the white border. I find that you can do almost any kind of crazy color combos with a granny afghan and as long as you do the last row of every granny in the same color it ends up looking very together and posh. I have some plans for what I'm going to do for my friends throw.



But I don't have time now to explain all that so I'll have to wait until the next post. For now I'll just leave you with this..