Interweave Crochet Blog

A few weeks ago when I attended the Knit Out & Crochet at the Mall of America, I prepared a demo on how to make the solid double-crochet granny squares used in Kathy Merrick's Babette Blanket. It's quite common for folks to be a bit confused when starting out on this stunning blanket. With Kathy's blessing, I prepared a brief post about the anatomy of the square. If it doesn't answer all of your questions, post a comment and I'll do my best to explain further. At right are two of the squares I've made for my own blanket; it's my occasional lazy weekend project, and as such will likely take me a couple of years to finish.

All squares of the blanket, small or large, are made the same way. To begin, chain 4. The whole first round of the square is worked in the fourth chain; the chain grows to accommodate all the stitches. At the end of the round, slip stitch in the top of the beginning chain to join (the first 3 chains count as the first dc of the round). The first round sets the groundwork for the rest of the square: You set up four straight edges and four corners. (Where I've circled the corner, below, the ch-2 for that corner is covered by the orange stitches of the next row.)



In Round 2, you begin with ch 3 in the middle of the first straight edge. I made the beginning chain in orange to highlight it. Then you make a dc in each dc from the previous round. In the ch-2 space at each corner, you work a corner group of (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc). Each corner group increases the stitch count by 4 and sets up the ch-2 space for the next round's corner. I made each corner group in orange, too.



Each subsequent round is worked the same way.

Labels: babette blanket, granny square, how-to