Elegant Granny Style: The Granny Stripe Blanket
All too often I hear people saying "this isn't your granny's crochet" or disparagingly calling something handmade "granny" to mean that it's unstylish, ugly or fussy. I personally think this is unfair to our collective Grannies, women who made so many beautiful things that still inspire us today. I made this bed sized Granny Stripe blanket with the hope of showing that Granny Style can indeed be a thing of beauty. I think this blanket is both modern and elegant, especially with its playful color note which for me harkens back to the fun and funky crocheted blankets made by many of our grandmothers.
The Granny Stripe is a crochet pattern that is made just like the iconic Granny Square, but instead of stitching around and around a center square, it is made by stitching back and forth in rows. The beauty of the Granny Stripe pattern is how effortlessly it lends itself to graphic elements, like bright stripes or big blocks of color.
For my Granny Stripe blanket I used the incomparable Madeline Tosh, Tosh Merino Light. As I worked on the blanket I fell madly in love with this yarn, it is an amazingly strong but delicate single ply beauty. Tosh Merino Light comes in an astonishing range of gorgeous hand dyed color, and truly any one of them (or any dozen!) would make an incredible Granny Stripe blanket. Above are a handful of colors I really love and considered for the blanket, the off white is Antler, the top stripe is Edison Bulb (both used in my blanket), then Citrus, Napoli, Oceana and Denim. --Joelle
Materials
Finished Measurements: approximately 50-inches x 56-inches wide.
Gauge: 24 double crochets = 4 inches wide
You will need:
- Madeline Tosh, Tosh Merino Light 10 skeins main color (I used Antler), 1 skein of contrast color (I used Edison Bulb.
- Crochet Hook, US size C - 2.75mm to 3.0mm
The Pattern
Pattern Notes
- The hardest part of this project is the first part - making a very long chain, and then working into the very long chain for your foundation row. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I enjoyed this part, I didn't! However, it was totally worth all of the counting and recounting, once I made it past this row I loved making the blanket.
- The pattern stitch is a multiple of 3 + 2, so if you want a smaller blanket, it's easy, just chain less, making sure that the stitch count is a multiple of 3, plus 2 stitches.
With Contrast Color, chain (ch) 302.
Foundation Row: 1 single crochet (sc) into 2nd chain from hook, 1 sc into each chain to end (301 sc).
Foundation Stripe Row: 1 sc into each sc to end. (301 sc).
*Switch to Main Color.
Main Color Set Up Row: Ch 3 (counts as 1 double crochet (dc)), 1 dc into first sc, [skip 2 sc, 3 dc into next sc] to end (you will have: 2 dc stitches plus 100 dc groups).
Main Color Granny Row: Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), 1 dc into very first stitch, [3 dc into next space between dc groups] repeat to last space, 2 dc into last space and then 1 dc into 3rd stitch of ch 3 from previous row.
Repeat Main color Granny Row 31 more times.
Switch to Contrast Color.
Stripe Row Set Up: 1 sc into each dc to end (301 sc).
Stripe Row: 1 sc into each sc to end. (301 sc).
Repeat from * 4 times more.
Sew in ends and enjoy!
ps- For those of you asking for a photo of the edge of the blanket here you go!
April 16, 2011
Reader Comments (63)
I would also like to ask for permission to use one of your photos above in my blog post, with the link, I find that people are so much more likely yo follow a link if they have a visual indication to inspire them.
Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes, Vanessa x
http://carinascraftblog.wardi.dk/2008/05/no-foundation-chain-crochet-tutorial.html
Love your blanket! The airiness of the granny stitch makes it perfect for a lighter weight blanket.
That is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic link!
Joelle
My pleasure (and of course, special thanks to "Carina").
I have used the same technique for a single crochet foundation row. Just eliminate the very first yarn over, and off you go. It is so much easier than counting, and then working into, a really long flimsy chain.
:)
Fingering weight would work fine. For less costly alternative you might want to check out cascade heritage. It comes in a wide variety of colors:
http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/7462-Cascade-Yarns-Heritage
Thanks for your comment!
- Molly
P.S I'm loving that this is a new crocheting tutorial .. thanks for all you do!!
We recommend that you weave in the ends along the width.
Thanks for your nice comments!
I'm definitely going to be making this, although I may start with one for a single bed first :-)
You chain 302 stitches to begin this blanket. Thank you for your question!
It's going to take me well into Spring (I'm in the southern hemisphere) to complete and I don't fancy sitting with a queen-size blanket on my legs. Plus it's not all that portable as it grows.
These images inspired me to crochet my first project in approx 28 years (I was 10 the last time I made a granny square blanket). Thanks!
Louise
You could certainly crochet the larger gray rectangles separately and then crochet them all together with the yellow later. Joelle recommends that you do a row of single crochet at the beginning and end of each rectangle using the yellow so it will be easier to piece together later.
Thanks for the question and good luck!- Molly
thankyou
There are a couple of links to your site from my posts as I referred to some of the instruction. Thank you so much for sharing your talent and for your beautiful blog.
Unfortunately we are no longer carrying the Cascade Heritage. Right now the original yarn that this is made with (Madeline Tosh Merino Light) is actually the best value for its weight since you get a whopping 420 yards for less than $20 and it comes in such great colors.
If you'd like to cut down on the cost of the blanket you might consider crocheting it a bit smaller since it's pretty large. Or you could crochet it in a larger gauge using Cascade 220, which comes in lots of great colors: http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/649-Cascade-Yarns-Cascade-220 (unfortunately there is no color that compares to "Edison Bulb" but "Aspen Heather is a good match for "Antler")
Thanks so much for your question and good luck!
Molly
I built my foundation row (used orange instead of yellow) and then built up to the first main row; and not entirely sure if I've started the third row correctly. I had 2 spaces left after my last double-crochet on the first main row -- is this correct?
One last question: If I wanted to do a blanket half this width I'm guessing I would start with a foundation row of 151?
Thanks so much in advance for any advice!
PS... Love your site and hope to take a class with you guys as soon as there is a new beginner crochet class available!
I'm trying to track down some "Edison Bulb" Madeline Tosh, Tosh Merino light in London, UK but unsuccessful :(
Could you suggest another option for the neon yellow colour?
Unfortunately there really isn't another yarn in that gague and color I can think of. We are currently sold out of it but we do ship to the UK so please drop us a line at customerservice AT purlsoho DOT com if you'd like to get an email when it comes back in.
Thank you!
Molly
The only way to tell is to do a gauge before taking the big plunge. I imagine it will still look beautiful. Please let us know how it goes and thanks for the comment!
Molly
What a lovely wedding gift!
We are currently waiting on 6 skeins of Calligraphy but we do have 12 of the Scarlett available now. The best thing to do would be to drop our webstore a line at customerservice AT purlsoho DOT com and let them know the quantities and colors you'd like. They'd be happy to place a special order for you.
Thank you for your question!
Molly
Also: I am pretty confused about the width of this blanket! In the post it says: "Finished Measurements: approximately 50-inches x 56-inches wide."
But this thing is supppperrr long! It is 100" wide?! Way too big for my full size bed -- but I will continue making it since I love the project so very much. :)
Just thought I would make that comment as it may be helpful to anyone else who is ambitious enough to make this their first crochet project and may not know what they are getting themselves into!
The post also says: "You will need: ... 10 skeins main color (I used Antler), 1 skein of contrast color (I used Edison Bulb."
But there is no way my 10 m.c. skeins will be enough!! I'm well into my 4th skein and like I mentioned earlier -- only 22 rows into the m.c.
I counted out the 302 starter row and my gauge seems accurate?? Obviously something is wrong though since this is double the width than it states in the post :)
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Although, there is nothing I can probably do at this point -- I would still like to know what I did wrong! Thanks so much!
We are emailing you a response right now along with a picture. Thanks for writing in!
Molly
Katey
You could certainly give that a try! Let us know how it goes!
Thanks for writing- Molly
Thanks!
To make it 30-inches wide, we would suggest 1 of the contrasting color, and 6 of the main color. Currently we are very low on this yarn and there aren't a lot of color choices available. If you'd like to be notified when it comes back in stock please drop us an email at customerservice AT purlsoho DOT com.
Otherwise, we might suggest using this washable merino instead. Perhaps "seaside" as the main color and either "ducky" or "key lime" for the contrast. http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/7124-Anzula-Squishy If you go with this option you'll need to buy 7 of the main color and 1 of the contrast.
Thank you so much for your question!
Molly
There is an email coming your way!
Laura
There is no border or edging. The full pattern is above. Please let us know if you have any more questions, and thanks for writing in!
Molly
It can get quite costly is why I'm asking. Thanks for responding.
You would need 11 400 yard skeins.
Thank you for your question and good luck with the project!
Molly