Greg crochet blanket

 Hi everyone, I'm so excited to show you my latest completed blanket. I've been crocheting for about eight years and I honestly don't know what I'd do with myself without it these days! I'm constantly driven by the need to create but I don't always have the time or energy to plan something brand new, so having a big project on the go that can be worked on in little bits is the perfect use of creative time. Last year I was working on a blanket (of my own plan), but then I came across this crochet along and just had to get in on it. A crochet along (CAL) is when little parts of a pattern are released across a period of time, usually giving you a couple of weeks to complete part A before part B is released, and so on. It seemed to me to be a good way to finish a decent size blanket in a decent amount of time! 

 This CAL was hosted by Shelley at Spincushions. The name of the pattern is Greg, and each individual square has a name - Tom, Joe, Tim, Ian and Bob. These brothers are rather handsome, I'm sure you'll agree. I decided on Shelley's suggestion to work my blanket all in one colour, which I love as it really highlights the texture in the squares. I hadn't made anything so textured before and I love it - I'll be coming back to these stitch combinations in future projects I'm sure! I also really appreciated the advice on how to construct the square so the start of each round is as invisible as possible - really good tips that I'll utilise in future.

 To join the squares I used this technique. (sc, ch 1, skip 1) I couldn't do the diagonal join because the squares are different sizes, but the actual joining stitch was super quick. I will definitely use this technique again in future.

 There is a border pattern given as part of Greg, but I decided to repeat the pattern from Bob (the largest squares). I liked the idea of repeating it and I especially like the V-stitch row! Lastly I edged it with a row of hdc in aqua yarn.

 Here is Greg in all his splendour! He has turned out a decent size for a lap blanket, and perfect for a throwing-over-the-back-of-the-couch blanket.

I had to take Greg outside for a photo shoot too. Doesn't he look lovely draped over my park bench? 

The CAL finished up before Christmas, but life got in the way and I worked on him a bit less for a few weeks. But he's finished now, and I still consider four months for a blanket to be very good time!

If you want to make a Greg of your own, you can find all the information at the Spincushions website. I have also updated my Ravelry page with details of this project.