January 3, 2010

Grannies for Goals - Starting Out

Yesterday's blog post was about making a small granny square for each step towards a goal, in my case, weight loss (I'm down 29.5 lbs now!).

I really don't want to have a lot of squares of one or two colors and just a few squares of other colors, so decided I'd go with three colors only - two colors for the squares and one for the border/joining.

Having decided that, I had to come up with a way to make the goals for the two colors somewhat even, since I'd like the finished afghan to be in a particular pattern. I'm going to do one navy blue square every day, and one maroon square for every half pound I lose and every day I do some sort of exercise, so occasionally I'll have a day with two maroon, but some days I'll have none.

Since I'll be doing one blue every day, it will give me an incentive to exercise more and keep a closer eye on what I'm eating so that I'll keep the pile of maroon squares even with the blue. The squares are about 5", so 12 x 13 squares should give me a total size of 60" x 65". I'll need 156 squares, 78 of each.

I suck at joining squares (in fact I'm not really fond of squares at all!), but here's what I've got so far. I'm using off-white (Aran) for edging/joining and the whole thing should match my living room colors pretty well.


I plan on alternating the rows, starting one row with the blue and the next with the maroon, so it will be like a checkerboard pattern.

This is really a leap out of my comfort zone, but I've always wanted to push myself to complete something with squares. I hope more people decide to join this challenge so that we can encourage each other.

Click here to see where I got the idea, and how you can join in.

5 comments:

  1. I love the way it's looking already. I also am bad at joining squares and basically have stopped making them unless it is to make a large one as a single square blanket. Good luck with your goals and completing your blanket! I look forward to seeing it completed soon!

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  2. There are alternate ways of joining squares, they are called "no-join" or join-as-you-go methods of joining. Basically, you can single crochet them together, use a slip stitch, or just make the first square, and when you're on the second one, join to the first with slip stitches and then there's no sewing to do.

    Ambar in Puerto Rico

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  3. I love the colors you've chosen!! Keep it up! :)

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  4. Hey Marie Anne - try flat braid joining like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfBKZwqBgE&feature=related

    It's one of my favorite methods. (that link goes to the first video...there are four of them in total...just keep clicking and watching)

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