A Crochet Basic: Granny Square Afghan

The Granny Square is one of the fundamental designs in crocheting.  Since I got back into crocheting I've been staying away from them--working on scarves, broaches, belts, and various other projects.  Way back when I made a few granny square blankets, but to my complete and utter frustration they weren't exactly what you'd call square.  The shape they most resembled was a butterfly.  Yeah, not exactly what one wants in a blanket.  They are nice to cozy up with, but don't present themselves as well as they should.

The biggest project (that I've completed) is a bed-sized afghan for my hubby.  It turned out fairly nicely--but still had quite a bit of the butterfly effect.

Well, now that I am back in the crocheting zone I decided to take a look at actual granny square patterns.  In the past I was working from a pattern given to me at a 4-H craft camp day.  Back then I was afraid of reading patterns so I worked primarily from oral instructions or pictures from library books.  What struck me immediately was that I had been using more chains between shells and in corners than any of the online patterns indicated.  (You have to check out this page of patterns--it's almost overwhelming and not in English, but there are so many cool things that I want to try!) Maybe the extra chains were helping to cause my "butterfly" shape?

With some of the yarn I picked up from Michael's I made this blue and cream afghan.  It could work as a baby blanket or a lap afghan.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out--it's a square!  I did cut down the number of chains--corners only had two and between each shell only had one.

It is a granny SQUARE!
There is the slightest bit of  "butterflying" but not much.
(By the way, it is very difficult in a small apartment to find a place to photgraph  an entire blanket laid flat.)

This is a close-up of the center of the afghan.  I do really like how the colors work together. 

For the edging I did two rows of single crochet all around.

The finished product!

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