BBB progressreport: The last one.

It took me 3 years ... (well i did a lot of other stuff in between, but anyway 3 years is a long time)
But I finally DID IT - My Big Bright Blanket is done. and it took me just about two months to get to actual writing of this blogpost :D

I love how it turned out :)
and here are my little princess trying to "help" me with blanket pictures :D

In numbers:

• 3 - is for the number of years it took for me to finish it;
• 6 - is for layers of edging I chose to do till it felt right and the hearts ♡ on my squares;
• 15 - is for all the different yarn colors I used;
• 18 - is the number or blog posts I have written about it (including this one, all the other pregressreports and squares, schemes and formulas that I made up for this blanket)
• 46 different square patterns used (well I might have miscounted, it got quite difficult after 20);
• 50 is the number of skeins of yarn I used (at least)
• 2151 stands for grams this baby weights :) well I actually expected more..

BBB progressreport: Edging

I made one little mistake … and so my 6 layers of edging are a bit wiggly ..

And as the layers were put on one another it wiggled a lot more ..  but I kind of don't care for it to be perfect so I went with it.

For next time thou I might prefer it to BE perfect so I am logging here the possible solution for future me.

BBB progressreport: The one before last :)

JUST border left!!!

and some of the yarn ends of course..

Latest newcomers:

• round ripple square (from ravelry)
• and I saw over the internet its lookalike snowflake pattern and that one is for free although I did not try this one yet;
• BEST way to fill rectangular spaces - box stitch (tutorials and schemes can be found all around internet I just used trc instead of dc)
• Two circles joined together as a symbol for love, marriage and working together (you name it), I saw in @memoo1409 instagram feed :)
• V stich squared (made it up as I go, no actual pattern there) 
• and V stitch simply in rows for rectangle (this is the new MUST have blanket all around instagram, and from the small piece I made I do get why it is so popular - light, fast growing and simple!!!)

So here it is!
My BigBrightBlanket in all it's glory :)

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket

ALL 4 corners DONE!!!
just "frostbite" and border left :)

latest newcomers:

• little hearts (in ravelry)
• variation of cornered granny square (in ravelry)
• label
• my kids individual Latvian pattern 
• jet another rectangle 

And probably some other squares I can't remember at the moment ...
newertheless .. Happy CRAFTING and see you soon! ;)

3rd time's a charm

As it is no longer 2013 ... I had to change the label no matter what! so I changed it a bit more ..
This is the new and improved version (here you can see the old ones) ->

I am optimistic and hope to find the time to finish Big Bright Blanket it this year :)
I will leave the fringe (as suggested by Linda), so there will be more white (or pink) granny square type rows around the label .. to show off the fringe and easily join it to the rest of the blanket.

Did you notice - no more BBB (I was planning to embroider the name Big Bright Blanket on those Bees, but I found out that embroidery on crochet is not my thing .. so no BBBees at all).

Your own pattern Latvian style

Way back when fabric for clothes and everything else was weaved (knitted, crocheted) at home not bought in supermarkets as ready to wear clothes, tablecloths, bedspreads et cetera ... most skillful women wanted to make special things like no other so they draw their own patterns for weaving, knitting, cross stitching and all the other crafts ...
This is one of the ways to draw an individual pattern using the date of birth.

My kids patterns came out looking identical because both their birthdays contain the same numbers :) hopefully it will mean that they will get along nicely ..

This block I crocheted for big Bright Blanket, just to make it even more special (if I would do it again I would use hdc instead od dc and in the first round just 2 hdc instead of 3dc) .. but I am planning to make cross stitched wall hangings from all of our families individual patterns :) knowing how fast my priorities and ideas change I won't be too surprised if I never cross stitch them although I am pretty sure I will use these patterns in some future projects.

Rectangle

Crocheting a granny rectangle can be quite tricky... and there are loads of variations for it (my first formula inspired by rectangle granny square i saw in Blair Stokers grannysquare sampler and a different approach for granny rectangle by Sue Rivers and probably many more I don't even know about) ... the latest revelation in this matter looks like this!

Label for Big Bright Blanket!

As I am now obsessed with finishing the BigBrightBlanket and I have only one corner left, the need for label got kind of pressing ... A while ago I asked you for ideas for the label, unfortunately the only suggested possibility was to crochet letters and sew them on granny square. Idea itself is great and I love how the alphabet looks like, unfortunately it would probably come out as big as a baby blanket I made a while ago :D and I wanted something small..
But I finally got IT! I should try to do it like I made the rabbit decoration for easter !!! :)
Unfortunately the first time I tried it came out looking something between trapezium and parallelogram ...

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket ツ

Just one more corner!!! and about a gazillion ends ..

So finally! Here is the 3rd corner!
If you look careful enough there are three different ways for rectangle granny square used in this corner! Two of them can be found in links of inspiration, but the third one I hope to share with you soon ;)

misshaped granny square!

Anyone who has ever tried to make a blanket out of mismatched size squares will know my pain of weird spots where nothing seems to fit...
There's always a possibility to make about a million small squares or use a rectangle here and there .. eventually get a straight line for a bigger square and after a while start that same cycle again.
sometimes it can be fun but most of the times it just gets on my nerves..
- why I am telling you all of this?
- I have found another way to fill the gaps! ;)

Let's welcome the misshaped granny square in to the BigBrightBlanket family!

The trick for making a misshaped granny square is to figure out the length of a starting chain and thickness or the rounds necessary.

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

More than half done!
I now have two corners and a vision where the other two should be :) I love this blanket already!!!

Few close-ups too :) for the love of details..

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

I have the first corner!
and the second one is not that far away... unbelievable! I can actually see myself finishing it at some point this year :)

I am thinking about a block with my name, the name of blanket and probably the year (years) I was making it. have you ever crocheted something like that? do you have any suggestions about this kind of block?

Here some close-ups from my Big Bright Blanket :)

a month of love!

Happy Valentines day!!!
A very short post before I go back to champagne and chocolate cake ...

This heart is variation if very talanted Kates Geometric heart block
although I used my own way of diagonal color changing
and instead of sewing I joined it as I go :)

For those of you that do not know I got married in this years Groundhog's day (can't believe it's almost two weeks ago already!) so for me and my family february is the true month of love :)

Love to you all and happy crafting!

Diagonal color change

Usually granny square consists of loads of colorful yarns that are changed after each row. But I propose a different approach!
Lets change the color in the corner ... so you would get a granny square that looks like this, or that, or ... ;)

Lacy granny square

I present to you the newest block in the town!
Lets welcome the Lacy granny square ;)

It is fun, simple and supercute if I may say so myself :)
And it will be a great addition to my BigBrightBlanket.

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

So as you probably know - I am in a process of making a BigBrightBlanket - a huge crocheted blanket with a variation of different blocks (not always different patterns but at least colours :)

Inspiration or patterns for some of the squares used in my BigBrightBlanket can be found there ->

• big squared circle 
• little squared circle
• the spiral
• The amazing flower block 
• 4 hearts 
• a different approach...
• rectangle 
• amazing X granny square 
• my own flower block
• and of course a simple grannysquare :)

These are the links that started it, but there are many more I browsed through for inspiration .. and some of them can be found on instagramm (I follow the users I'have found most inspiring, but I sometimes just check whats new under the tag #crochet too).

As you can see, the blanket is not nearly finished so there probably will be more blocks and more links of inspiration!

Happy crafting to you too! ;) 

I love math ! =]

I was inspired by the blairs grannysquaresampler. I had newer thought of rectangle granny square before and it made me think ... what is the amount of chains necessary to make a rectangle that fits the gap in a blanket?
I was obsessed for a while, I drew some rectangles starting from the outer edge and counted the chains in the beginning. And the more I drew the clearer it got. And that is when the formula was born!

• x - longest edge (I am counting the holes or typical joining points of the typical granny square)
• y - shortest edge
• z - edge length difference z=x-y 
• B - the chains needed for the beginning or middle

B=|4z-1|

btw, the rounds needed to make the rectangular granny square (R) can be caunted too ->
R=y-1

for example:
I need a square that is 4*9
so the x=9, y=4
that means z=9-4=5
B = 4*5-1 = 19
R = 4-1 = 3

this is the scheme for the middle of rectangle and the first round.

The dots are chains, but the small circle is loose chain (it will be needed to form the corners so it will have to hold 9 double crochet stitches!).

To understand the formula better I will show you step by step how I make one of the needed squares for BigBrightBlanket.

not your typical granny square*

I am happy to tell you all that I have finally started to join the blocks from my tinytower!!!
I wanted to make the beginning of the joining even more special so I created a special squre - my own flower block!!!

and I came up with a name for the blanket too - BigBrightBlanket :)

So here comes the scheme and few tips along the way :)