Surprise! Granny square

Somehow I combined my least favorite skeins from my yarn stash with a pattern I thought I'd never want to do, and ended up with a project I love.

It's more "country" both in the colors and the style than something I'd normally pick out, but I'm surprisingly happy with it. I really do like this color combination, and I love how fast the granny square pattern is going. I have to say that I always avoided granny squares - the name is bad enough, and it conjures up all those dated afghans that someone's elderly relative made, or worse, granny square sweaters.

But when I was planning what to do with this yarn, I had to admit that if I wanted 1) a one-piece blanket that I didn't have to seam, 2) something that was worked from the center so I could stop whenever the yarn ran out, and 3) something quick and easy, the only option was a granny square. And I'm happy - it's meeting its goal of using up my old yarn so nicely. Seriously, every time I work on this I'm amazed that something so acceptable is coming out of the yarn I thought I'd have stuffed in the bottom of my yarn box for twenty years. And so quickly! It's already 32" on a side, and while the white yarn is almost exhausted, I still have enough of the other colors to add at least another 8". Nice little afghan.

It's almost too bad that this is so fun to work on, especially combined with episodes of How I Met Your Mother, because I have two other time-sensitive crochet projects I need to finish soon...