De-construct and reconstruct

Looking through my camera I found the photos I had taken off a project I had last year.  It was an old granny square blanket, a family heirloom which I think my Gran may have made.  I remember it in my childhood but don't know how long it pre dates me.  I guess it is over 40 years old , as you can see by the colours its a bit faded.

The wool was so old it didn't have the strength to come undone completely

My first job was to undo the border which once it got going was quite easy but where threads had been split or knotted it put up a bit of a fight.

One of many of my Granny's knots

This blanket I remember having it on my bed, I also used it for my dolls.  When my children arrived it was a pram blanket, then a bed throw so it had a lot of wear and tear.  It had been caught in the cot sides, trapped in the pram wheels so the task was more demanding than I thought.  Not only had the stitching come undone between squares

But individual squares were also damaged

I unravelled and tugged and snipped and pulled over many evenings, I produced hanks of yarn using many household objects as winders

Oodles of noodles !

My mobile phone came in handy for small amounts

While my vintage sweet tin dealt with the larger amounts

Crinkled yarn to be washed and recycled

Why did I start this ?

I unravelled the squares back to a undamaged round then reused yarns to rebuild them to a standard size again until eventually I had 88 perfect Granny squares to be reformed into a blanket.

I spread them out on the table and moved them about until I was satisfied with balance of colours.  The original blanket had large areas of green so this was spread more evenly.  Then came the arduous task of stitching them up again. Uh oh !
There is a saint out there , Saint Lucy of Attic 24 with her joining Granny Squares tutorial.  Thank you, this was a much quicker and nicer way to join the squares and gave a lovely finish.  There was no stopping me now !

Squares have been crocheted together  - easy peasy !

The blanket took up many evenings but what a fantastic journey, these yarns were vintage and I had my family history in my hands so the memories of this blankets pathway through our lives were brought back.  My 14 year old son kept requesting progress reports on the blanket project as he was the last to have it in his stroller and now wanted it on his bed.

It is now finished and has pride off place over the end of his bed, he has witnessed all the hard work I put in and knows to take care of this precious blanket.  He better had do !!

6 rows of  treble stitch edging - now that took some doing.

Classic Granny square

Then these unusual squares, these are being closely analysed so I can recreate them

I loved the whole challenge of this and wouldn't mind doing it again.  I'm constantly keeping my eye out now for another granny square blanket needing some TLC when I visit local charity shops and vintage fairs.  I would recommend that you try it for yourself - what a great feeling of satisfaction I have seeing the finished item, knowing I had rescued it from a life of tatters xx

The finished blanket