Crocheted Diagonal Striped Baby Blanket

I love to make extended Granny Square Baby blankets.  These pieces are by go-to gifts for baby and shower presents and well as for donations to my Threads of Love Group.  These  "Blankets With Holes" are ideal to keep an infant warm while maintaining breathability though the holes created in the stitching. (http://www.lilcreates.com/lillians-blog/blankets-with-holes) To construct these creative beauties, the crocheter works around a central motif, adding rings of color as the design progresses to a final edge and border. So why do you want to mess with a good thing?  Variation and creativity bring excitement to the process after I have made a few projects on the same theme. 

In a later post, I attempted to make a significant dent in my scrap pile by crocheting around a corner granny square.  I made cluster stitches along 2 sides of the original piece as I worked up the sides.  I had fun playing with the many colors, gradually adding smaller batches mixed with larger remnants of more basic colors.  As it was a scrap blanket, I was only able to crochet 2 rows of clusters as the blanket got larger.   Since there were so many ends, I found it simpler to weave them in as I went along.  The completed blanket was colorful, funky and interesting.  At this point, I have not gifted or sold the piece.  Still when I look at it, I smile because I feel as if I broke some kind of rules in creating it. (http://www.lilcreates.com/lillians-blog/yarn-chicken-a-high-risk-game-for-chrocheters-and-knitters )

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This leads me to my third Granny Square Blanket, the Diagonal Stripe.  When I started this blog, I promised myself that each posting would contain either a new yarn or tool or a new technique.  In executing this blanket, I accomplished both goals.  I enjoy working with self-striping yarns, but up until now I had been unable to buy Bernat Pop manufactured by Yarnspirations.  My local Walmart did not carry an extensive variety of yarns, and so when I visited a mega-Walmart in a town about 45 minutes from home, I just had to inquire.  My choice was Snow Queen that included  that included the colors of my granddaughter's bedroom.  Before leaving home for my camping trip in Maine I also researched directions for the Diagonal Stripe Granny Stitch Baby Blanket and carried the printed sheets in my yarn bag.  With two other projects in tow,  I had 3 WIP's.  The first two could easily be carried with me as I hiked to picturesque sites.  It was delightful to take out my pieces and stitch as I waited for family members who were taking longer and more rigorous paths to the same spot.  However, back in the campground I could relax with my striped Granny.  Once I had mastered the simple increase for shells, my pattern was set.  I had just begun the decrease side when we started on our car trip home.

As I had rotated projects,  I was able to complete all three within a few days of one another.   On Thursday, I crocheted my last stitches, made a shell border, and wove in the ends of my Diagonal Striped Granny Square Blanket.  On Friday, my favorite model, my granddaughter smiled and giggled into the IPad as I snapped her picture.  The completed blanket contained yardage of soft white, light aqua, tourquoise, lavender, and coral. The scalloped edge was the finishing touch.  I had considered teaching myself the reversed scallop technique, but I did not want to spend the needed time examining tutorials and videos to master the border for this particular project.  I would leave that for a later date.  Not only was this Diagonal Stripe Granny Baby Blanket  attractive, it was perfectly square.  Even without blocking,  it did not skew in any direction.  Was the source of this perfection, the pattern of the yarn? Go to Zooty Owl for directions on crocheting a diagonal stripe. (zootyowlcards.blogspot.com/2013/11/rainbow-candy-diagonal-granny-stripe.html)

If you have crocheted with Bernat Pop or have executed the Diagonal Striped Granny Stitch on a blanket or other project.  Please post your experiences or your pictures.