Mini Skein Magic – How to Crochet a Stunning Granny Square Blanket

Do you have a mountain of granny squares sitting in your stash with no project in sight? Or, do you need the perfect project for your fingering weight leftover yarn? You’re in luck! Here’s a step-by-step breakdown to crochet your own patchwork granny square blanket!

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How old is your oldest WIP? A few weeks, maybe a few months? How about a few YEARS?! I was fascinated with mini skeins over quarantine and started buying them like penny candy. When I’d collected a few dozen, I started making granny squares and stashed them in my closet. Now, in 2024, I found myself face to face with those same mini skeins, this time with a fierce determination to turn them into something beautiful.

I created my granny square blanket from mini skeins, but this project works just as well with sock yarn leftovers and scrap yarn. If you’ve found yourself with an influx of fingering-weight yarn and no idea how to use it, you’ve found the right post! Keep scrolling for my exact formula to make a blanket as stunning as mine.

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Step 1: Gather Your Materials

The secret sauce to the perfect granny square blanket is the perfect color combination. The good news is – you really can’t go wrong here! I wanted a spring-themed blanket, so I chose colors that reminded me of spring – fresh greens, lush purples, cheerful pinks. To diversify the palette, I sprinkled in some sunny yellow, woodsy brown, and a touch of gray to represent rainy days. When choosing your colors, start with an inspiration like an image, a season, or a mood. Then, search sites like Pinterest to help finalize the ideal palette.

A project like this afghan is also a great chance to clear out some of your yarn stash. If you have leftover fingering weight yarn from making socks or full skeins that you’re finally ready to put to good use, throw those in the mix. Have a holiday advent or countdown box? That’s a great place to start building your palette. Many advent boxes come with 12-24 mini skeins in the box, so you’ll have to add in a few other colors to get the total number of skeins needed.

Once you’ve landed on a color palette, it’s time to assemble the remaining supplies. To make your granny square blanket, you will need:

• 4mm crochet hook
• 40 mini skeins, or 800 total grams of fingering weight yarn to make the squares
• 210 grams of fingering weight yarn for joining the squares
• Tapestry needle
• Scissors

I used a mixture of mini skeins purchased from different hand dyers for my blanket. Some came from online purchases, some came from local yarn store visits, and some were purchased on my travels. Any combination of 20-gram mini skeins will do for this project. You do not need to buy all of your mini skeins from the same vendor.

Step 2: Make the Granny Squares

Half the fun of a project like this granny square blanket is choosing the motif you’ll use for your squares. There are hundreds of crochet square patterns, but I chose the classic granny square for that vintage feel. Each of my granny squares had 8 rounds, and I worked them in turned rounds to ensure they did not spiral in the middle. I got 2 squares out of each mini skein, giving me 80 total squares, each about 5.5″ wide.

Granny squares are a comfort project for me. They’re travel-friendly, soothing in their repetitiveness, and easy enough for crochet newbies to learn. New to making granny squares? Follow this tutorial, which has helped over 200K+ crochet enthusiasts:

If you want to mix things up, look for unique granny square patterns in books, magazines, and online. Crochet designers from around the world have shared plenty of free patterns for you to choose from. Look for a square pattern with double crochet stitches in multiples of 3 along each side to ensure the joining technique works.

Step 3: Granny Square Blanket Layout

If choosing a color palette for your granny square blanket is difficult, picking a layout for your precious squares is nearly impossible! There are many options for laying out your squares, and I encourage you to try them all before you make a final decision. With 80 squares, I made a blanket 8 squares wide and 10 squares tall. Once I had the dimensions, I tried a couple different layout options.

Try these fun layouts when planning your crochet afghan:

• Random Order: Select your squares randomly and place them in the blanket grid.
• Gradient Order: Group like colors together. Choose the color you will start with, then place them in the grid in rainbow order. In the photos below, I worked the gradient from bottom to top, then from corner to corner.
• Stripes Order: Group like colors together. Begin laying them in your grid so that one full row or column has one primary color. The next column should have a different color, and so on.

I decided on a gradient for my mini skeins, starting with pink and transitioning through yellow, brown, green, blue, gray, and finally purple. I began with a simple bottom-to-top gradient but found that it fell flat for me – it was a bit too plain. I then tried a corner-to-corner gradient and fell in love. The color transitions felt more harmonious, and my eyes traveled all over the blanket instead of just in one direction. I was sold!

Once you land on an orientation, it’s time to stack up your squares. Work from left to right, starting with the bottom row. Place the square in the bottom-left corner on top, and stack the other squares in that row below the first. Connect each stack with a bit of scrap yarn and a number to keep them in order. I created 10 stacks for my 10 rows and numbered them accordingly.

Step 4: Joining the Granny Squares

Next came seaming, which I know is no one’s favorite part of making a granny square blanket. Enter Hooked by Robin. I found her crochet continuous join as you go granny square method on YouTube and a light switch went on. Her technique for connecting all 80 squares in an easy, fun, and efficient way made this step much less daunting. After 4 years of stalling, I joined all of my squares over three days. My blanket measures 48″ x 62″ at this point.

While this joining method worked best for my blanket, there are plenty of other options to choose from. If you want to connect your squares individually, you can try the slip stitch method, the whip stitch method, or the mattress stitch method. You can learn each of these techniques in my tutorial video here. There are also other continuous join-as-you-go methods with tutorials on YouTube, including this lacy one and this tight join-as-you-go seam.

Step 5: Border + Finishing

After the blanket assembly is done, it’s time for a border. Your blanket doesn’t necessarily need a border, but applying one aids in your blanket’s stability while allowing you to add another layer of personality to your masterpiece. Traditional granny squares can complement simple borders or more complex designs. Consider practicing your border on a smaller granny square swatch before adding it to the full blanket.

NOTE: I have not added a border to my blanket yet, so I did not include yarn yardage for a specific border in the Materials section. Consider using an additional skein of your joining yarn, or choose a coordinating tonal skein from your stash to make the border.

Once the border is added, weave in all loose ends. The final step is to block your blanket – specifically, steam blocking your blanket. I recommend steam blocking since this large blanket might take days to dry if fully submerged.

Follow these steps to steam block your blanket:

• Lay out your blocking boards in the approximate size of your blanket. If you don’t have enough boards, fill the middle of the boards with folded towels.
• Lay your blanket on the boards and use rust-proof pins to pin the edges of your blanket into shape. Lightly tug the blanket into the desired shape, with particular emphasis on creating even tension along each of your squares.
• Use a garment steamer to steam your blanket until it is damp to the touch. The steam will release wrinkles, improve the drape, and add a few inches to the overall size.
• Allow your blanket to fully dry before unpinning. If it’s taking too long, try placing a fan in the room with the blanket and close the door.

I hope this granny square blanket tutorial inspires you to take on your own unique crochet blanket project. Remember to go at your own pace, take some risks, and the more colors, the merrier!

If you do decide to take on a granny square blanket, please share it with me on Instagram and tag @TLYarnCrafts. I would love to see it.

WATCH MY BLANKET COME TOGETHER!

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Common Questions

Where can I find mini skeins for my crochet granny square blanket? Mini skeins are growing in popularity, making them much easier to find. My first choice is to get hand-dyed mini skeins from small-batch dyers. I find them by searching “hand dyed yarn” on Instagram, but you can also find them on Etsy and searching on Google. Fingering weight mini skeins are also available from popular sites like WeCrochet, Hobbii, and WEBS.

How long did it take to complete your granny square blanket? I’m a bit embarrassed to say that it took 4 total years to complete my blanket. I worked on the granny squares for about 2 years, then put this project on ice until it was time to join them. Each granny square takes me about 30 minutes, and each row of joining takes 60-90 minutes. Altogether, I’ve invested about 55 hours into this blanket up to this point. I still need to add the border, which will likely take another 2 hours.

How many squares can you make from each mini skein? I used 20 gram mini skeins with about 80 yards of yarn each. I got 2 squares out of most of my mini skeins, using 40 yards in each square.

Did you block each square before joining them? No, I did not block my squares before joining them. Since I used wool yarn, I know it has a lot of stretch and flexibility. For those reasons, I will block my entire blanket after I add the border.

How did you connect the squares on your granny square blanket? I connected my squares using the continuous join-as-you-go method. To help, I watch this fantastic tutorial on YouTube.

How did you pick the colors that went into your blanket? I chose my colors based on the season I wanted to represent: spring. I looked on Pinterest for some spring-themed colors and found several photos with dusty pinks, purples, and greens. I looked in my stash and found a collection of colors that matched the theme, then added some transitional colors (yellow, brown, gray, and blue). When laying out the colors, I went in a rainbow order: pink-yellow-brown-green-blue-gray-purple.

Can I use an advent or holiday mystery box of yarn for my granny square blanket? Absolutely, YES! Yarn advents and mystery holiday boxes often come with 12-24 mini skeins each, so you must supplement with additional yarns. Consider finding scraps, leftovers, mini skeins, or full skeins in your stash to round out your color palette.

What were the final dimensions of your blanket? After seaming (but before blocking!), my blanket measures 48″ wide and 62″ long. This is a perfect lap or throw blanket, and I look forward to keeping mine in my living room for my next Netflix binge.