Growing Grannies Scrapghan

How NOT to design a new blanket pattern:
1. Sketch out a basic idea and start working on it, only to be distracted from working on it by moving cross-country with little kids during the peak of a global pandemic. Be sure to make the premise of the project unnecessarily complicated. 
2. Put the project in a weird spot when you're unpacking your new home and promptly forget about it. Be sure to lose any notes you have on the project. 
3. Remember about the blanket 3+ years later and pull it out. Start working on it, only to realize that you have no notes and can't remember the math you figured out to make the project possible. Pull your hair a little, but stubbornly persist by redoing all the math and redesigning it based on what you have already. Feel free to argue with a spouse about the mathematics behind it for bonus points. 
4. Finish making the squares you think you need, then arrange them all so you can realize that one entire section of squares is the complete wrong size and now you have to remake them all. Cry a little over chocolate ice cream while rewatching North and South. 
5. Doggedly persist in the project and remake said squares. Spend far too long arranging them and then finally start attaching them together. Realize partway through that if you calculate the number of stitches in each row, you'll have a completely different number at the top of the blanket than you will at the bottom, thus negating any rectangular properties you were going for. Come up with a methodology on the fly to hide this issue. 
6. Add a border and do a happy dance because it's finished! Then realize that you didn't calculate the width correctly and now it's skinnier than you wanted it to be. But at this point, you are NOT remaking it. So do a happy dance in spite of it all, because even though it's not perfect, it's still a cozy lap blanket and it is finally DONE. 

Joking aside, this project was not exactly straightforward. I had a vision years ago for a "Growing Grannies" scrapghan and there were definitely some bumps along the way, but I finally pulled it off! And since I ran into all the issues, I can now give you the tips you need to avoid them, should you be interested in making your own. 

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