Rainbow Granny Square Blanket CAL

For all the granny lovers out there, here is my new crochet Rainbow Granny Square Blanket!

For the links to the patterns, please, scroll all the way down this page!

This blanket explores 14 variations of granny squares and the granny stitch.

From classic granny squares to diamonds, hearts, daisies, and more geometric designs, you’ll have lots of fun learning and experimenting with new granny stitch combinations.

I initially shared this pattern as a crochet along (CAL), which ran from July 31^st to August 28^th, 2023. Now, you can find all the patterns below!

Granny Square Patterns

The Rainbow Granny Blanket is entirely crocheted with granny squares and granny stitch variations:

• Square 1 – Simple Granny Square
• Square 2 – Mitered Granny Square
• Square 3 – Half-and-Half Granny Square
• Square 4 – 3-Section Granny Square
• Square 5 – 4-Section Granny Square
• Square 6 – Diamond Granny Square
• Square 7 – Large Heart Granny Square
• Square 8 – Daisy Granny Square
• Square 9 – C2C Granny Square
• Square 10 – Arrow Point Granny Square
• Squares 11 & 12 – Tilted Diamond Granny Squares
• Square 13 – Granny Stripe Square
• Square 14 – Granny Diamond Stitch Square
• Part 15 – Joining & Zigzag Granny Border

Find more blanket ideas and granny squares here on the blog…

• Tutti Frutti Granny Squares
• Solid Hexagons Blanket
• Color Salad Baby Blanket

Add this pattern to your Ravelry queue HERE and favorite it (– thank you!). Or save it for later by pinning it to your best crochet board on Pinterest using this pin!

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Printable PDF Pattern

The complete pattern of the Rainbow Granny Blanket is available as a printable PDF file in all my shops. Get your copy on Ravelry HERE, LoveCrafts HERE, or Etsy HERE.

MATERIALS

For my blanket, I used:

• 5.5-mm (I/9 USA, 5 UK) Crochet Hook
• Aran (4, Medium) Weight Yarn
• Tapestry Needle

However, you can use any yarn weight you want with the appropriate hook size!

YARN & COLORS

I used a mix of Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran (PY, 201 yds / 184m per 100 g) and Stylecraft Special Aran (SY, 214 yds / 196 m per 100 g) in the following colors and amounts:

• PY, Pansy Purple (247) – 130 yds (119 m)
• SY, Plum (1061) – 100 yds (91 m)
• PY, Raspberry Pink (243) – 100 yds (91 m)
• PY, Bubblegum Pink (250) – 120 yds (110 m)
• PY, Washed Teal (232) – 130 yds (119 m)
• SY, Aster (1003) – 85 yds (78 m)
• PY, Jewel (72) – 100 yds (91 m)
• SY, Pistachio (1822) – 214 yds (196 m) – 1 ball
• SY, Meadow (1065) – 100 yds (91 m)
• PY, Lime Green (228) – 214 yds (196 m) – 1 ball
• SY, Green (1116) – 170 yds (155 m)
• PY, Buttercup Yellow (222) – 214 yds (196 m) – 1 ball
• PY, Mustard Yellow (223) – 85 yds (78 m)
• PY, Blood Orange (219) – 130 yds (119 m)
• SY, Lipstick Red (1246) – 130 yds (119 m)
• SY, Cream (1005) – 1284 yds (1176 m) – 6 balls

In other words, I did a little stash-busting with most of the Aran-weight yarn that I already had.

Feel free to do the same or make your own color palette!

YARN SUBSTITUTIONS

If you do need to buy yarn for the CAL, in addition to Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran and Stylecraft Special Aran, I can recommend these Aran-weight, acrylic yarns that also come in a nice range of colors:

• Knit Picks Brava Worsted
• Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice

But as I said already, if you have a lot of DK yarn or even bulky yarn, you can totally make your squares with what you already have.

SIZE

The finished blanket is 53.5″ (136 cm) wide by 75″ (190 cm) long including the triangle border.

However, you can easily customize your blanket by changing the size of each granny square or by varying the number of squares.

GAUGE

3 rounds of a granny square in 3.75″ (9.5 cm).

Blanket CONSTRUCTION

This blanket is made by joining 20 squares of approximately 11.5″ (29 cm).

There are 14 patterns provided, so you will need to make a few squares a couple of times.

Each square’s pattern does not indicate a specific color scheme. Feel free to play around with color combinations of your choice.

• 1 square in purple or dark pink
• 2 squares in pink
• 3 squares in blue
• 8 squares in green
• 3 squares in yellow
• 2 squares in orange
• 1 square in red

Granny Squares Checklist

To help you keep track of how many squares you need to crochet in the different colors, I made this simple checklist for you!

Feel free to print it and check out a box next to the correct color every time you complete a square in that color.

When you have all your squares, you can assemble them according to the color chart below.

When crocheted in the round, all the squares have 10 rounds.

However, some of the squares are worked in rows or corner to corner (C2C) and do not have a last granny stitch round.

In these cases:

• If the granny square is smaller than a regular granny with 10 rounds, we will add a granny border (equivalent to round 10 of a regular granny square) to make joining easier. The granny border does not need to be the same color as the color you’ll use for joining because you’ll still add that last round before joining or simply use the join-as-you-go (JAYG) method.
• If the square is already as large as a regular granny square with 10 rounds, the pattern provides step-by-step instructions for the last round before joining. For this round, you do need to use your background color! Also notice that if you’re going to JAYG, this last round needs to be the one where you join your square to the rest of the blanket!

Crochet a Rainbow Granny Square Blanket – FREE PATTERNs

1. Simple Granny Square

Let’s start from the very basics: the classic granny square! You can crochet your classic granny squares in one solid color or with multiple colors.

For my blanket, I used 3 classic granny squares but you can decide how many to make. It’s totally your choice!

• Get the pattern of the simple granny square HERE
• Video Tutorial Simple Granny Square tutorial

2. Mitered Granny Square

The Mitered Granny Square is a sort of biased square that grows following one diagonal. In other words, we’ll be only adding rows on two sides.

For the way it is constructed, the mitered granny square has two raw sides, meaning that they are the sides of double crochet stitches.

To make it easier to join this square to the others, the pattern also includes the instructions for the “Last Round Before Joining“, which adds a standard round of granny stitches around the square, and which corresponds to round 11!

• So, if you’re planning to join your squares with a seaming method (mattress stitch, whip stitch, etc.), the slip stitch joining method, single crochet, or zig-zag join, then do add the “last round before joining” now.
• If you’re planning to join your square with the join-as-you-go method, leave the “last round before joining” out and come back to it when you put your blanket together!

• Get the free pattern of the Mitered Granny Square HERE

3. Half-and-Half Granny Square

The next square for our Rainbow Blanket CAL is the Half-and-Half Granny Square. This fun motif has become very popular, especially for making quilt-inspired crochet blankets.

• Get the free pattern of the Half-and-Half Granny Square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

4. Three-section granny square

The 3-Section Granny Square is similar to the half-and-half granny square but has one extra color in one of the halves of the square.

• Get the free pattern 3-Section Granny Square HERE

5. Four-Section Granny square

The 4-Section Granny Square is a sort of evolution of the half-and-half granny square. Instead of just two colors, we’ll use four, and instead of changing color at two of the corners, we’ll change color at each corner of the square!

• Get the free pattern of the 4-Section Granny Square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

6. Diamond Granny Square

The fifth square of the CAL is this gorgeous Diamond Granny Square. This square creates a fun optical illusion where you won’t be sure anymore where are the corners of your granny and where are the sides!

• Get the free pattern of the diamond granny square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

7. Large Heart Granny Square

With this large heart granny square, you can show the world all your love for grannies!

• Get the free patterns of the large heart granny square HERE.

8. Daisy Granny Square

The next square of our Rainbow Blanket is made by joining 4 Daisy Granny Squares and adding a couple of extra rounds.

• Get the free pattern of the Daisy Granny Square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

9. C2C Granny Square

The corner-to-corner (C2C) Granny Stitch is a fun variation of the classic granny stitch. With this square, you can learn how to crochet the granny stitch with a bias (i.e. corner to corner) in one solid color or in multiple colors!

• Get the free pattern of the C2C Granny Square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

10. Arrow Point Granny Square

The Arrow Point Granny Square has a single chevron motif which turns into a square by adding corners with the C2C technique.

• Get the free pattern of the Arrow Point Granny Square HERE
• Video Tutorial HERE

11-12. Tilted Diamond Granny Squares

The Tilted Diamond Granny Square has two patterns in one because it offers two options for squaring. The first squaring option uses granny square triangles for the corners, and the second option uses the C2C granny stitch.

• Find the free pattern of the Tilted Diamond Granny Squares HERE.
• Video Tutorial HERE (it shows the squaring using the granny triangles at the corners)

13. Granny Stripe Stitch Square

The granny stripe stitch is one of the most iconic crochet stitches and it cannot be missed from our blanket!

• Get the free pattern of the Granny Stripe Square HERE

14. Granny Diamond Stitch Square

The granny diamond stitch is a variation of the granny stripe stitch. With a simple color play, we’ll be drawing some simple diamonds across the entire square.

• Get the free pattern of the Granny Diamond Stitch Square HERE

Last Round Before Joining

Prepare your squares for joining.

Remember that for the mitered granny square, the arrow point granny square, and the tilted with C2C squaring, the instructions for the last round before joining are on each square’s pattern.

For each square, RS facing, join cream or the color that you’ll use to join your squares in any ch-2 corner sp.

Round 11. Ch 4 (counts as a dc and a corner sp), [dc 3] in same corner sp. *(Ch 1, sk 3, [dc 3] in next ch-1 sp) 9 times, ch 1, sk 3, [dc 3, ch 2, dc 3] in next ch-2 sp. Repeat from * 3 times. (Ch 1, sk 3, [dc 3] in next ch-1 sp) 9 times, ch 1, sk 3, [dc 2] in initial corner sp, sl st in third-made ch to join. (33 dc sts and 10 ch-1 per side, 1 ch-2 sp at each corner)

Fasten off and weave in all your ends.

Joining

Following the color scheme below, join your squares using the slip stitch joining method or your favorite method for joining.

Border

To complete my crochet Rainbow Granny blanket, I used a zigzag granny border on the short sides, and a granny block stitch edge on the long sides.

• Find the free pattern of the zigzag border HERE.

Your crochet Rainbow Granny Square THROW BLANKET is Ready!

I hope you enjoy crocheting this pattern, and I’d love to see your granny square Rainbow blankets. Please, share a pic of your work on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #raffamusadesigns!

Find more blanket ideas and granny squares here on the blog…

• Proserpina Afghan Square
• 6″ Floral Squares
• Christmas Granny Squares