Susan's Blanket Squares

Wow, looking back I can't believe how long we've worked on this next project.  Yep, you heard right, I said WE!  :)  Back in March, my friend Suzanne (knittingknirvana on Ravelry) approached the Itty Bitty Knits group asking who would like to help her plan and scheme a surprise for Susan (meaning the knitting designer, Susan B. Anderson - you've all heard me talk about her before!).  It only took me about 2.5 seconds to say yes! :)

At the time, I had a lot in the works.  I was participating in 2 swaps, preparing for my sister's birthday present, etc. etc.  A more logical person may have stood back and said, look at what you have going on, and then choose whether or not to dedicate your time.  But in the same breath I have to say that what Suzanne was proposing didn't really require any thinking. :)   Suzanne asked if we'd be willing, as a group, to knit individual squares from the Dream Catcher Baby Blanket pattern on Spud Says, and then send them to her to seam up into a blanket for Susan.  Susan designed this beautiful blanket as a free pattern on the Spud and Chloe website. 

Anyone familiar with Susan knows that she spends a lot of "face time" with her fans and admirers.  Not only does she always have a new design in the works, but she also blogs, responds to Rav posts, helps with pattern issues, spreads her love and adoration of people's patterns and FOs, hosts giveaways, and is just a genuinely kind and generous person.  There is so much we could all say about Susan.  And to have her own family and life to attend to in-between all that - she is such a busy lady!   What better way to show her how much she means to us than to gift her this project, with squares from all over the world, from so many different knitters.  In the end, the blanket was 9x12 squares big.  That's 108 squares!

I could go on and on about this project, but really, if you want to hear about the whole story, please check out Suzanne's website and watch her podcast HERE.  It's a four-part podcast fully describing all the behind the scenes work that was done for this.  It's amazing that we could 1) keep this a secret from Susan and 2) all come together to create something so neat.  

Susan's sister was kind enough to video tape Susan opening her gift.  You can find the video HERE.  It's really neat to see her reaction, since she wasn't expecting this blanket, at all!

So many  people have said it so much more eloquently than I can...but this is just a huge hug and thank you to Susan for all she does for us to inspire and teach us to grow as knitters and fiber lovers! 

Here are just a few pictures of the squares I sent off.  Originally I only knit 2 because I didn't know how much time I'd have.  Then Suzanne put in a request for more and I just happened to have the perfect amount of leftovers from Gerald the Giraffe to knit 2 blue squares and additional pollen square.  My squares are made of Spud and Chloe Sweater in Pollen, Lake and Splash.  

It's so fun to be able to share this project with the rest of the world.  You should have all seen how impatient we knitters were for Susan to open her gift and see her reaction.  Like little kids on Christmas morning! :) 

And a HUGE thank you to Suzanne for all your hard work!!  The planning and scheming and seaming (Oh My!) was so much work.  We're so glad that Bookboxer was available to help you as it was such a huge task.  :)