One thing about the journey from the center of a great granny square blanket is all of the different versions of the blanket that you encounter on the way to the edge.

While the center remains more or less the same:

The color of the final round defines the blanket, and as I make my way from the first round of the multicolor granny square to the thirty-sixth round, the mood and the overall look change as I move outward.

Because finding a color that both played nicely with and was not overwhelmed by the orange of round nineteenth was challenging I ended up breaking into a new skein of a light yellow. That yellow, in turn, brightened the look of the blanket and toned down the fierceness of the previous round of orange to a more adventurous yet playful mood.

But I didn’t want to lose all the fierceness, and to bring that back out, I eventually settled on Red Heart Super Saver grenadine for the next round. I adore this particular pink because it so bold, and it ended up doing double duty, both setting off the yellow of the round immediately preceding it while drawing out the orange of the round that preceded the yellow:

To my mind, the grenadine is a perfect color for the edge because it is able to achieve all of my crochet color goals, but it was only the twenty-first round. With fifteen more to go, I ended up working the next round ins spring green, a color that–while impressive on its own–I used to serve as a bridge to other colors while also acting as a leitmotif.

And while an argument could be made for stopping right here and weaving in the ends:

a blanket of the current size won’t have the utility of a blanket with just fourteen more rounds, so I will continue forward, one stitch at a time.