It’s a Pillow, It’s an Afghan, It’s a PILLOWGHAN!

Like all 3 year olds my daughter has certain items that MUST be taken with her everywhere she goes. Her favorite thing to drag around (and I mean that literally) is a blanket that one of my aunts made for her when she was a baby. It is a good size blanket and my daughter can not help but drag it behind her across the floor, across the ground and into the car. Number one, this is a really nice blanket and I’d rather not see it ruined. Number 2, it isn’t a real portable blanket and hard to stow when we take trips. To solve both of these problems and because I had yet to make a blanket for my daughter, I decided to make her a pillowghan.

In case you’ve never heard of or seen a pillowghan, it is an afghan that you can fold up into a pillow. The most basic pillowghans are made from 13 granny squares that have been joined to form a 3x4 pattern. Then the additional 13th square is sewed back to back with the center square on one end of the blanket. Leave the interior side of the 13th square un-sewed so that you can fold the blanket up and tuck it into the pocket. (I tried to put a graph on here to illustrate how the blanket goes together but for some reason it won't post).

When the blanket is open the “pillow pocket” also makes for a nice foot warmer. Or if you are 3 it makes a great place to stash your toys and carry them around the house.

For my daughter’s Pillowghan I used:
-size I hook
-6 skeins Caron Simply soft in white
-2 skeins Sensations rainbow boucle: 1 Turquoise, 1 bright pink

I worked the granny squares with 2 strands held together, the white and either turquoise or pink. 6 squares in color 1 and 7 squares in color 2. I joined all the squares by holding them back to back and single crocheting them together. 13th square is joined last by sewing through thickness of 2 squares back to back on 3 sides, leaving the one side open for “pillow pocket”.