This pattern takes the idea behind Kathy Merrick’s popular Babette Blanket, a blanket made of solid granny squares in different sizes, to its logical extreme. Perfectly Simple is a rectangle made up of nine squares in nine different sizes. In mathematics, this is called a “perfect simple squared rectangle;” perfect because no two squares are the same size, and simple because the squares can’t be separated into two smaller rectangles.

The original Perfectly Simple was a small decorative mat crocheted from sport weight yarn on a size F hook. This yields a 21.5” x 22” rectangle. If you prefer a more useful finished object, crocheting Perfectly Simple with worsted weight yarn on a size I hook produces rectangle of around 37” x 38” suitable for a baby blanket. In fact, you can use any weight yarn at any gauge you like and the rectangle will scale up or down perfectly. There are seven yarn colors; the yardage given above is the total yardage, which is divided unevenly between the colors.

Carolyn Yackel has designed a simpler version of the baby blanket, Perfectly Simpler, which substitutes traditional granny squares for the solid granny squares and uses only three colors.

Perfectly Simple is closely related to Square Deal, a knit pattern for the smallest perfect simple squared square from Woolly Thoughts.

Stitches and techniques needed for completion:
chain, double crochet, half double crochet, slip stitch, mattress stitch.