Unicorn Graphgan

Remember when I made this unicorn pillow for my niece?  She just loved it so much, I thought I'd make her a blanket to match it, for her Christmas gift.  It turned out to be a much larger endeavor than I anticipated, but it was definitely worth it, because she was delighted, and I was quite pleased with what I made ;)

I've posted about using the Corner To Corner (C2C) crochet method before, like when I made my cross-body tote and for L's baby blanket.  For anyone who doesn't know how to do this yet, I use this great picture tutorial from The Lazy Hobby Hopper.  I love the fabric it creates, but I also love it for another reason - the grid-like structure lends itself perfectly to graphgans!  A graphgan uses a graphed pattern, similar to counted cross stitch or perler beads, to create a picture out of the crochet stitches.  So, in this case, I turned the picture of the unicorn pillow into a graph of a unicorn:

I think there are websites that will do this for you, but you can just do what I do & put graph paper over the picture & do your best.  LOL.  Once the graph is designed, you just start at a bottom corner & work your way row-by-row through the pattern.  It builds diagonally, of course, moving... well, corner to corner ;)

I just love the first color change - it's so exciting! 

Just looking at the graph, it didn't look too scary; however, as I worked my way through it, I realized it was making a much larger blanket than I anticipated.  Thank God I started it waaay early, back at the start of the school year, because with my limited crocheting time available, I was still weaving in ends on Christmas Eve morning!  It was totally worth it, though, because it turned out to be my most-favorite project I've done to date: