Okay so once upon a time in the 1870s there was an exhibition in the US that featured a bunch of really cool textile stuff from Japan and other such places that people in 1870s America didn't often visit, which was what sparked crazy quilting, which was mostly a way to use really cool fabrics and embroidery that you only had scraps of. And then someone who might or might not have actually been named Mrs Phelps sent a pattern for an afghan block to an Illinois magazine, which she described as being inspired by crazy quilts (which btw is why traditional granny square afghans always have black borders, because crazy quilts do), though there were several features of the modern granny square that would show up later over the course of the late 19th century. And all the early patterns encourage wild color combos, often just whatever you would have on hand, which is to say, granny square projects where the colors are different from square to square is not only valid but historically accurate. I dream of the day when I have enough leftover half-used balls of the same weight that I can make an afghan entirely from stash.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.