Knitographical: Granny wants a Latte Macchiato

My eldest daughter has just recently moved back home after three years away in the 'Big Smoke' for University. This was an interesting exercise. It's amazing how much extra stuff you can accumulate in three years (approximately 200 kg of anatomy and physiology text books just as an example). Our house is pretty old (about 70 or so - a nice California Bungalow) but only has three bedrooms. The girls have always shared a room and now they need to again.

There were two major issues with this:

The middle child had expanded to fill all the available space (well not her personally, she has the physique of an animated stick figure, but definitely her possessions). I think that this is actually a little known example of Le Chatelier's principle as applied to the ability for any given adolescent to expand to occupy any given space.
The room was in major need of a makeover in terms of functionality (we now needed two serious student study spaces and major bookshelf area) and ambiance (what you thought was cute when you were 12 doesn't work so well when you are a mature 21 and 19).

So cue a paint job, a re-jig of the insides of the built in wardrobe to fit the wardrobe of someone who has worked part time in a clearance retail store for the past few years and seems to collect clothes and new furniture that matches and wasn't hand-me-down and unwanted by various grandparents... In short a room that wouldn't look out of place in the pages of a glossy house magazine or a design blog (actually more likely an IKEA catalogue).

We're almost there, there are still a few boxes in the hallways and bookshelves in unexpected places as well a large pile of such treasures as antique Barbie dolls and original Cabbage Patch Kids to sell on Ebay infesting the corners of my bedroom. The girls room is now soothing shades of grey. The desks have arrived, bookcases are in and lots of interesting quirky lighting options lit up the dark corners (who doesn't want a chandelier in their bedroom?), The males of the family have earned a Phd in flat pack assembly.

Of course I need two computers. Serious med student study in progress.

But the beds are an issue. We still can only fit single beds but the girls have upgraded to double Doonas now. But we want the bedding to match the room. The current Doona covers are pink.... (enough said).
OK I said, I'll make you both a granny rug as a bedspread to match the room.

Granny rugs are hip, cool, etc... All the indie crafters are making them (or example Pip Over at Meet Me at Mikes. Check out Granny Squares 101). I was particularly inspired by this granny rug by Sandra Juto.

So Operation Granny Rug has begun. I set myself a resolution of a least a square a day until I finish it. But I calculated I will need about 300 squares. If I'm going to go to all the effort, I want to make a rug about 2m by 1.5 m (i.e. big enough to fit a double bed).

After hunting the pattern database at Ravelry using 'free' and 'Afghan' as search terms, the pattern we chose is by Drops Design and is called Latte Macchiato.

The next step was to go stash diving and find what wool we had. It was decided to only use 8 ply (double knitting) pure wool. I also went and raided my Mum's wool box too.