GODFREY - Eight months ago, Chad Ingram decided to break a record.
The legally blind Godfrey man figured he’d teach his daughters how to crochet after his wife bought crochet supplies for herself seven years ago. None of his family members ever took to it, but Ingram taught himself through YouTube videos and discovered a new passion for the craft.
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Now, after countless blankets, hats and pillows that he has donated or gifted, he decided to do something solely for himself and crochet the world’s largest granny square.
“I told my wife, I said, I really just want to do something for myself,” he remembered. “It's kind of a joke. I thought it was doable, though, and I’m retired. I looked in the record book. It sounds big. The record was 36 feet by 36 feet. It took the original guy two and a half years. But I thought I could probably do that. And I just set out and crocheted.”
Since October 2024, Ingram has averaged about four hours a day in his basement, crocheting with a 4.0 hook. He can’t see the individual stitches and instead uses a camera and a TV to crochet row by row. Every two rows, he must adjust the camera and television. This process became difficult when the granny square grew over 30 feet, but he continued until the basement was too small to hold it.
The final product is over 1,700 square feet, roughly 41 feet by 41 feet. This past weekend, Ingram laid the blanket out on the Glazebrook Park soccer field and brought in a professional surveyor to measure it for the Guinness World Record Book. He is now in the process of applying to the Guinness organization to be recognized as the record-holder for the World’s Largest Crocheted Granny Square.
And he attracted a crowd, as many people came up to see the crocheted granny square at the park. But for Ingram, the coolest part was that most of these spectators were family friends or community members who he had given crocheted items to in the past.
“I was impressed that there were so many people. It really made me feel like I’d really accomplished something,” he shared. “It brought me in touch with a lot of people, just reminding me that there’s a lot of nice people out there. That’s kind of my ending joy of this. I told my wife, I said, everybody I’ve talked to about this is nicer than the next. I can’t believe it.”
Ingram has used crochet for good. He has donated over 150 baby hats to Alton Memorial Hospital, and he crocheted hats to donate to community closets last winter. He regularly makes blankets and pillows for family friends or friends of his daughters’.
“It’s nice to do stuff for people, and I don’t want anything in return,” he said. “It’s just to give them something to smile about.”
Ingram admits “there’s a melancholy” to finishing such a major project, but he’s already looking ahead to what he can do next. He’s browsing the Guinness World Record Book for ideas. In the meantime, he plans to crochet an American flag for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. next year, and he has a few smaller projects in the works.
The Godfrey community will be waiting to see what Ingram accomplishes, with many people eager to see his name in the Guinness World Record Book. He thanked the community for their support and added that he can’t wait to embark on his next project.
“Doing the blanket, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” he added. “In my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have imagined that thousands of people would be interested in it.”
Click here to watch a video of the granny square at Glazebrook Park.
