WIP TOAST inspired, not granny square, grey crochet blanket

My neat ripple crochet blanket has doubled since I last photographed it but I've been giving this a bit of a rest recently while I make this TOAST inspired blanket for a Christmas present. I'm using a very soft and snugly yarn by Patons called Silenzio Chunky, it has 25% wool and 25% Alpaca which I feel is rather fancy!

I spotted this gorgeous throw blanket made by TOAST via pinterest and wondered if I could make something similar but maybe in a slightly different colour, white tends to stain spontaneously around me.

I'm making the blanket with large 10 round not-granny squares, this is my name for them anyway. I'm using a chunky yarn and a 7mm hook and I didn't want to do traditional granny squares as I thought the holes would be too big and I want this to be a super cosy blanket for my lovely friends who has recently got married and bought their first house. I had a couple of false starts getting the number of stitches correct, (I'd missed a stitch per side for about 8 rounds and had to rip it all out and start again) I couldn't find as many instructions for this type of square as for traditional granny squares but I did pick up a few hints; each side must have as many stitches as the previous round plus two at each side and then two slip stitches for turning the corner.
I really like this diamond shape that two squares together make.

I'm being quite quick about joining the squares and simply stitching the final round together on two squares. I'm really making the whole thing up as I go along and quite enjoying it.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish 9 squares and have all the ends tied in before I see my friend for Christmas, I'm on square 5 at the moment so it might be possible!