Crochet Project

I was presented a slightly challenging project, I was handed a grocery store bag with four partial skiens of yarn and some super small balls of yarn. It was this woman's grandma's yarn, she passed away several years ago and in a box of stuff that she inherited was this bag of yarn. The woman doesn't knit or crochet and figured that this yarn wasn't the best to learn on not to mention she claims no interest in what she called a "dying art" (which secretly broke my heart - I won't let the joy of crocheting die if it is up to me - this refreshed my commitment to teach others how to do it). So I had this bag of yarn, colors I wouldn't have necessarily combined together, all of similar weight, and an uncertain amount, less than a skein a piece for sure.
I set off on my challenge trying to figure out how I can maximize the yarn, how can I stretch it to make as big of a blanket as possible. I tried several different things, I started a granny square blanket and ripped that apart, I started making a square and part way through didn't feel right about it, I tried a couple of patterns I had never tried before, and then a friend passed along a pattern her mom had used for a blanket for son. I knew this was the solution to my problem. It was a striped (helpful when uncertain amounts exist and I didn't really know how much yarn I had and didn't want something that would be an unforgiving pattern when I ran out each color), it was mostly double crocheted and was a bit holey which eventually is where I weaved the yarn through to create this woven blanket. It took longer than I probably anticipated, but given the challenge of the yarn and the amounts, and the request to add as little yarn as I could to preserve "grandma's yarn" I think  I am happy with how it turned out. I only added some white yarn (there was some in the original bag - but not this much) - the rest is Grandma original. I was thrilled to be able to give this woman her grandma's yarn back in this small afghan.
Have you ever had a strange request along this line?
Have you ever worked with someone's yarn that was special?
              This made me nervous because I knew I couldn't replace the yarn.