Handmade: Granny Squares

Although I don't often crochet anymore as I prefer to knit most things, there are occasions where I pull out my crochet hooks and dig into a quick project such as a small basket or a cat bed. :)

My dear friend contacted me last week and asked if I had ever made granny squares. I told him I hadn't but that I do know how to crochet. He promptly asked if he could commission me to make him some. Sure! Why not? I told him to chose the yarn and pattern and that I would make him however many he wanted, within reason.

He found a packet of small cotton skeins in multiple colors and had it shipped directly to my house. The pattern he landed on is this super cute one here: https://www.pastaandpatchwork.com/home/lily-pad-granny-square-free-pattern-tutorial

Even though I thought these would be instantly easy, I'll admit that it took me a second (ie, several tries and ripped out attempts and rereading the pattern over and over) before I had completed square I was happy with. Granted, there were a couple errors in the written directions but eventually I understood the graphed pattern and then went off of that alone.

I did refresh my memory on a couple of the standard crochet stitches that were being used just to be sure I was doing it correctly and not just my own made-up way. lol

I also used the traditional method of burying the tails while working but I found that it wasn't as clean of a look as I would like so on the last two squares, I decided to take the extra step and thread the ending tail through first and then weave the starting tail of the next color in before my first stitch just so everything stayed super tidy. I took some photos of the method here:

Here is the ending tail of the pink that I am weaving into the stitches

Same but from a different angle for reference

Tail pulled through and will be cut flush to the stitches

New color blue beginning tail being woven into the stitches

New tail pulled through

New tail pulled so ending is almost flush with stitches. I leave a little extra sticking out as working with the stitches causes the woven tail to move some

And here I have pulled the yarn forward from the back and have created my first chain stitch.

Like I said before, I found this method to be much neater and is how I will continue if I do more of these. My friend wanted to start with four granny squares and so these are the color combos I came up with. He came up with the top left one and left the other combos up to me.

I found that once I got the hang of them and it all became muscle memory as well as pattern memory, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and really loved finding color combos that I knew would make my friend happy and that would pop against each other.

I just may be a granny square convert! I think they would be adorable coasters or placemats or dish towels, etc. I definitely see the appeal!

What are some of your favorite things to make out of granny squares?

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