Granny Square a Week-Week Fifty

So here we are: Week 50! And this week is a Christmasy theme.

Christmas Wreath Square by Carol Wijma

This is a fairly easy square, even though it looks complicated. My only adjustments:

Round 6, when they call for 2 dc, 2 hdc, 4 sc, etc. you put one in each stitch. Meaning if you have 8 stitches from the row below, you would do 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 hdc, 1 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc. The only place you put 2 stitches in one stitch from the row below are the corners when you do tr, chain 3, tr.

Also, I omitted the red stitching on the inside of the wreath, I couldn't get it to sit correctly. It looked just fine without it.

As for the bow, I did not like the way they did it in the pattern. On my main color square, which I made second, you will see it is slightly different. All I did was chain 50, place a dc in the 3rd chain from the hook and all the way across, then fashioned it in the same way they did on the pattern. I left a long tail so I could stitch it up to about the center so I could attach it to the square.

And that is it! I am working on attaching all the squares now, so hopefully next week's blog will be the big reveal!

Until Next Week!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Nine

This week's square is... my own pattern!

I started out trying to make another square but it just was not working. With no way to get any help from the author, I decided to rewrite a similar one from scratch. I call it...

The Crooked Granny
You begin by making the base to a granny square:

Magic circle or chain 3 and slip stitch to the first chain to make a loop

Round 1-chain 2, dc 2, chain 2, *dc 3, chain 2*. Repeat * to * twice. Slip stitch to top of beginning chain

Round 2-Slip stitch to the first chain space. Here you may change color or stay with the original color. chain 3, dc 2 chain 2, dc 3, *chain 1, dc 3 chain 2, dc 3 in next chain space* repeat twice and slip stitch to the top of the chain 3. Fasten off yarn.

Round 3 -Slip stitch new color to any corner space. Chain 8 and slip stitch to next corner. Continue 3 more times and slip stitch to original corner space.

Round 4- Sc 5, chain 2, sc 5 in chain space. Repeat 3 more times, slip stitch to next corner. You will see you now have a granny middle on it's side in the middle of a square.

Round 5- Chain 3, hdc in every stitch until you get to the chain 2 space in the corner, in the chain 2 space you place 2 hdc, chain 2, 2 hdc. Continue this around-hdc in every stitch, 2hdc, chain 2, 2hdc in every chain 2 space in the corner-until you reach the chain 3. Slip stitch to top and fasten off yarn

I can not express how frustrated I was with the original pattern. I also can not stress the need for people to have testers try out their patterns before they post them online-either for free or for sale (that is the worst, when you pay for a pattern only to find out it does not work, at all). Because you may be able to get it to work, but the chance is high you may forget to note something, take a stitch out, write SC when you mean chain, etc. For example-when going over my own pattern above for the 4th time, I realized I had extra chains in 2 places.

Here are the finished products!

This was done with Vanna's Choice in Silver Blue and Red Heart Super Saver in Cornflower

Until Next Week!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Eight

This week was chosen by my fiance:

Webbed Flower Granny Square by Shelley Husband

This was a well written and very easy square. I enjoyed making this one! You can do it in all one color (as I did with the alternates) or more than one, just changing at the beginning of rows.

No adjustments at all!

Bernat Super Saver in Wedgewood

Until Next Week!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Seven

For this square we are doing something a little different. This week is my daughter's 14th birthday! And in honor of that I made a square for both afghans that reflect one of her most favorite things: My Little Pony, specifically Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. Which looks like this:

http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/rainbow-dash-cutie-mark

I made a basic granny square out of blue-lucky enough my one color for my main afghan is very very close to the color blue that Rainbow Dash is. 

Then I made the cloud. I had to write my own pattern because I couldn't find one anywhere that 1-worked and 2-didn't charge an arm and a leg for (I understand you have to charge for your artistic ability but $9 for a pattern of a cloud that takes less than 5 minutes to make is ridiculous).

Here is the pattern:

Chain 10

Row 1-place a sc in 2nd chain from the hook and every chain there after (9 sc).

Row 2-Turn and make a sc in every stitch on the row

Row 3- Turn and make a sc in every stitch on the row

Now we are going to work in the round(which is different from a row in that you don't turn, you work continuously around)

Round 4- Turn, slip stitch in next stitch, in next stitch make 4 dc. Repeat that 3 more times. Slip stitch in last stitch, and turn the cloud on its side make 4 dc in the side of the cloud (try to aim  toward the middle row but it isn't a big deal if it doesn't land there). Turn again and make a sc in every stitch in the bottom of the chain. When you get to the end turn on it's side and make 4 dc in a stitch on the other side. Slip stitch into the first stitch on that round. 

Sew in ends and attach to your square.

For the lightening I just did basic embroidery. I am not very good at it LOL so I won't even attempt to tutorial it.

Since I just made two of these in the same colors, I will only share one picture this week.

Until Next Week!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Six

A little sunshine for your day:

Sunburst Granny Square by Rhonda Rowley

This is a very quick and easy square. The only adjustments are as follows:

As you begin round 2, make a chain 3 so the height and stitches are consistent. Because you are adding a chain, do one less DC since the chain counts as the first DC.

Do the same as you start Round 4, removing one DC from the cluster.

Round 5 you will do the same as above, removing the first dc from the set of 4 in the chain.

This was done with Vanna's Choice yarns in Goldfish and Aqua

Until Next Week!!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Five

It is getting to be that time of year where everything dies off and you don't get to see the pretty flowers anymore. So we will make our own!

Dahlia in a Square by Kinga E.

This square is made in 2 parts: the flower and then the square around it.

First adjustment is with the flower itself.: When you do Round 2, I found it is far easier to work subsequent rounds if you work Round 2 in the front loops only. Otherwise you will be struggling to get the stitches in.

The last round on the flower, I would suggest doing back loops instead of front loops for ease of the next round, which is the building of the square.

Also, I stopped at round 3 of the square for size.

Other than that it is fairly easy and straight forward and brings a lot of interest since it is a 3D square.

This was done in Caron Simply Soft in Soft Pink and Vanna's Choice in Heather Gray

Until Next Week!

Granny Square a Week-Week Forty Four

Happy Halloween! Hurray! I love Halloween and this week I have two squares, both in the Halloween theme, one I have been looking forward to sharing for a while.

The first one:

Spider Web Square by Dayna Audirsch

This is a very straight forward square, worked up easily. I stopped after Round 6 for size. It is very cute and practical for the afghan!

The second one is my own creation: I call it my Frankie Square! I just made a basic granny square with green and when I was working up my last round, I did one side and 2 corners in black, for hair then added eyes.

The eyes were made like this:
In white, make a magic circle or chain 4 and slip stitch in the 4th chain. Chain 1 and make 7 sc in the round. slip stitch to the first sc. Then work 2 sc in each sc around (you will have 14 at the end), slip stitch to the first sc.  Leave a long tail for sewing. There is the white of your eye!

In black, make magic circle or chain 4 and slip stitch in the 4th chain. Chain 1 and make 5 sc in the round. Slip stitch to the first sc. Leave a long tail for sewing. There is your pupil!

Sew the black to the white and then sew that to the green anywhere you want. I also added a scar above the eye, I just made long stitches with a piece of black yarn.

And here he is:

Done with Red Heart Super Saver in Honeydew, Vanna's Choice in Black and Bernat Super Saver in White

Until Next Week!!