Making Granny Squares...

So, do you remember those big 'ole colorful and usually stiff crochet creations from your childhood? One of my grandmother's had full size Granny Square afghan draped across her bed when I was a child. I remember wanting to cuddle up with it, until I touched it! LOL

Now that I've begun crocheting I've found myself fascinated with some of the creations I've seen over the years. I'm remembering things from people's homes, from the county fair, and from local markets. What color combinations they had in the 70's!

When I started on this bent of fiber arts I snatched up a book on Granny Squares called "The New Granny Square" by Susan Cottrell. The lovely photos and color combinations made me rethink the whole Granny Square phenomenon.

I've put off learning how to do the Granny Squares until I had a decent foundation on the basic crochet stitches - single, double, triple, and, of course, the chain! A few weeks ago I attempted to follow a pattern from one of my mom's old pattern booklets. It had me lost. I couldn't tell if the shells needed to be worked inside the hole of the square or woven into the yarn, as normal, and there was nothing in that book to clarify, either!

YouTube is fabulous! I love that you can go there and watch someone do it, in person. That way you get to watch their motions & see details that aren't always clear in a book.

This lady offers a whole collection of how-to crochet videos. I picked the 2 that give the construction of two rows of shells. If you need the beginning video of how to make the chain & join it, it is available.

Lesson 2 - 1st row



Lesson 3 - 2nd row

I'm glad I waited until I had a small foundation, otherwise I might have been confused due to the quickness of her motions and quality of the video. Now that I have a decent base on which to begin I think I'll tackle a Granny Square project soon. (Right after I finish the 12 projects ahead of this!)