Circle Centred Crochet Granny Square :: A Pattern ::

As I've been working on my crochet granny square blanket, as part of my series on how to design your own granny square blanket, I've got this particular granny square well committed to memory now! My heart centred granny square pattern is one of my most popular blog posts, so I thought you may like the pattern for this square too.

The main square has 4 rounds and I've been finishing all of mine off with a round of regular granny square in white and joining them as I go, more on this soon. It's a nice, simple square, that looks classically granny, but with a little bit of a twist on the traditional square.

Baby Blankets ::

Exactly how many homemade blankets a baby needs, I'm not entirely sure, but with the few I have kept from when Milo was a baby and the 3 I've already started for the new baby, I'm fairly sure I'll have more than enough!

When I say the, '3 I've already started' I mean just that, they're no where near finished yet.  I don't have a great track record of finishing blankets, so we'll see how this goes.

However these are the baby blankets I currently have in progress ::

A colourful heart granny square blanket.  I'm using DMC petra in a range of lovely bright colours and the pattern I wrote for a heart granny square many moons ago.  I've actually reworked this a little and will be updating the original pattern shortly, to what I feel is a better version.  I'm going to finish each block with white, joining the squares as I go.  I'm only about halfway through the squares and they need a bit of blocking, but I'm really pleased with how it's going so far.

Second up is a basic granny square, using Rowan Felted Tweed DK and I just plan to keep going until I run out of yarn, which will be soon I think.  This was the first one I started, way back when I first found out I was pregnant and needed something simple to work on.

And lastly, I started this on Saturday. A simple knitted chevron blanket, pattern from the purl bee.  We were off to the cinema to watch Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy (pretty dire in my humble opinion but kept the boy entertained) and I really needed something simple I didn't need to look at to keep me occupied.  After a quick search of ravelry this came up and thought it looked perfect.  I'm using Red Heart with Love, I'm hoping I might be able to dye it on completion, I'm thinking some kind of ombre effect, using Kool Aid, but as it's 100% acrylic this might not be possible.  I'll do a test at some point to see.

Now it just remains to be seen if I ever actually finish any of them!

Crochet Granny Bunting :: A Pattern ::

Many moons ago I wrote my first ever crochet pattern, a series of simple crochet triangles strung together to create some bunting.  The original bunting still hangs in my garden, looking much more 'antique' than it did back then, in all it's faded glory, but I still love it and admire it everytime I head outside.  We're currently having a bit of shuffle about in our house, swapping rooms around, freshening things up and doing a little redecorating.  As I headed out the door to Craft Night on Wednesday with literally nothing on my knitting needles to take along, I grabbed a handful of blue yarns and decided to whip up a string of bunting for Milo's new bedroom makeover. At that moment he was adamant he wanted a blue bedroom, though this has since changed, of course.

This pattern is so quick and simple, I made the entire length of bunting here over the space of 2.5 hours whilst chatting with friends and consuming cake.

If you fancy having a go at making your own version you can head on over to the original post to see the pattern.  For this version I made each triangle in a single colour, but I was so undecided! I really love the original with lots of different colours, maybe I could make some more for the baby, before she can dictate colour choices for me!

4KCBWDAY5 something a bit different ::

Day 5 of knitting and crochet blog week and something very different for me.

Very much an amateur attempt, but not too bad for a first go, plus I certainly learnt a lot, if I ever fancied having another go ::

yet another blanket ::

as I mentioned on Monday, despite already having 3 crochet blankets in progress at the moment, I decided to take on yet another!

Hexagons this time, as requested by the mr.

I'm afraid I don't have a pattern link for this, as I sort of made it up myself from a photo provided to me by said mr.

I'm using a variety of acrylic yarns I already had, in some fantastically bright colours!

I initially thought I'd run this alongside my leap year blanket, doing a square for each everyday, but to be honest, I'm starting to think that the leap year blanket is going to be huge! As much I love the idea of a huge granny blanket, I expect realistically I only really have room for one of these in my life, so I'm thinking the hexagon will be more ideally suited as a lap blanket or maybe a single blanket for the boy's bedroom. This is assuming of course it doesn't just find it's way to the pile of incomplete projects!

work in progress :: navy afghan ::

I've recently been going through my huge stash of yarn and in the process coming across all sorts of uncompleted projects.  I don't think this is any great surprise to fellow crafters, it's something I think we're all pretty good at (there was a woman at the craft night I used to attend who had a cardigan she had been knitting for 20 years, when she came in wearing the finished garment, the whole group burst in to applause) but I do think I'm probably particularly good at abandoning projects somewhere just past the middle.  So in an effort to inspire me to finish them, I thought it a good idea to put them in my ravelry notebook (a lot of these were started long before I joined ravelry!) and blog about them here, therefore making them more obvious to me than when they are hidden inside a big old box of yarn!

So here goes, here is the first!

The first ever granny blanket I started making, possibly the first ever granny square I made, and certainly the first project I purposely went out to choose yarn for.  The original pattern and idea came from Erika Knights 'Simple Crochet', which was also the first crochet book I owned.

It's not even like there is an awful lot left to do on this poor neglected blanket!  All I need to do is edge a few of the squares in the navy and then put them all together.  At some point I've even weaved in all of the ends.

Really there is no excuse for this pure neglect!  I now even have a little boy who's bed will be perfect for a snuggly blue granny blanket like this, it's very strange to think how much my life has changed since I started it!

finding inspiration :: blankets ::

I was up crazy early this morning and I found myself snuggled up on the sofa, browsing flickr and dreaming of hooking up some lovely blankets.

Click on the photo's to find yourself at the flickr page of the creators of these beauties.

crochet a rainbow ::

I came across Sarah London's blog and this post in particular whilst reading meet me at mikes, she is calling for donations of crocheted granny squares, which will become fabulous handmade blankets to be gifted to those who have been affected by the Australian floods.

In her words ::

I’m asking for donations of granny squares which I will then make up into blankets to be distributed to those affected throughout Queensland and Victoria, providing comfort and colour and as a reminder that there is always a rainbow after a storm.

I think this is such a fabulous idea and very good excuse to hook up some colourful granny squares and a perfect project for craft night in this coming wednesday.

heart granny square ::

 With valentines on my mind the last few weeks, I have been working on lots of hearts.  After searching about a bit, I couldn't see any granny squares which incorporated a heart that I liked.  After a few failed attempts and a bit of patience, I came up with my own.



I have been working lots of these lovey squares in order to make a cushion, which I hope to share with you soon, but whilst I continue to work away on that, I thought I would share with you the pattern for the granny square alone.



This is only the second pattern/tutorial for crochet (the other being my granny bunting) that I have ever shared, so if you do have a go at making some for yourself, I would love to hear any feedback you may have.



The pattern in all it's glory is here, have fun! xx

heart granny square :: a pattern ::

Please note this pattern is written here in english crochet terms,  which differ from american crochet terms, there is a fabulous table here which gives translations of all the stitches I've use here.

ingredients ::

3 x contrasting balls of double knit weight yarn.

    I used stylecraft special double knit 100% acrylic in cream (A) pale rose (B) and raspberry (C)

4 mm crochet hook

Abbreviations ::

ch        -    chain

ss        -    slip stitch

dc        -    double crochet

htr      -    half treble

tr         -    treble

dtr      -    double treble  

method ::

using yarn A chain 4 join with ss

 

round 1 :: 

chain 3 (counts as first treble) 2 tr in to middle of ring, *2ch 3 tr, repeat from * a further 2 times, 2 chain, join to top of first chain with a ss.


round 2 ::

ss across 2 trebles and ss in to next 2 chain space, chain 3, counts as first treble, 4 tr in to 2 chain space, 1 ch, 3 tr 2ch 3tr in to next 2 chain space (this will be the bottom tip of the heart), 1 ch, 5 tr in to next 2 chain space, 4 ch, 5 tr in to next 3 chain space, 4 chain, join to top of first treble with ss.


 round 3 ::

chain 1, dc in top of next 4 trebles, dc in to 1 chain space, dc in top of next 3 trebles, 3dc 2ch 3dc in to 2 chain space (this is the bottom tip of the heart) dc in top of next 3 trebles, dc in 1 chain space, dc in top of next 5 trebles, 2 htr 2 tr 2 dtr 2 tr 2 htr in next 4 chain space, ss in top of third treble, 2 htr 2 tr 2 dtr 2 tr 2 htr in next 4 chain space, join to first double with ss.

Fasten off.


round 4 ::


join yarn B between the 2 double trebles at top right of heart, chain 3 (counts as first treble) 2tr 2ch 3tr in to space between 2 double trebles, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3dtr in to third space along, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3tr 2ch 3tr in to space between 2dtr from previous round, 1ch, 3dc in to third space along, 1ch, 3htr in to third space along, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3dtr 2ch 3dtr in to third space along, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3dc in to 2 chain space at bottom of heart, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3dtr 2ch 3dtr in to third space along, 1ch, 3tr in to third space along, 1ch, 3htr in to third space along, 1ch, 3dc in to third chain along, 1ch, join with ss to first treble.


round 5 ::

 4 ch (counts as first treble and 1 chain space), *3tr 2ch 3tr in to 2 chain space, 1ch, 3tr 1ch in to each of next 1 chain spaces, of which there should be 4, repeat from * twice more, 3tr 2ch 3tr in to 2 chain space, 1ch 3tr in to next three 1 chain spaces, 1ch, 2tr in to next 1 chain space join to third chain of original 4 chain.


Fasten off.

round 6 ::


Join yarn C in to 2 chain corner space, 3ch (counts as first treble) 2tr 2ch 3tr in to 2 chain corner space, 1ch 3tr in to each of next 1 chain spaces, of which there should be 5, * 1ch 3tr 2ch 3tr in to 2 chain space, 1ch 3tr in to each of next 1 chain spaces, of which there should be 5, repeat from *  twice more, 1ch, join to top of first treble with a ss.

Fasten off.


Weave in any loose ends and admire your handy work!