Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Seven

Easter Day square by Donna Mason-Svara

I did my square as the photo walkthrough so my centre is also rotated 90 degrees as to how the pattern was, *Kio followed the pattern dutifully so her cross is a cross and not an X. Regardless I think both looks good, although the cross might make it more Easter-y than an X.

The rest of the pattern was super simple and I enjoyed making it. I think the greens and darker purple work together quite well with the blue and the receptiveness of the pattern.

With the lighter purple coming again between the darker ones it makes it easier to spot the X.

29 grams and 21 x 21 cm

*Kio's square.

It seems this square is out at sea and I can see the waves crashing upon the shore with the colour palette here. I like it.

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Six

May Pole by Shan Sevcik

I adore this square and I adore it's techniques, it was clever fun and I love the colours I chose for this square, I wish we had more of that soft lilac but I think we only had one ball of that colour each.

I love how the spirals are done, quite clever.

It was a time consuming square and I had to read the instructions very carefully but I do think it was worth it. This is another square I might make as a potholder, perhaps those poles would look good red with a with background and they would resemble candy canes for Christmas? Or am I just more in a Christmas mood than a May-mood?

34 grams and 21x21 cm.

*Kio's square

 I love how pale *Kio's square is, and I can't quite decide which of our colours schemes are the best, but I do think they are both good and that they look very attractive together.

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Five

Frostbloom by Shan Sevcik 

In the cal this block is block 36 since we never made block 32 the Crocodile Flower by Joyce Lewis because this is one of the blocks that were not free anymore. I have always wanted to try the Crocodile stitch but since there were so few days left until we had to give the blanket away I felt that I didn't have time for a whole new technique. But that block looks stunning.

But this post is about Frostbloom and we did learn a new technique in this one too, although it was not quite so daunting since the new technique was only in the ruffle and seemed doable.

Frostbloom was squarely easy and straightforward up until row 16 which is the ruffle part, it looks very complicated and while I was doing it I felt that there surely had to be more to it, but it is all sc into the front loops only leftover from another round.

And the petals were also added in the end which made it a lot simpler.

So, this is a square that looks complicated but is very easy, just stick with it!

*Kio´s square, I adore her colours, not that I don´t like mine too, it is just her colours really suit the name of the square, these colours look like a frostbloom on a lake somewhere. Dainty and fragile whereas my colours area bit more screaming, but maybe my square got a frostbite...

Sorry about the post being late, I have been very busy helping out at my mothers place this past week, but we are almost done clearing out clutter, but better late than never. Also I am busy with Gacha Stitches and something fun for next year...

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Four

Peppermint Mocha Frappe by Donna Maso-Svara

I adore this square, at first I changed colours on the second row of the hearts but thought it near impossible to see that they were supposed to be hearts then so I ripped it out and did the heart all in one colour and I love the effect of it.

This is I think one of my favourite squares in this whole blanket. I want to make a whole blanket using just this square. Or another blanket with just the heart squares.

Love those hearts!

29 grams and 21x21 cm, this square were one of the faster ones to crochet.

Into this square we made clusters and small picots in between regular dc-stitches which is the last medium turquoise row, and I sort of think those too look like hearts. I opted to stitch trough my picots to attach them, and I think *Kio chose not to. Either way looks good, I just thought less things to stick up would mean less chance of something getting entangled into the blanket later...

We used a variations of the heart rows from this square when making the border around the blanket.

*Kio's square.

I Love her colours, her square looks so crisp and clear and inviting.

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Three

Embracing Variety by Aurora Suominen 

I loved the start on this, so much fun. It was good I was working from the photo guide from lookwhatimade because then I found out that this piece curled into a bowl around row five but that it straightened itself out later. If I had not known that I might have given up after frogging several times and finding a bowl shaped square again and again, so that was good. Now that I have made several squares and they always turn out square after blocking so I would probably not worry as much.

My popcorns on this actually look good.

and looking back I think ending the square after row eight might look good if you want a smaller square with less popcorns. Row eight is where my last dark purple row is.

I like both mine and *Kio's versions of this actually, might be because my popcorns look good and that with blocking this square stays perfectly square.

29 grams and 21x21 cm and it didn't take me too long to make this square so perhaps three hours up to the popcorn row?

*Kio's square

Look how her popcorns pop, I know why they are called popcorns. (or bubble-stitch, but I think popcorn is more descriptive)

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-Two

This weeks Wedding Wednesday comes a bit later than usual because little bunny is sick, he is much better now (Friday) but Wednesday was rough.

Flower Burst Square by Chris Simon

Another easy square, but still it does not look too easy, it looks interesting and there are several stitches which makes it more fun to do, but still this pattern is well written and there are no weird parts of the pattern just to make it fit like a few of the other squares.

I do like that after row three it seems like a solid row and then on row four you add sc into the chains and suddenly the circle is not quite so dense.

Love the green and blue on this and the purple in the middle seems to fit, it does seem like a flower burst now.

*Kio's square.

I love her colours, she has used a lot of white in this and it looks good, mine seem a bit squashed in the last picture but I think that is only because it is not completely flat. *Kio is very good at blocking and I think she blocked her squares a lot more than I did so her squares are a bit more square than mine, so I feel inspired and will do my best at blocking from here on.

Other than that, I love *Kio's colours.

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-One

We are getting closer to the end, this pattern is another one that is no longer available for free, but as with Firenze I made it anyway following the photo tutorial here since I really liked the pattern and wanted the wedding blanket have something that would bind the flower and sea motifs together with a lovely waterlily.

Waterlily by Julie Yeager

I love waterlilies, when I was younger my grandparents cabin had a small lake where we used to row a lot, and I remember the waterlilies and it fascinated me how long their stems were, they seemed to go on forever...

Me and my mother out rowing on the lake one summer, I was allowed to row the smaller boat out by myself but I didn't have a photo of that nearby so you get this little gem. I loved rowing and today Miss Evi and I went to the gym and I did some rowing there and I had a lot of fun but there were no waterlilies there.

Mimle for size comparison, both bunnies were super interested in the blanket and had their opinion about where the squares should be placed, obviously we didn't listen XD

It does look like a waterlily don't you think? And I could not resist using the dark green to make a leaf and some purple and white for the flower on top of the turquoise water.

I want to go rowing again, I wish I had a lake to do so in, and a boat.

 Waterlily had a lot of interesting stitches and I had to keep my tongue in check whilst reading the walkthrough, I have no idea how well the pattern is written, but I had to frog this a couple of times and start over, I might have fudged some parts but I was adamant to finish this as I loved it so, since this pattern is no longer free it is on my to-buy-list, I just have to wait a little longer as we spent rather a lot in Japan XD

The wedding blanket finished, can you spot the waterlily?

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Six

                                             Firenze Square by Julie Yeager

This square is no longer free, which is why *Kio made it, since I started crocheting just by looking at the walkthrough I didn't notice it until I was almost finished. 

I Love this square, I am planning to make a dozen as potholders since they seem perfect for that and so I will buy the pattern later. I don't know how the pattern is written, but the walkthrough makes it look very simple and enjoyable. I love the purples here with the soft green. I made mine with a sort of gradual colour progression makes the square pop.

 I love this square.

As always 21x21 cm, ca 30 grams and four hours of fun. And I didn't even have to frog anything.

I love the front post treble crochet that goes into the middle, it gives the square some nice texturing,

 I think the Firenze square looks like a butterfly.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Five

Addie Square by Melissa Green

I Love this square, super fast and super fun. I mean there are both cluster stitches and spike stitches what is not to love. It is dense and lovely and would even suit a potholder I think, I love this square but I already said that.

21x21 cm again and a little under four hours to make and possibly around 30 grams.

*Kio's square. This time I love both squares just as much and it makes me think a whole blanket in this pattern but in different colours would be smashing. This pattern makes me think of candy somehow.

And we are in Japan, Yay. I want to buy everything! And this weekend is the concert.

So this is a short post even though I wrote it beforehand.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Four

Grandma's Heart by Carola Wijma

Since this was a wedding blanket I was happy there were so many heart squares and not just flowers although flowers are a big part in most weddings and love relationships too, but it fitted.

This was the most visible out of all the hearts some were very subtle. I did a post with all the hearts here if you would like to see the lovely blanket. We also added some filet-crochet heart squares which I will talk about after all the other squares have been talked about. ^^

But here goes, the Grandma's heart square. I am guessing it is called grandma's heart since the center is a heart and there are grandma stitches around that? The grandma square rows were really easy and made fast progress. There are popcorn stitches in this square too and in this one I think my popcorns were ok, *Kio's still popped more so maybe my popcorns were taken out of the microwave too soon?

At around row 4 the picot stitches are added but the walkthrough suggested waiting until row 5 was finished and I did, somehow I added my picots wrong the first time so it was a square and it bothered me so much I had to go back and fix it even though I had done the entire square AND sewed in the ends. So now the picot row is in a neat little heart shape.

This is another one of those squares that I think would look good as a blanket with many of these together and I am sure I could make twenty something of these without getting tired. Perhaps with some regular granny squares?

*Kio's square, the fun thing about *Kio and my square is that even though we have different colours we have pretty much changed colours at around the same places, her popcorn and picot rounds are the same colour and mine too. I do like her colour combo better, but I think maybe it is because of my dark purple, it seems that colour is hard to make look good...

21x21cm and 31 grams,

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Three

See how they run by Margaret MacInnis

I Love this square, it has spike stitches, enough said. In fact this blanket was when I first learned spike-stitches and I loved them so much *Kio and I used them in our decorative bunting pattern Søtten which you can find for free here. 

Look at those pretty spike-stitches.

I love the walkthrough because as before it calms me down when it tells me that the square will curl on round 11 but will straighten itself out eventually. Usually when my crochet curls I frog it and start over, again and again, so this saved me a lot of time.

See how they run weighed 32 grams and 21x21 cm after my added rows, so it is much bigger than the squares in the original cal, but we needed a bigger blanket. And all that grey really helped calm the blanket down and made crocheting them together a lot easier too.

*Kio's square.

I think her square are busier than mine, not that that is a bad thing, her square sort of feels electric, with the colours and the spike stitches I feel like it is alive and might jump around like Flubber any minute. I love her purple with the ice turquoise. But I do love my dark and middle blue together, I used that combination so much I ran out of middle blue quite early so I had to buy more.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Two

Crown Jewels by Melinda Miller

Now this square was hard! Firstly I am not very good at popcorn stitches, and for some reason my rounded shaped dark purple round just did not want to become round! And then there was those palm-like green things, I tried and I tried and had almost given up, I had to start another square just so I would feel like there was progress because the deadline seemed to be looming, then *Kio had to come to my rescue, and she helped me quite a bit. I have no idea why this square was so hard, the pattern wasn't har d to read, the walkthrough was good with pictures and all, but it just wouldn't click. Still I am not sure what I did, but I muddled my way through, and I did the same spacing as the walkthrough suggested in that row and not as the pattern stated because it would be more symmetrical then.

This might be the one square I would not recommend anyone to do, sure it looks good, I like how the palm-like green row looks now that I have the whole ordeal a little behind me, but I can tell you this is one square I did not like making and felt looked horrible after. Now though I think it looks fine, a bit wonky and I am not sure about that dark purple, and I wish I could do popcorn stitches, but hey, it is finished and I did it! And it only took me a little over a week and several froggings, yes, several, all in all I might have made this square ten times or so;) It was a good thing I did some on another square too I think or I might have become too discouraged to finish.

21x21 cm and 31 grams.

*Kio's square. I adore her colour choices and I wish I had grouped that purple/blue more with the dark purple, it looks smashing, and that thin dark purple line almost at the end looks superb.

I think maybe I need to have *Kio teach me how she does popcorns because hers look stellar just like in the patten. Whilst my square resembles more a boat wreck *Kio has mastered a mermaid like feel in her square, The dark popcorn row looks like that fish that makes nice round patterns at the sea floor to attract a mate....

Btw, sorry these wedding blanket updates have been a bit slow, I will try to do better, but I am not making any promises because then I will surely forget again. Hehe.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-One

Winter Dream by April Moreland

Here we got to practice our Magic Ring which i am rubbish at, and clusters and you could do a standing Dc and Sc or a regular one. Clusters are fun I think, the standing stitches are a bit more confusing, *Kio really liked them and have started using them instead of chain three as the first stitch sometimes, I need more practice;)

It was very useful in the walkthrough that Dedri tells us that at round 3 your work will curl up into a bowl but that it will straighten itself out later.

I love round eight, it was so much fun making the chain three skip two, sc in next that round sort of just whizzed past.

21x21 cm and 31 grams and four hours again since I didn't do any frogging.

*Kio's square.

I love how she made all those soft blue/purple tones the main colour and used them for so many rows, I think my row 4 in medium blue stands out too much and minimises the small star shape in the middle that I love.

Colourfull Maybelle show and tell

I am steadily making more flowers and my flowers have doubled, think I can triple them before I focus on something else? As I said I will work on this project during May so not much time left then.

But I do adore the colours, it is a feast for the eyes! I am hoping Søstrene Grene adds a perfect colour to crochet the flowers into squares... At the moment I am crocheting one skein to see how many flowers that will yield so I will get a feel to how big this project will be, so far I have seven flowers in middle pink but there is still plenty yarn left. 

A-Z challenge G

G is for granny

Crochet might be thought of as granny-ish by some, but it is in the wind like never before and there are more and more stylish, wonderful and fun designs. Yarn has vastly improved since your granny's time and honestly the good old granny stitch is fashionable.

But let me show you some granny stitches, because granny stitch is 

not just for grannies and it is not just the classic granny square.

This is a granny square, a really big one I made in alpaca.

(yes, it is the one I frogged yesterday)

Here is the granny stripe pattern.

Here is the granny ripple stitch

Grannies are very in style at the moment, the colours you choose help define the project as either retro or modern.

I wanted to show you what you can make with this very versatile stitch.

A good old stash buster granny square blanket.

Granny Tree ornaments

Granny square baby jacket (no pattern)

Granny square top by Maria valles

Granny mitts

Granny stripe poncho

Shoulder piece with picot edges by Drops design

Granny square dress

Also you can get the granny square as circles or hexagons and with many different designs on the square.

Flower in granny square

Sunburst Flower granny square 

As you can see the granny is delicate, sturdy, classic and versatile and lots of fun!

Which granny style do you like?