Granny Square Sampler – Week 2

(To improve my crocheting skills, I am doing Wise Craft’s summer-long Granny Square Sampler Afghan A-long. Each Thursday I’ll be sharing my progress.)

This week we had to make 10 – 14 squares for our afghan, 10 to 14! They are only 3 rounds each, but it did take me a good five hours or so to get them done.

As I mentioned last week, I had decided all my squares would have white in the middle and on the outside. Well, that wasn’t going to work for this assignment. These squares are 3 rounds. If I did white in the center and white on the edge I would only have a splash of color in the whole thing. I’d have some pretty boring squares.

Blair offered: “Design tip- IF (and only if) you have designated one of your yarn colors as a ground color (one you’ll be using more of), make sure at least 4 of these squares have this color as the 3rd round. For example, I’d like a lot of cream in my afghan, so I would make a some of these with cream as the 3rd round.”

I went a step further and made half the squares with white on the outside and half with white in the middle.

Here are all the squares to date. I’m really happy with my color scheme, it’s bright and cheerful.

Let’s talk gauge. I totally understand gauge in knitting, what it effects it, how to measure it and how to correct it in knitting. In crochet, not so much. Blair said the only gauge concern we had to worry about for this project was to make sure it is consistent. Well, my first two of this week’s squares had me worried right away.

Look at that difference in size! At first I was worried the problem was the yarns. Because I am using lots of stash yarns for this project they are all different brands. Even though they all claim to be worsted weight, some seem much thicker than others. Yikes, was I going to have to start over with all the same brand? I out those first two squares aside and tried again another day. This time every square came out exactly the same size as the bigger square no matter which yarns I used. The I realized I made the small one outside on a cold, rainy day. The dampness kept the yarn from sliding easily on my fingers and I really struggled. This must have made me knot it much tighter. Thank goodness that was it.

I think I have these basic squares down. I’m interested to see what tomorrow’s challenge holds for us.