I actually worked on two more granny squares, but only one is complete. The first one has several appliques to attach and I grew quickly bored with stitching them on. Once it’s truly complete I’ll post about it. The second square, Floral Kaleidoscope Afghan Square, I finished this morning. My gauge was off a bit, I tend to crochet tightly (beginner’s curse), so I added additional rounds to reach the 12 inch size. Just a slight modification to the pattern, an extra round of double crochet in color C and a final round of single crochet in color D.

I like the design of this square. It included a stitch I hadn’t used before, puff stitch. The more I do these squares, the easier it is to see how to use the stitches to create different effects. I may not be too far off from designing my own squares.

Completed my fourth square today for the Blog Hop afghan. It was another pattern that began with a flower in the center and the rest of the square crocheted around it. Wildflower Granny Square #1 – this is the last pattern submitted for the crochet along by Rebecca from Little Monkeys Crochet blog.

The pattern itself was fun to do, though the color changes weren’t as smooth as I would have liked. I may have been better off doing a regular fasten off than trying the “invisible” color join. I’m also not entirely sold on the color choices I made for this square – it’s a bit pink to say the least. Maybe it’ll grow on me, but hopefully it will just blend in to the afghan when combined with the other squares.

I’ve purposely been avoiding the squares that have lots of color changes. I’ve quickly run out of those and my upcoming squares will vary more in color by row. The invisible color change technique will make those less painful to complete. I just need to figure out why the “old” color was bleeding in to the “new” color at the site of the color change.

In continuing with my theme of doing these squares a bit out of order, I went ahead and jumped to day #16 (which actually was just the previous day). The Meadow Square – this granny square involved a new technique that I had used before in other patterns, but for decreases, not pattern effects. Double crochet clusters that when completed in rows created a sort of top and bottom shell for a round effect in the rows of the granny square. I admittedly got a bit lazy when it came to finishing the border of this square. I initially intended to count the number of single crochets on the edges, to ensure they were uniform all around, but it was getting late and I wanted to finish the square before heading to bed.

All in all, even with the wonky edges, it turned out pretty nice and I should be able to “hide” the unevenness when I piece the afghan together.

Well, I was trying to create each square of the afghan in order of when they were released. The first one was relatively easy to complete and I was looking forward to the second, Aztec Stripes Square. I have started, unraveled and started again the square several times and there is something I’m not quite getting. The pattern seems so straight-forward I’m not sure what I am missing. Nevertheless, I went head and decided to skip to a different day – The Wildflower Granny Square No. 2 from day 17.

This pattern was a lot of fun to put together. The flower in the center is crocheted first, and the granny square itself is crocheted outwards from the back loops of the flower. This was my first time crocheting a flower. Not as complex as I expected. There are other floral-related granny squares in the CAL and they will hopefully be equally fun.

One of the crochet bloggers I follow posted about a Crochet-along where she contributed two patterns. Seemed like the perfect way to create a granny square afghan without the slight boredom of repeating the same square over and over again. Details on the Blog Hop here.

The finished afghan is comprised of 20 distinct granny squares – 2 each submitted by 10 crochet bloggers. Picked my colors yesterday; this Crochet-along was sponsored by Lion Brand yarn and I opted to use their Vanna’s Choice line. Looking over each of the 20 patterns, I figured I needed 4 main colors and 2 accent colors.

Last night I started the first square, Framed Hexagon, and managed to complete it this morning. Turned out pretty well – even considering that I had to undo 2 rounds to insert the one round I missed! I’m really liking the colors and I am looking forward to the next pattern.