A Granny A Day

161/365 - Raspberry Medallion Square

Pattern: Raspberry Medallion Square by Sally Ives

Hook used: H

Yarn Used: Hobby Lobby's I Love this Yarn in  Grey Beard, Hot Rose, Ivory, Old Leaf, and Peacock.

Finished size: 8"

I had issues with this pattern, but I think it was just general exhaustion and not paying attention. It's not that hard. I really like the texture this pattern creates. 

Well I looked and I have 12 more squares to make for this blanket! Exciting right?! 

And since this is the last day of the month, I have a calendar view of this month's grannies.

A Square A Day in May Blanket #2

These baby blankets are just big enough that I can't get a good full on photo of them. That's it, I need a wide angle lens. haha I like to justify incredibly big purchases with silly reasons. 

To finish off this blanket I learned another new joining method! I used the flat braid joining technique with this one. While it's a little more time consuming than the zig zag chain method I used on the other blanket, it is way prettier! I can't recommend it enough for baby blankets. Do you all know of any other cool joining methods? I will never sew squares together ever again!

I finished it off with a couple of rounds of two dc clusters and a shell stitch edging. 

Want to see what everyone else participating in A Square a Day in May did  with their squares? You can see all the finished ones here.  A lot of people are still finishing up their blankets so it will be updated as everyone finishes. 

A Square A Day in May Blanket #1

It was soo difficult to get a full photo of this one so forgive the light coming through the fence. 

I learned a new joining method for this blanket! It's probably one of the easiest methods I've ever used before. I was browsing Ravelry for joining methods and coming up empty so I just started looking for full blanket patterns so I could see what joinging method they used. When I saw this one from DROPS, I knew I had to learn it. It even has a chart and a video. 

For the border, I did a single crochet all the way around, then a double crochet-chain-skip the next space around. Then I did a simple little edging that my old boss taught me. It's super easy! You just do a double crochet in one stitch then a slip stitch in the next stitch and repeat that around. It makes a pretty little finished edge. 

One thing I like to do when I'm giving crocheted items as gifts is to use the same yarn to wrap the present. It gives a little hint to what's inside. Sometimes I make a little pom pom, but this time I just wrapped it up with a bow. 

This is pretty big for a baby blanket, in fact, while I was doing the edging, I thought this size (4' x 4') would be great for a lap blanket. 

130/365 - Kaleidoscope Blossom Square

Pattern: Kaleidoscope Blossom Square by Chris Simon

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Soft Pink, Old Rose, Sea Blue, and Sungold.

The last square for the  Square a Day in May.

Another great one! I'm a little sad that this is the last square for the crochet-along :( but I'm kind of happy that the 12" squares are almost done.  I'm using 16  squares for each one so I have a couple more to finish it out. 

I started connecting the other blanket last night, with Dewey's help. 

I can't wait to show you the finished product! It is sooo cute!!

129/365 - Yarn Clouds Square

Pattern: Yarn Clouds Square by Amelia Beebe

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Sea Blue, Periwinkle, Old Rose, Sungold, and Soft Pink.

29th square for the  Square a Day in May.

I love everything about this square! I would love to make a full afghan out of this one. 

128/365 - Peace Sign Granny Square

Pattern: Peace Sign Granny Square by JudyK

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Limelight and Brown

28th square for the  Square a Day in May. 

I'm not a fan of peace signs. I LOVED them when I was 10 so I guess I think of them as juvenile now.  Besides that fact, this was a pretty great pattern for practicing color changes and fairly technically difficult. I really should have used an I hook, in fact, I'm realizing I should probably be using an I hook instead of an H for most of these squares. Oh well, they're still working out. 

127/365 - Granny's More Complex Star

Pattern: Granny's More Complex Square by Jacqui Goulbourn

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Turquoise, Gray Mist, Limelight, and Burnt Pumpkin.

27th square for the  Square a Day in May. 

I liked this one until I blocked it. It looks a little too stretched out now. I've been trying to keep all of the squares to 39 stitches on each side for ease in connecting them and this one was just a little on the small side so I had to stretch the heck out of it. I'm sure I'm just over-analyzing how it looks. The pattern is great though. Jacqui has a way of making really difficult looking sqaures pretty easy to make. this was definitely one of the most difficult I've made of her pattern's though, and it really wasn't that bad.

I'm going to start connecting these over the weekend! I'll share progress as I go through instagram most likely.

126/365 - Blooming Lace

Pattern: Blooming Lace by Melinda Miller

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Periwinkle, Soft Pink,  and Sungold.

26th square for the  Square a Day in May. 

Another great one from Melinda Miller. I pretty much love everything about this one :) 

I can't believe this month is almost over! I need to start connecting these squares. I've been looking at my options and I have a couple I'm going to try out. I'm excited for new techniques! 

125/365 - Birthday Flower Square

Pattern: Birthday Flower Square by Chris Simon

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Limelight, Brown, and Yellow.

25th square for the  Square a Day in May. 

I really love this pattern! I think my favorite part about this sqaure is that Chris breaks down all of the color changes and shows you which row to change colors on to give the square a different look. You can do it all in one color, bring out the star or bring out the flower. I chose to go with making the star stand out.  I probably could have flattened out the sides of this one a little more, but it will be fine once it's connected to the other squares in the blanket.

I've gotten a few comments that lead me to believe that some people think these patterns are mine. I think it's a language barrier type issue, but just to clear it up a little; every square has a link to the original pattern or its ravelry page and the designer listed. I haven't designed any of these granny squares except for the Dear Valentine square.

124/365 - Bright and Cheery Square

Pattern: Bright and Cheery by Dayna Audirsch

Hook used: H

Colors Used: I love this yarn's Sungold, Sea Blue, Soft Pink, and Old Rose.

24th square for the  Square a Day in May. 

I worked on this as we were driving home yesterday and I had to stop on the 7th round. It just didn't make sense at all! So I put it away until we got home so I could search around to see if it was just me or if there really was an issue with the pattern. Many people on Ravelry had the same problem. So I just figured it out as I went. Here's my round 7: dc2 tr2 dc2 in corners, dc in next stitch, cross stitch over next two stitches. (Ch1 skip two stitches, cross stitch) 5 times. dc in next stitch, Then repeat around.

Besides the problem with round 7, this square is great. It's very pretty and technically appealing.

I'm so glad we have ravelry to refer to! It's such a great resource and if you don't have an account there, you should. I feel like such a librarian when I go on and on about it (I even told people in library school about it's awesomeness), but it's such a great database. I wish it could be expanded to other crafts as well.