Thursday 22 November 2012

Granny Squares and Children in Need


Last weekend Creative Days were invited to run some workshops in the Victoria Hotel in St Anne's for Children In Need. A good friend of mine Mel was organising the event and asked us to run some of our origami, hand casting and crocheting workshops for the kids and to do some face painting. I decided to make some Pudsey Bear brooches to sell too, they worked out pretty well and I managed to sell about 15 of them making £15 for a good cause. I wish I'd written the pattern down now but maybe in the future I'll sit down and try again. Nicci came along and we did a bit of crocheting while we were there. She's made tons of the water droplets for our fracking awareness campaign and they're all starched and ready to go. All we need now is the information tags to go with them and to get them out there to the people of St Anne's. Good times!

This week I got an invite from a local knitting and crochet group based in Blackpool (the Knittaz with Attitude) to make granny squares for a community project she has in mind. It's all a little hush hush at the moment which only intrigues me more so I decided to show the girls how to crochet the very simple granny square traditional pattern so we can get involved. I'd love to go to the group myself but without a car it's pretty difficult to get there, besides, I'm usually working when it's on which doesn't help. 


There's something very satisfying about making granny squares, just watching the thing grow and grow and grow so quickly gives a great sense of achievement. One of the first things I ever made was a granny square, indeed my inspiration to learn crocheting was from admiring the beautiful crochet blanket my Great Aunty Nelly made me when I was born. I'd always wanted to make one, just going round and round in loads of colours. A hand made blanket is something to treasure, I'm lucky enough to have three from three different women in my family, when they have become warn I've lovingly fixed them and darned them, they've seen so much of my life. One was for when I was born, one when my daughter was born (which I'll give to her if she has a child) and one for my 21st, they're all totally different and beautiful. I hope to keep them til I can pass them onto another generation, hopefully with the skills to make one of their own.

The first blanket I made I didn't realise you had to block your squares before sewing them together so the whole thing is a bit wavy and warped. I finished it off with a treble crochet border in the main colours.



SIMPLE GRANNY SQUARE

Using DK and a 4.5mm hook. English Instructions

Abbreviations. 
ss = slip stitch
dc = double crochet (english - sc US)
tr = treble crochet (dc US)

If you are using multiple colours just slip stitch your new colour into any space between shells. All round are joined the top of the 3ch at the beginning of each round with a slip stitch.

To start off
Chain 4 join with a ss to make a ring.

Round 1
Chain 3 (this counts as first treble in each round) 2tr into ring ch1, *3tr into ring ch1* repeat another 2 times until you have 4 shells made of three trebles each.

Round 2
Chain 3, 2tr into space, ch1, 3tr into SAME Space (you're creating the corners here), *3tr ch1 3tr into next space* repeat around.

Round 3 join in the space before the corner
ch3, 2tr into space, ch1, *3tr ch1 3tr into corner, 3 tr into next space* repeat around.

You'll need 4 rounds to make a 5" square.

To continue just remember to do *3tr ch1 3tr* into each corner and 3tr into the spaces along the edges,

The size that the Knittaz With Attitude group have asked for are 5" square. They need as many brightly coloured squares as possible by the 3rd December. I'll contact Catherine to see how we can get them to her. 


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