Hello my creative friends!

Honesty Corner: Since moving to a new state just before the unforeseen Panini shut the globe down, it’s been difficult to create and get involved with the local crafting community, and because I really don’t know where to look here in Greeley, CO. So, I thought that it would be fun to build a yarn and crafts community here on the website by trying out a blog-a-long.

A blog-a-long, do tell?!

I have been wondering what to do with all my weird amounts of sock yarn remnants lately and I thought it would be fun to create a Scrappy Granny Square Blog-a-long. As a sock yarn obsessed knitter and crocheter, it’s hard to give away or use my scraps in a unfulfilling project. A since I feel like and am always late to the summer sock trend, I thought of a fun idea!

Ready…

To challenge ourselves, week we make 9 crochet granny square blocks using our sock yarn scraps. At least one granny square everyday. And to make it more fun and scrappy looking, randomly pick the yarn that one square will be made with in that moment. But if you are a planner, you could make as many squares as you can get out of a remnant and plan your final project out.

I know for sure that I will be creating a scrappy granny square blanket with my remnants, and probably connecting the rows together every week into a 3x3 block. I am not sure which connecting method I am going to use yet; it’s either going to be slip stitched together or granny square stitched together.

While we were camping this past week, of course I had to take my sock yarn scraps with me and try out what my brain was planning.

I went through the night before our quick camping trip and re-caked some of my leftovers, and hand balled the smaller remnants.

In the next succession of photos are all the first pulls of colors for the granny squares, and I crocheted them all in the order of which the photos show.

The Gold Camp Cafe in Cripple Creek, CO is phenomenal! It was our first time visiting this town and needed an energy boost. Charlie loved their Grilled Ham and Swiss Panini, and I ate their Blackberry Cheese Danish and it was so delicious! 10/10 will be going back when we revisit Cripple Creek.

Made a granny square with a remnant of my hank of ‘Shimmer’ while riding and enjoying my first ever train ride on the Cripple Creek Railroad, and learning about the mining history in the area.

Tried to make a granny square by the camp fire before the sun went down, but s’mores became a priority soon after this photo.

However, I did make a lot of progress on the first day of driving over to our campsite and touring around for that day. Nest step, is to start hiding my ends, because I would rather not torture myself at the end of making all of these granny squares.

And I am sure that some of you are wondering… “Were do I get a pattern? What size are the squares?… I need more deets!”

Okay, so here is the simple patterns and information:

Supplies:

-Size F/3.75 mm crochet hook

-Sock yarn scraps/remnants

-Darning needle

-Scissors or snips

-Optional: a fingering weight yarn that you would like to use to connect all of the blocks together with to have one consistent element, and create a fun aesthetic. I may do this with one of my larger cakes of yarn and dye up more later.

Stitch Key:

-Chain (ch)

-Slip Stitch (sl st)

-Stitch or Stitches (st/ sts)

-Double crochet (dc)

-Space (sp)

Granny Square Instrustions:

Begin by creating a magic ring, and ch 3.

Rnd 1: make 2 dc into center of ring, (ch 2, make 3 dc into center of ring) x 3, ch 2 and sl st into top of beginning ch 3 to close the round.

Rnd 2: Ch 3, make 2 dc into previous corner sp, (ch 1, then make (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc) in corner space) x3. Then ch 1, make 3 dc in final corner space, ch 2 and sl st in the top of the beginning ch 3 to close the round.

Rnd: Ch 3, make 2 dc into previous corner sp, (ch 1, make 3 dc into next ch 1 sp, ch 1, then (3 dc, ch 2, 3dc) in next corner sp) x3. Next, ch 1, make 3 dc in next ch 1 sp, ch 1, and make 3 dc in final corner sp, ch 2, and sl st into the top of the beginning ch 3 to close the round.

Keep repeating Round 3, and simply make 3 dc in each ch 1 sp along the sides of the square. Then for the size, I made 6 rows in my granny square and pre-blocked, they are measuring at 4.5”/ 11cm. I am also thinking of just steam blocking my squares as I go along, and do a normal wet blocking at the end of the project.

Now for a time line…

I was maybe thinking of either doing this for 6-12 months, it really depends on how many sock yarn scraps one has. But I would love to hear on social media or in the comment section on who wants to join the blog-a-long and make scrappy granny squares with me?! It’s going to be a lot of fun and if you live in the Greeley, CO area, and would love to start a yarnie group shoot me a message or comment, and we can try to start a local knit group. Margie’s Java Joint in downtown Greeley could be the perfect locations because they have large meeting tables, just a thought and supports a small business too.

Signing off for now and happy yarning!