cherishables: granny squares

Showing posts with label granny squares. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Going Granny

I confess. I like granny squares. I know, I know. In my defense, I always strive to keep crochet moving forward. I'm all about "not your grandmother's crochet" crochet.

So, how do you make a granny square fresh & interesting? This was my attempt last year:

This bag was made for my Mom and each square was carefully planned out. Too bad I messed up the square alignment on the sides. Oh well. Only I would really know and it's still pretty.

Here are some ideas I pinned from the interwebs to keep those grannies fashion forward.

How about one big square turned into a purse?

From La ventana azul

Lots of pretty hex grannies make a fun purse or afghan.

From Facile Cecile

This is a pretty idea. Fancy grannies, each one different, but in a single color yarn. Lovely!

By Mit Hand und Herz

I'm really loving the first & last options. Which one to try first????

Happy Crafting!

Cherish

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Evolution of a Purse

After making the summer granny square purse for myself (btw, it's done but I don't like the handles so I'm making new ones -- pics coming soon) and really liking it, I thought it would be fun to try the same pattern but in a more planned color palette.

So I made this purse as secret gift for my Mom and now that Mother's Day has passed, I can blog about it.

The idea behind this purse was to make something a little more planned. I'm still totally in love with all the white & thought it would be pretty if each square had just one color, so I made squares with a white center & border and a single round of color.

For this purse I wanted to line the squares in diagonals. I drew it up so I know how many of each square I needed:

If only I knew what I was doing. <sigh> The purse body isfine. I totally messed up the side and bottom gussets. I really don't know what I did wrong on paper, but once I had the purse together I saw my mistake.

You see, the squares were supposed to wrap around the purse and continue the pattern on the sides & bottom. But when I got it together, I messed it up...

Side view: the top square should be yellow & the middle should be green. I have no idea what the bottom one should be. <shrug>

As the designer, I'm pretty much the only person who know that it's wrong, however, so I continued on. I finished the purse by crocheting around the top for a few rows and then skipping a bunch of stitches (while making a chain) to create a handle. A few more rows around (including stitches into the chain to make a more substantial handle) I then made a little pleat on each side and sewed it in place. Then it was off to be lined.

I lined the purse in a cherry blossom fabric with pockets on both purse walls. Since you can see through the purse, the lining has two fabrics -- cherry blossoms on the inside and plain white on the outside. Between the layers is a light interfacing.

Unlike a lot of linings I made, this lining is pieced together -- there are separate pieces for the two side gussets and the bottom. This allowed me to use a much thicker interfacing on the bottom which helps give the purse structure and a nice sturdy bottom. The purse can stand up on its own.

Despite my design flaws, I think the purse came out great. I'm really pleased with it and Mom likes it -- which is really the only opinion that matters. As long as Mom's happy, I'm happy!

I hope the last few posts have encouraged you to try a granny square. They're quite fun and make a lovely summer purse.

Happy crafting!

Cherish