An afternoon at the cricket......

Having spent the afternoon watching cricket I needed to make a relatively simple square so I could also keep an eye on the match:

A square worked in rounds of trebles, at the centre of each row one treble was replaced by a single chain to give the vertical and horizontal holes.
It was one of those quintessentially English afternoons - strawberries, pimms and a village cricket ground. The players however were all current or ex Warwickshire players playing in a benefit match making it a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon:

Triangle stripes......

Watching the pyramid stage at Glastonbury (on TV!) I was inspired to make a triangle based square:

Worked in double crochets each row increases by two stitches (one at either end) up to the widest part and then decreases by two stitches each row.

Waterlily......

A pretty flower with several layers of petals:

This also came from the 200 crochet blocks book - square number 16.

Fretwork......

Thursday's square was another one from the 200 crochet blocks book:

This is block 197 from the book. I've discovered that the title of the book was slightly misleading as it actually contains 212 squares - but from square 101 onwards each square is worked in four different colour schemes so it is not 200 different patterns, there is still lots of inspiration though!

A corner granny......

I bought the book '200 crochet blocks' last weekend as inspiration for this project. Wednesday's square used a simple granny to start with and then has double crochets in each colour worked on two sides only:

This was square 7 from the book.

Stripes......

A simple square worked in rows of double crochets, with a couple of stripes:

This square started with a foundation chain of 26, the first of which was skipped and then 25 double crochets were worked. At the end of the row a single chain was worked to enable turning. This was repeated until square, with 3 rows worked in different colours (2 white and 1 dark purple) towards the top of the square.

Finished.....

I've finished joining the squares together using double crochets and put a frilly border of sets of five treble crochets round the edge:

The first of many items to be competed using the random squares I have made for this project.......

Trebles and doubles......

Today's square alternates rounds of treble crochet with rounds of double crochets, each corner includes two chains and each round increases by one stitch on every side:

Ridges......

Having been in school all morning this afternoon I have managed to find some time to sit on the sofa, pick up my crochet hook and try a variation on a square I have made before:

This square uses the pattern from Wednesday 27th March, but from the fourth round I have added in some sets of three basic trebles, starting at the corner and adding one more set each round, this has created a set of three ridges coming out from the centre on each side (the photo doesn't show this very clearly)

A basic corner square.....

A busy day at work followed by a trip to the ballet meant that an easy square was required yesterday (and even then I ran out of time for my blog post!):

A simple corner square in grey following the same pattern as on February 1st.

Another mitred square.....

Another variation on a basic granny square where the central square is worked off centre:

The pattern can be found here:
http://crochetagain.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/mitered-granny-square-diagram/

The final square.....

I can't quite believe I am nearly halfway through this project, it must be time for me to start using some of the squares I have produced......
Today's square is the final one needed to finish a 5 x 5 blanket in pink, green and yellow, over the next few days I will try to get these joined together:

This square uses the popcorn stitch as the centre for a flower:

The pattern for this square can be found here:
http://www.karpstyles.com/crochet/yel_flower1.html

A coaster......

Today's square uses a coaster pattern for the central flower, I then followed the usual route to make the circle into a square:

The pattern for the central flower can be found at the link below, I followed to coaster part of the pattern:
http://patternsforcrochet.co.uk/round-placemat-etc.html

More basics.....

Today's square is also a basic square worked in purples:

This square uses the pattern from day 7 of the project, changing colour after every two rounds.

Back to basics.....

It's been a while since I've made a basic granny square, so today I decided to make this pretty striped one:

I have already described the pattern for this on day 1 of the project!

Diagonal lace....

This square was worked in treble crochets with sets of three chains to create the holes:

The foundation chain was 27 + 3 for the first treble crochet. A treble crochet was then worked in each stitch, for each hole - chain 3 and miss 3 chains before working the next treble, 11 rows were worked in total.

Squares......

Why do I always think that this time of year is quiet at work?? Ok so the exam classes are gone but what with reports to write, exams to mark and activities to organise that extra time has just been eaten up! So here is yesterday's square:

This has been worked in double crochets, changing colour to create the pink and blue squares - carrying the other colours through the stitches so the square looks the same on the front and back.

Dahlia square......

A frilly central flower worked into a basic square:

The pattern can be found here:
http://stitch11.com/stash-bustin-dahlia-in-a-square/

Popcorn flower brooch......

Following the same pattern as the popcorn flower, I've added a button to the centre and a pin to the back to make it into a brooch:

The pattern for the original flower can be found here:
http://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2013/04/26/popcorn-stitch-flower-free-pattern/

Anyone for chess?

Today's square is a grid pattern:

This was worked in double crochets in blocks of 4 stitches by 4 rows.
Row 1 - chain 21
Row 2 - dc in the 2nd stitch, work 3 more dc in the next 4 ch, change colour by working the last part of the dc with the new colour, work 4 dc in the new colour, carry the first colour along the row, repeat to the end.
Row 3&4 - repeat row 2.
Row 5 - repeat row two but using the second colour to start the row to create the second set of squares.
Continue in the same manner until square.

A spring flower.....

Another pretty pink flower worked in a puff stitch:

The pattern for this square can be found here:
http://www.annoocrochet.com/2013/02/spring-flower-granny-free-pattern.html
I added an extra round of tc in white and then another in pink to increase the size.

Eat.......

I've now finished the final word in the blanket I am making:

The whole blanket now looks like this:

I'm trying to work out how to finish it off...... More rows of white? Stripes top and bottom in the four different colours used for the words? Rounds of the different colours? Hmmm I'm really not sure.

Popcorn flower.....

A train journey is the ideal opportunity to get a bit of crochet done. So today's trip to London enabled me to create this cool popcorn stitch flower and then turn it into a square:

I followed the pattern found here:
http://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2013/04/26/popcorn-stitch-flower-free-pattern/
I worked three rounds of popcorns and then made it square by working sets of 3 dc, tc or dtc between each popcorn stitch - 3 tc, 3 x 3 dc, 3 tc, 3 dtc 2 ch 3 dtc for the corner, repeat 3 more times and join. It was then finished off with a round of tc. This square would make a really cool blanket!

The view from Primrose Hill across the whole of central London was pretty cool too:

Swirl.....

Using up the last of my lime green wool:

I followed the pattern found here:
http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/3-12-quilt-inspired-crochet-square.html
And then added three rounds of treble crochets to make it the right size!

Corner square....

Worked in treble crochets from the corner out:

The square was worked from a chart found here:
http://crochet-story.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/vjazanie-kvadrata-krjuchkom-shema.jpg
The pattern part is in a foreign language but the chart is easy enough to understand.......

Repeated pattern....

One of the things I enjoy about making lots of different squares is the opportunity to try out different patterns without worrying that I'm going to ruin a whole item if it doesn't go to plan. Today I thought I'd try making the pattern from yesterday's handbag into a square:

And I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! It is basically sets of 4 tc worked in between the 2nd and 3rd tc in a set of 4 from the previous round, each corner has 2 ch and each round has 2 extra tc on each side at each corner for the increases.

Handbag.....

I had admired this pattern on Pinterest for a while so though I'd give it a go today. I was amazed by how quickly it worked up, no more than a couple of hours! It still needs a lining, clasp and handle added to finish it off - I can feel a trip to hobbycraft coming on.....

Front

Back

The original pattern can be found here:
http://shortylamcrochet.blogspot.co.uk/2006/11/nordstrom-hobo-bag.html

Play......

And the third word is finished:

I have now competed about 85 rows of the 150 needed to complete this blanket, I then have to decide on a border to finish it all off......

Another squircle.....

One thing that never ceases to amaze me about this year long project of mine is how much my crochet is improving. I now have the confidence to pick up a ball of wool and a hook and know that even without a pattern I will be able to make something up using the wide variety of new stitches I have discovered. So in true Blue Peter fashion..... 'Here's one I made earlier':

Pattern (in English terms):
Round 1 - Using a magic circle chain 2, then work 12 tc in the ring, join and pull tight.
Round 2 - In each tc from the previous round work a dc and a dtc, join.
Round 3 - In each stitch from the previous round work a tc, join.
Round 4 - Repeat round 2.
Round 5 - Repeat round 3.
Round 6 - Ch 3, skip 1 tc, slip stitch in next tc, repeat all the way round.
Round 7 - Slip stitch into first 3 ch space, *3 dc in this ch space, 3 htc in next ch space, 3 tc in next ch space, ch 3, 3 tc in next ch space, 3 htc in next ch space, 2 dc in next ch space. Repeat from * 3 times, join to first dc.
Round 8 - Ch 2, work a tc in the joining stitch, tc in each stitch around, working 2 tc, 3 ch, 2 tc in each corner space.
I then added 1 more round of dc to make it the right size.

A granny squircle......

Is it a square? Is it a circle? It's actually a bit of both!

Pattern:
Round 1 - 6 pairs of treble crochets separated by 1 chain
Round 2 - In the 1 chain spaces from the previous round work 3 trebles separated by 1 chain
Round 3 - In each 1 chain space from the previous round work 2 sets of 2 trebles each separated by 1 chain (12 sets of 2 trebles)
Round 4 - In each 1 chain space from the previous round work 3 trebles separated by 1 chain
Round 5 - In the 1 chain spaces from the previous round work 4 trebles separated by 1 chain
Round 6 - Slip stitch to the first chain space, chain 5, work 2 treble treble crochets, 3 chains, 3 treble treble crochets, * chain 1, 3 treble crochets in the next chain space, chain 2, treble crochets in the next chain space, chain 1, 3 treble treble crochets, 3 chains, 3 treble treble crochet in the corner, continue from * around
Round 7 - Work 3 treble crochets in each chain space, separated by 2 chains, work 3 tc, 2 ch, 3 tc in each corner space
Round 8 - Work a round of double crochets, one in each stitch from the previous round, with 2 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc in each corner space, finish off.