104::365

Pattern: "Motif 104" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

This little 4" square would have been even smaller if the outer yellow part had been just one round of single crochet like in the pattern. It seems like forever since I have made a flower square, but turns out I did just the other day!

98::365

Pattern: "Motif 112" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

This was a fun little square to make! Instead of working in rounds all the way around, you work half way in one color, continue in the second color, and then turn and start again from the back with the second color first. There were only four ends to weave in because you never cut the yarn. All of that turning reminds me of when I first learned to make granny squares and turned at the end of every round because I didn't know how to slip stitch across to the next round.

There was no way I was going to make this in red and orange, the colors in the book. It's a bit too OU/OSU "a house divided" for me. If you've never lived in Oklahoma, you probably don't understand or care, but if you are an Oklahoma transplant who knows nothing about sports like I am, you might get where I'm coming from. ;)

80::365

Pattern: "Motif 99" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

It is kind of funny that I've mostly only made square patterns from Beyond the Square. There really aren't many square ones, as the title would suggest, and many of the squares are weird around the edges. This pattern ends with the final yellow round with the picot stitches. I added the more solid green border of double crochet so that my square would measure 8" (instead of the about 5" that it was at first). I'm working on a tutorial right now with advice on how to adapt squares to fit your size needs, and I may crochet this square again soon to try out a slightly different border.

64::365

Pattern: "Motif 97" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

The orange ruffle in the center was supposed to be the only one, but it didn't really look good, so I added two more in pink. Now it looks like a big ruffly X.

61::365

Pattern: "Motif 89" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

This flower pattern is probably meant to connect to others by the picot stitches on the border, but I wanted a bigger square border. If you're new to crochet, altering patterns may seem kind of mystifying, but it was really easy.

All of the picots are evenly spaced, so it was a matter of figuring out how many chain stitches in between each picot it would take to make the square lay flat. With my size H hook and worsted weight yarn, this particular pattern needed 6 ch stitches between each point with a sc in each picot. The next round is made up of dc stiches worked 6 to a ch space, with 1 sc in each sc, and in each corner 2 dc, 3ch, 2dc. I finished it off with a round of sc.

This motif kind of reminds me of the flowers I'm making for this blanket. It is mostly because of the picot border, I think.

My little brother just returned to Oklahoma after a two week visit to Tennessee, and my mom sent him back with tons of goodies for me, including the neato bookmark she made with pressed flowers that is in the picture below. And, woah, she pretty much stuffed a giant duffel bag full of yarn in lots of pretty vintage-y colors. I used some of it in today's square! My mom is awesome! :)

60::365

Pattern: "Motif 88" from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman.

I made this loopy flower pattern a little more sturdy with a border of dc stitches. I'm seriously about to start picking out a color of yarn to crochet together squares for a blanket!

Here is part of my haul from the library book sale--more old sci fi magazines! The craft book selection wasn't the best this year, though I did pick up a few. There's always next year!

And here's a blog post from another contributor to World of Geekcraft! I'm so excited to see my copy!

did somebody say "potholders"?

pattern: Motif #1 from Beyond the Square

I'm on a roll, and there's no stopping me. Check out some of the potholders I have been making! The single-layer ones are more like trivets because I feel like there's no way I could use something with holes to get a hot pan out of the oven. For the double-layer ones, I made motifs from books or magazines and then made a backing of the same size. I found that if I took pains to make sure that each layer ended with a round of the same number of stitches, it was super easy to crochet them together evenly. This first one (Motif #1) didn't lay evenly over the bottom layer, so I sort of sewed it to the bottom one around the middle, and now it won't budge! By the way, I love the book this one is from--Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman. It has 144 in motifs to crochet and is broken down into sections by shape: circles, hexagons, triangles, square (yes, there are some squares!), and other, more irregular shapes. There isn't a lot of real suggestion about how to actually put them together if you wanted to use more than one shape, so I created this flickr group to show off your motifs and share how you are putting them together. Please join! Other reasons to love the book: it is a spiral-bound hardback so it lays flat easily and all of the patterns are charted (of course they have normal written instructions, too!).

Made up this side.

pattern: "Granny Update" from Crochet Today 2010 Special Issue: All Time Best Blankets

Using an afghan pattern as inspiration for a potholder can provide instant gratification!

Made up this side.

pattern: Motif #24 from Beyond the Square

I love this color combination! I've been using this blue color (well, on the label it is called "baby green" but it totally looks more blue to me) like crazy and need to pick up some more.

Made up this side.

pattern: "Coaster Comeback" from Crochet Today January/February 2009

The pattern was for a coaster made from crochet thread, but using worsted weight yarn resulted in a larger, sturdier piece. There is that blue again.

pattern: "Coaster Comeback" from Crochet Today January/February 2009

pattern: "Woven Circles Trivet" from me!

I've made more of these! The rainbow one is my favorite!! Good news: if you can't find perfect soda can rings, you don't really have to bother. The end result is just slightly different if you crochet a chain foundation instead. I made my chain circles the diameter of the top of a soda can, and then I double crocheted over that and followed the pattern for the rest. Both of the ones shown here were made this way. If you make any, please share pictures! Christen1285 on Ravelry has made this cool version!

pattern: "Woven Circles Trivet" from me!