206::365 granny square #53

Pattern: "Granny Square 53" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I love how the well the colors in this block go with the fabric in the background! That fabric is one of my favorites! At 7", this square is almost twice the size of the last two little squares I've crocheted.

Beginning with square 183::365, I've been using this color palette of blues and greens with a little yellow and purple mixed in. I'm planning to make a new sampler afghan using these blocks. It will be a little more "matchy" than the last one I made, and I'm really excited to see how it comes together!

183::365 granny square #81

Pattern: "Granny Square 81" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

What a difference a border of treble crochet stitches can make. That last round added about 2" to this 7" square!

182::365 granny square #99

Pattern: "Granny Square 99" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This super easy flower square is made up of lots of clusters of stitches. The sample square in the book looks like a sunflower, with a brown center and yellow petals. I went with less realistic colors, but I think I like mine better. I am seriously short on yarn and will be doing some shopping this weekend! Dark colors like this eggplant yarn are always my last resort!

181::365 granny square #37

Pattern: "Granny Square 37" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I used cotton yarn and a J hook to crochet this square. It worked up to 7" before I added a single crochet border in blue. I like to make cotton squares like this as hotpads. Even though it is only one layer, the center of popcorn stitches makes it thick enough to protect most surfaces from hot pots and pans.

I usually leave a little chain space in the corners, but for things like this that will not be joined to other pieces, I do like to make the corners more solid. For each round of this blue border, I worked a sc in each stitch along the sides and three sc in each corner, but on that first round, I skipped the first stitch of each side.

179::365 granny square #28

Pattern: "Granny Square 28" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I feel like this pattern could use fewer chain stitches between the "petals" on round 2. It could have something to do with my use of three obviously different brands of yarn for each color in this square. The light pink was noticeably thicker than that mauvey thrifted color. Maybe the square is just supposed to look this way.

I added an extra round of single crochet to give it a little more structure since this is a small square with lots of relatively big holes. Instead of 5 sc in the corner in those last two rounds, I worked 2sc, ch2, 2sc. When I just do one chain stitch in the corner, it seems harder to find the center of the corner later.

178::365 granny square #27

Pattern: "Granny Square 27" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This cute little square is almost a basic granny square, but the center is a solid piece with cluster stitches to keep it interesting. It measures about 4". I've been making tiny squares lately as I'm putting together a couple of afghans right now. I have to tell you, it is just about way too hot to touch yarn, and sitting under a big blanket while I'm joining squares or sewing in ends is almost unbearable in this heat!

177::365 granny square #70

Pattern: "Granny Square 70" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I'm going to have to add this easy pattern to my list of circles-into-squares. Last year I made my "circles & squares" afghan, and I would really like to make another one that is all circles from various patterns. I think my inspiration for this decision is the way Sarah crocheted all of her blocks for A Square A Day In May with a random solid color for the center and white around it. I can't wait to see her finished afghan!

176::365 granny square #78

Pattern: "Granny Square 78" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This block is so thick! It is made up of alternating front and back post double crochet with rows of sc in between. You can see the cool texture this creates below. This square would make a good potholder all by itself in a heat-resistant type of yarn.

Happy 4th of July! Hope you had a great weekend! :) Here are some "Patriotic Sugar Cookies" I came across earlier today at the grocery store. The cookies were all okay looking but very generic, but the cakes were Cake Wrecks worthy.

174::365 granny square #64

Pattern: "Granny Square 64" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This pretty little flower square worked up to 4" with my H hook. The only think I did that was out of the ordinary was for the corners in the final round. Many patterns say to put 3 or 5 or some other odd number of stitches in the corner. Instead, I like to drop it down to the next lower (even!) number and put a couple of chain stitches in the middle. For these particular corners, I crocheted sc, ch2, sc in each corner space.

171::365 granny square #83

Pattern: "Granny Square 83" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This little 5" square could be easily enlarged with a few more "granny" rounds. I left it small because I love the way the tiny squares filled in the gaps in my granny square sampler afghan!

I like this book, don't get me wrong, but how boring is it that the squares are just numbered? Not that I think I could come up with that many names for these patterns.

170::365 granny square #94

Pattern: "Granny Square 94" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This is such a pretty flower square! I did change it around a little from the original pattern (see below) by tilting the flower so that the larger holes are in the corners in round 2. I think it looks better this way. This square measures 8.5".

I get asked a lot about whether or not I block my squares. The answer is yes, if I have time to I do. I posted a little about how I do it here. Below are two photos of today's and yesterday's squares before and while they were blocked.

169::365 granny square #22

Pattern: "Granny Square 22" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I had to add an extra round of single crochet to get this square to measure 6". The pretty clusters in the corners remind me of these two squares I made last month!

These scrappy squares in assorted sizes that I've been making the past few days are destined to end up as part of my new granny square sampler afghan (see the first one here), but I have to finish my new tutorial, the may afghan, and a couple of other projects before I can even think of joining these! I can't wait for the coming three day weekend.

168::365 granny square #33

Pattern: "Granny Square 33" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This little square measures 6" after I added an extra round of single crochet. The corners were supposed to be 5 sc, but I made them with 1 sc, ch 2, 1 sc.

167::365 granny square #6

Pattern: "Granny Square 6" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This square worked up to 8.5" with my H hook. It looks like a little granny square trapped in a prison of lace. Or something.

165::365 granny square #17

Pattern: "Granny Square 17" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I love this combination of colors!

The center clusters in that middle light blue round are worked around the front of some double crochet stitches, and I don't know if I just didn't do it right, but the left half of each one looks weird to me. They seem backward.

Hey, look! All 12 of my Wool of the Andes squares are joined. I used this method to crochet them together. Once I weave in the ends and add a little border (picot stitches?), I'm going to throw it in the washer on hot and see what it does. Best case scenario: I may have a pretty little rug that no one will ever be allowed to step on! I'll block the whole thing a little before I felt it, but I wonder if it will matter at all.

164::365 granny square #9

Pattern: "Granny Square 9" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I'm starting to crochet together my 7" squares made from Wool of the Andes! I'm running out of most of the colors of this yarn, so my little experiment will be 3 squares by 4.

163::365 granny square #8

Pattern: "Granny Square 8" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

I had to omit one of the treble rounds for size. The complete pattern (with worsted weight yarn and a size H hook) would have been much larger than 7". I finished it off with a modification of the final round in the pattern and an extra round of single crochet.

It reminds me of these two squares.

162::365 granny square #7

Pattern: "Granny Square 7" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

To get the size I needed, I left off the last round of the pattern (it was more popcorn stitches) and substituted a round of single crochet. If I made this again, I’d leave out a ch stitch or two from the corners of the white round because the corners are really pointy.

Looking at it now, this totally makes me think of a slice of watermelon, but that's definitely not what I had planned! This is another 7" Wool of the Andes square.

161::365 granny square #98

Pattern: "Granny Square 98" from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet from Leisure Arts.

This was a really easy pattern, but I still made a careless error in the placement of two of the long dc stitches. I hope it isn't super obvious. I didn't notice until after I had woven in the ends, so it is going to have to stay that way!

I really like how these wool squares look together!