More Crochet Squares in Pink

Okay, so here more squares.  Whew!

These next few squares, with the exception of Pretty in Pink (below), all cost a small fee to download the pattern. When I first started crocheting, I told myself that there was no reason to pay for a pattern when there are so many free ones, but as I became more immersed in the community (and as I started crocheting more), I realized just how much time and effort it takes to write up a crochet pattern and test it. Asking a small fee for compensation is totally worth it. And so when I can, I try to support crochet designers by purchasing their patterns.

Julie Yeager’s patterns are an example of this. All of her patterns are extremely easy to read and well written, and she offers a variety of both free and for-purchase patterns. This is one of those patterns, called Suncatcher. This one is reminiscent of stained-glass windows, and even though I tried to achieve that a bit with the darkest pink doing the outline, I think this would also be a brilliant square to do with much more contrasting colors (and I may just do that in the future!) The pattern is a $2 Ravelry download.

Next is this square, called Spring Rolls by Donna Kay Lacey. Donna’s patterns are known for the use of bullion rolls, also known as the roll stitch (as seen here in my Kale square, which was also designed by her). It’s a more complicated crochet stitch, and can be a little intimidating. I think she knew that, because she offered Spring Rolls with an option to make triple crochets instead. And since I was in a hurry to finish up these swap squares, I opted to forego the bullion rolls and use the triples instead. The pattern is another $2 Ravelry download.

Granny Square 66 is from the same book – 99 Granny Squares to Crochet – as Granny Square 47, which I posted on Tuesday. (Someday I want to go through all these numbered Granny Squares and give them beautiful names instead of identifying them by numbers. Is there a job like that out there? ha.) Anyway, I modified this square a bit while trying to make it fit to 9”, and it was a relatively difficult pattern. I do like the way it turned out, but it was definitely one of the more complicated squares that I made from this swap.

And then lastly for today is Pretty in Pink, a free pattern by April Moreland, whose has an enormous selection of very pretty free patterns on Ravelry. After selecting some really time-consuming square to make, this one was like a breath of fresh air. Easy to make, but with a beautiful result. It’s always fun to play around with where the colors will go when patterns are shown in a single color. I think this one turned out quite lovely. This is a free pattern that can be found as a free Ravelry download or online here.

Whew, almost through all these squares! You know, I spent almost 3 weeks working on those squares non-stop, and now that the swap is over, I was almost at a loss as to what I’d work on next. Fortunately, I had a lot of options, and it’s been a lot of fun to get back to crocheting without any deadlines! I’ve picked back up my Mixed Stitch Stripey Blanket, which is tons of fun because I’m barely following the pattern whatsoever, which lets me be super creative.

My mom came to visit me the other day, and she thought it was hilarious that I was relaxing from crocheting so intently with the swap squares by crocheting a blanket. I told her it’s something only a crochet lover could understand! I think other crocheters out there can agree!

Stay tuned tomorrow, where I’ll try to mostly wrap up these Pink Lemonade squares.

~Mellie ★