Crochet Swap Squares

I’ve been MIA again. Packing and putting boxes into storage, finalizing the details on my upcoming move, driving my friend to his chemo appointments and helping him out around the house, finishing up the homeschooling year with my kids, and finishing up my own finals have kept me on the go and off the computer from sunrise to sunset. Had I known that life would have gotten as crazy as it did, I wouldn’t have decided, way back in February, to join a crochet swap. But I did. And so I had a little bit of extra work on my plate.

I won’t tell you how crazy it got, whipping out the yarn at random times and places in order to get them done in time, and I know that many of my swap mates thought I had abandoned them, but fortunately, I was able to get all of the squares done and mailed off – just in the nick of time. I think I might take some time off from swaps until everything has settled down into a nice, comfortable routine again (whenever that may be!)

In the meantime, I have plenty of lovely squares to share with you! Rather than bog down the post with all the details and a hundred photos, I’ll divide them up over the next few days .

The Pink Lemonade swap was hosted over in the Vanna’s Choice Fan Club over on Ravelry. Vanna’s Choice, hands down, is my favorite acrylic yarn (of which I use often, as there’s a wool sensitivity in my household). I love how the colors work together and there are a few colors (ahem pea green!) that I am absolutely in love with. This swap, however, had no pea green, but instead various shades of beautiful pinks, with a theme of Pink Lemonade.

The way the swap works is that we all sign up, make a certain amount of squares and in the same colors, and then send them out, each receiving squares from several others. The colors chosen for this swap were Pink, Soft Pink, Pink Poodle, Lamb, and Duckie (yellow). Pink is one of my favorite colors, and there’s been so little pink stuff that I’ve crocheted (how is it that all my friends have had boys?), so I decided to join in.

Selecting the squares you’re going to crochet for the swap is half the fun. I’ve been in so many crochet-alongs lately, though, that I feel I’ve made a huge dent into Ravelry’s square database. Unless a pattern really speaks to me, I don’t especially enjoy making it more than once. So I was on the lookout for beautiful patterns that were new to me. After an exhausting search, I came up with 20 squares – some that I ended up liking better than others – but all given great love and attention to detail.

My absolute favorite pattern of them all – and one that I definitely want to make again – is this one called Grandmother’s Heart. The pattern is a free Ravelry download. It’s a little intensive but it’s so worth it. I think I could make a whole afghan out of this one.

The second one I’ll share today is this Flowers and Trebles Square. When I was looking for squares with interesting texture and surface detail, I found this one and it stayed near the top of my list in favorites. I love the juxtaposition of the soft floral center with the angular lines that surround it.   This a free pattern found on CrochetVille; the link is here.

Stay tuned this week for the rest of my Pink Lemonade collection – and also the squares I got in return! I’m looking forward to putting them all together!

~Mellie ★