Springtime and Swap Squares

It’s been so beautiful these past few days here! It really feels like winter lasted a full six months here (did I mention it was snowing a couple of weeks ago!?). When the weather breaks here, the entire city goes out to the parks in shorts and flip flops, we’re all so relieved to get out of the house! We had a cookout the other evening to ring in the spring weather, and it was just lovely. The boys tromped in the forest, we admired the green and yellow forest floor of buttercups and groundcover, and basked in the sunshine. We stayed out all day long, and the evening ended perfectly with me crocheting in the twilight as the sun went down. Shouldn’t every night end so splendidly?!

Spring is the time of new beginnings, and that’s especially relevant for me. I’m moving into my new place in a few weeks, and even though it’s only temporary, I’m looking forward to the memories we’ll be creating there. Packing, while usually a real drag, has been oddly therapeutic this time around, as I’ve been purging a lot of non-essentials and at the same time, enjoying my much sparser environment. Maybe I’ll get around to finishing up a few of those crochet projects that are still works in progress.

As for the Pink Lemonade crochet swap, I’m working on getting all the patterns up in my crochet gallery. I’m also starting to receive the swap squares from the other members. Some of them are really beautiful! I’m honored to have been part of a swap with so many talented crocheters (and knitters!) In the meantime, here are the next few squares in the swap that I made.

First up is Granny Square #47. This pattern is from a book that I downloaded onto my Kindle earlier this year after winning an Amazon gift card in a fundraiser. I liked the puff stitches and the way the colors alternated around the flower. The book is called 99 Granny Squares to Crochet, and I ended up using two of the patterns in this book for the swap. I plan on going back and making more squares from this book as well.

Here is the Amazon link if you want to check it out yourself, along with my project page on Ravelry.

One thing to note about all these squares, both here and for the rest of the week, is that the patterns for many of them make 12″ squares.  For this swap, we decided on 9″ squares.  So I’ve made a few adjustments in order to turn those 12″ into 9″.  First, I used a G/4.00mm hook for all the swap squares, so many of my finished squares have a bit of a tighter-looking stitch to them for that reason.  I found that squares that called for an I/5.50mm hook seemed to get pretty close to a 9″ square with the G hook.  However, there are some squares where I omitted last rounds, and some that I added a couple of rounds to in order to reach that perfect 9″. I didn’t note my changes because I was in such a hurry to get these done in the allotted timeframe, but many of them, such as the Sadie Square below, ended up being a perfect fit.

So this is the Sadie Square, and the pattern is by Melissa Green. I’ve made a few of her other squares before and all of her patterns are very well written. This was a really fun square to make!  Doesn’t the textured border look complicated?  It’s not.  It’s a brilliant round that makes it look like you’re using some sort of crocheted intarsia, when actually it’s just some well placed stitches.  The finished square is firm and well formed.  I always appreciate a square that ends up looking like a square by the time you get to the final round, and that doesn’t need lots of blocking.  The pattern is a free Ravelry download.

Finally, another one of my favorites from the swap is Presine a Fiori, or Flowers Dishcloth.   This pattern was originally written in Italian, but there’s now an English version that can be downloaded as well. I love the uniqueness of this square, combining both embroidery and crochet together. The best thing about this square is that even though it looks elaborate, it was one of the easiest squares out of all of these to make.  Even beginning crocheters could make this one, and what a fantastic result.  The pattern actually calls for this to be a potholder, which by its nature is made in double thickness (two pieces sewn together), but since I’m making only swap squares, I only made one side.  I did, however, double the embroidery yarn to make nice, puffy flowers.  The pattern is a free Ravelry download. I’ve been thinking that I might make a few of these as dishcloths for my new place!

As for the rest of the day, we are getting ready to celebrate the birthday of a very special little boy.  I have a birthday cake in the oven and a bag of decorations that I need to start hanging.  I also have a bag of yarn to keep by my side as the festivities die down.  The crochet never really stops around here!

I’ll be back tomorrow with more details on the swap squares.  Have a great Tuesday!

~ Mellie ★