In addition to consolidating my yarns this week, I was also inspired so much by photos of the Granny Square Sampler project at WiseCraftHomemade (I'm only seven-odd years behind the crochet-along!), that I dug out all of the odd balls and leftovers of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK I have, stuck into various corners of drawers and boxes here and there. I knew there were quite a few, but seeing them all stacked together, well, there is quite enough for an afghan. These colors are for the most part rather darker than what I was picturing in my mind, but a stash-buster is a stash-buster. There are also a few non-Matchmaker balls in there of similar weight -- why not?! -- so it's a collection of past projects and projects that never really got off the ground. I can see two Azkaban scarves and a Forbes Forest, a bit of Doctor Who, and a Smeerenburg hat in there ....
Basically, the idea is to make a pile of granny squares, a different pattern every week, though the number (and occasionally shape!) of each varies, and at the end to lay them out like a jigsaw puzzle in whatever order they fit, and crochet them together into an afghan. Blair suggests that at the beginning, in order for a collection of random yarn colors not to seem too daunting, you set a rule or two, like "Lightest color always starts in the center and gets darker with each round, or Blue and pink yarns never sit side by side, or Always end largest rounds with charcoal heather, or Use cream in every square." Oh! that last one is lucky for me! --
This was a blanket from Knitting Without Tears, quite a lot of Paton's Classic Wool -- I remember starting it, but I have no idea now when that was. Never mind!
The square for Week 1 is the traditional granny square, making one with 7 rounds and two with five rounds. I can tell the moment that I pick up the Classic that it is heavier than the Matchmaker, but I'm hoping that in the small quantities used for one round in a granny square, it won't be too noticeable. The Classic will also be the yarn I use to connect all of the squares together, but one of the beauties of this sampler project is that you can adjust the size or number of rows that connect all of the squares, so that gauge isn't critical.
I decided to weave in the ends and block as I go, so that I'm not stuck with three thousand ends to do -- tedium, thy name is weaving in ends -- which I'm already feeling was a good decision, as this alone was forty yarn ends! Yes, one of the squares has only four rounds, it was my swatch and I decided to use a smaller hook, though to be honest, it doesn't look much different to me now, scale-wise! Since it is pretty close to the same size as the five-round squares, I might be able to use it to fill in an empty spot when putting the afghan together.
Visit Blair Stocker's blog for the inspiration behind the granny square sampler, and a preparatory post about yarns and color selection. There is also a Flickr group.
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