Granny Scarf

When I was about 10 my Grandmother taught me how to do the chain crochet stitch. My brother and sister and I spent many hours one summer making yards and yards of chain jump ropes, cat's cradle loops, and doll hair bows. Since then, I hadn't done more crocheting until I found a magazine at Wal-Mart last fall called Interweave Crochet. There are so many cute projects in it! I decided I'd better start with something easy, so I chose an afghan pattern that uses a bunch of circles all stitched together. I had a hard time understanding the directions, but my friend Heather was able to help me out over tea one day. That project it going to take a LOT of circles, so I'm working on it in between other things.  Oh yes, crochet is far easier than knitting! For Christmas, Tom's parents gave me a book called Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting. It is the best how-to guide I've found so far with pictures (the way I best learn things!) and a multitude of stitch patterns and techniques. 

In January, I went to the Lucky Brand outlet store in Marysville and fell in love with this scarf! I used to think that Granny Squares were cheesy looking, but then I realized that didn't have to be the case. It just depends on the colors! This scarf has mini Granny Squares in fun colors, and I thought it would be fun to try to duplicate. I took a phone picture... yes, that's why it's fuzzy. Then my next adventure began. How does one make a Granny Square? I googled around and found a hat pattern that may have worked, and a pattern in a book called The Cool Girls Guide to Crochet that Heather had given me for Christmas. It had a super cute pattern for a Granny Square scarf, but the squares were bigger than I would have liked. I again had trouble understanding the pattern lingo, so Rebecca and I met for a coffee and crochet date at Cafe Ladro, and she helped me struggle through the pattern in the book. I came

 away with a good idea of what I wanted and how to read the stitch abbreviations! I then spent a little more time googling, and found an amazing tutorial at the Purl Bee.  

I have now made about 30 mini Granny Squares using random yarns I've found in bright colors, using rounds 1 and 2. I'm just starting round 3 now, which will be my final round, in a taupe colored cotton yarn. I'll post a picture of the completed project soon hopefully!