Monday 1 June 2009

Spiral granny squares

A while ago I came across this amazing granny square pattern on the Crochet me-blog. I had to try it immediately! I am using pure Merino wool from Malabrigo. I made little changes to the pattern to eliminate some of the holes and give it a more solid look. A single block looks like this:
I then had to add a few together to see what pattern emerged: Here are 4 blocks joined together:

And 9 blocks added together: I realised I had to keep my head together when creating this pattern, because did you notice that the order of the colours has to change to keep the repeating pattern going?
This is the 'pattern' I made before I started:

Here is a close up of the edges where I joined the blocks together. I tried a few different versions of over-hand and ladder stitches before I was happy with these joints.

And of course I wondered if it possible to make the spiral go the other way... Yes it is, but you have to use your other hand and basically mirror the pattern by going around in the other direction. I am naturally left-handed but I crochet with my right hand because that was the only way my grandmother could teach me. With these mirrored blocks I used my left hand. It took me a while to get the hang of it! And it went very s-l-o-w-l-y... So I stopped after 2 blocks!

Using mirrored blocks allows you to make a completely different pattern:

This is still a work in progress so keep a look-out for the finished product....

10 comments:

Sherry Deatrick said...

this is really beautiful!

Samantha Youngers said...

I think this is beautiful. I am impressed that you took an idea like the swirl and made it into such a beautiful pattern.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous!

from Bethintx1

JudyH said...

This is such a neat pattern! I'm going to be watching for updates! Thanks for this blog! :)

Amy said...

This is beautiful! Did you finish the blanket? I love the way you've arranged the squares.

Myrian said...

I love your idea. It came out beautiful. Can't wait to try it myself.

Laura said...

With yours being a little more closed than the original pattern made, I think this would be super cute as a purse/bag. If you made 8 and joined 4 for each side, then closed up the sides and bottom and made a crocheted (or store baught) straps on it... Maybe put a liner in it.... How cute would that be? I saw a granny square purse like that in a granny sq magazine once.. I saw this and thought that that would be the perfect granny for it.
I am curious if you will share, maybe on the actual pattern site for this, how you closed up the holes to make it a little less open?

sandhya said...

it looks so............beautiful

Frubcer said...

wow, so lovely! you are so talented!

Anonymous said...

I'm going to try one of these for my son! It is amazing! How did you change the pattern? THanks!