Hooray, hooray, it’s granny square day!
If you’ve not heard about Granny Square day before it’s an international online celebration on instagram which this year falls on Saturday 15 August 2020.
Granny Square Day was started 6 years ago by US crocheter Susan Regalia, who recognised that Instagram’s grid format could be used to replicate the block arrangement of a classic granny square blanket online.
Others soon joined in the fun and Granny Square Day was born! Simply Crochet magazine then took over the reins of Granny Square day in 2015.
This year, to coincide with the 100th edition of Simply Crochet magazine, the magazine put together a special supplement of 100 granny square designs which featured some fabulous patterns by some awesome designers – and I’m really excited to say that you can find three new granny square blocks by me.
For the granny square purists out there I tried to feature some of the customary granny square clusters in each of the designs. Though what I wanted to do was play on the traditional and come up with something fresh and new.
The blocks range in skill level too from the more simple to getting a bit more involved so there’s something for every skill level.
The first design is the closest to a traditional granny square, it’s called ‘Summer Lawn’ and features classic granny treble (double) crochet clusters with a bit of surface crochet for a fun summery square.
❤️ SAVE THE ‘SUMMER LAWN’ SQUARE ON RAVELRY ❤️
The next design is called ‘Heritage’ and my inspiration for this one was actually Minton tiles. Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery who founded his factory in Stoke-upon-Trent back in 1793 – there’s lots of places still locally where you can see examples of his tiles.
I wanted to create a timeless looking block that would look good in a variety of different colours to complement all types of interiors – just as the tiles were designed to do.
❤️ SAVE THE ‘HERITAGE’ SQUARE ON RAVELRY ❤️
And finally I designed the ‘Casablanca’ square which in my head is a romantic unisex type of block. I was really pleased with how this one came out – it could certainly have been inspired by an upscale club in a moroccan city don’t you think! Here’s looking at blue kid 😜
❤️ SAVE THE ‘CASABLANCA’ SQUARE ON RAVELRY ❤️
To me granny squares are nothing to do with ‘grandmas’ – they are just a super fun way to show how fun and versatile crochet can be! There’s something for everyone in the Simply Crochet squares and motifs supplement from more traditional looking squares to modern contemporary designs.
I used Rico Ricorumi for these blocks which is a DK (Light Worsted) weight 100% cotton yarn that I had in my stash, but the designs would work equally well in other fibres and yarn weights to make bigger or smaller blocks.
Simply Crochet issue 100 is available in most supermarkets and newsagents and digitally at www.pocketmags.com.
You can read more about it over on the Simply Crochet Magazine’s blog but it’s really easy to get involved (as long as you have an Instagram account). Just take a photo of your granny square and crop the photo so it fits the full square shape of an instagram post and use the hashtag #grannysquareday2020.
Your square will then be added to the virtual blanket! To see the blanket, search #grannysquareday2020 – you will need to be viewing in Instagram’s standard three-wide format to get the full effect. Or use hashtag #grannysquaremakes2020 for any granny square general photos.
If you hook up any of the squares I hope you’ll share your photos with me on social media (facebook, twitter or instagram) or as a project on Ravelry – I love to see what you make!
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
