Falling in love with the Granny Square Again
The Granny square stitch and subsequent variations are totally awesome and totally easy. The double crochets just flow through my fingers so naturally that even when I want to do a single crochet, I find myself instinctively yarning over in preparation of that beautiful stitch.
I came across an amazing blog that has made me fall even more in love with the granny square stitch even more! Have you met Alice and Raymond? If you haven’t, then I would very much encourage you to pop over and say hello! Alice is a truly lovely women from New Zealand who loves crystals, good energy, cats and crochet. Raymond is her beautiful sleek companion, a most beautiful cat. The first time I found her, I found myself reading through oodles of past entries just to see all the lovely things she had created. I also love her writing style. You instantly feel like an old friend reading a letter.
Any who! One of her favorite things to make is a granny stitch mandala. She uses the most beautiful colors and creates the most brightest and loveliest mandalas I’ve ever seen. Well, I knew I needed one in my craft room asap. I wanted choose the colors like I would paint a picture of trees reaching up to the sky.
I love watching creations come to life! I also love using lots of colors in projects, although, the darning is not so much fun. >< But I have an awesomely sharp darning needle that makes the job a little more fun. I think it turned out oh so beautiful!! What do you think?
Please forgive the picture quality. They’re off my cell phone and I took the pictures in the evening, so the light wasn’t very good. I love the images it brings to my mind… I think of trees and mountains and sea-salt in the air. It’s very west coasty to me! Which makes sense as I’m west coast born and bred and always will be.
This is where my mandala wanted to go;
That’s a picture of my twin and I. It was taken 11 years ago when we were in Grade 12. I can’t believe I just typed that I graduated from high school 11 years ago. I’m starting to feel a little old. But the funny thing about time, is that I look at that picture, and I don’t see much change in my self. My hair is a little longer and my eyes are a little more crinkly, but I’m still me. ^^ I wish the detail on the sand dollar had shown through, it’s a particularly lovely one. A quick note about that gorgeous frame there, it’s made by Joules who hand picked the stones for me and arranged them in a stunning gradient. Joules is so talented! She also got me that little giraffe one day when we were walking through Michael’s, and I saw it with some other little plastic animals and I kinda oo’ed and awe’ed it but felt silly buying myself a little toy! Thank the universe for twin sisters.
Another fantastic project Alice inspired me to make was a granny square tissue box cover. I first saw it here, but the original pattern is from another fantastic blog, The Royal Sisters. (If you look at mine though, I didn’t use the pattern because I use smaller tissue boxes, so I just looked at the pictures and kind of made it up as I went along!)
My nose is forever bothering me, whether because of allergies, changes in the weather or dust in the air. So in my house, an absolute must is a box of tissues in every room. I really cannot believe it took me this long to make some cute crocheted covers for them! I also made covers for my two sisters and gave them as Christmas gifts, but I forgot to take pictures of them! Tragic!
I actually made this before I made my mandala, but you can see where my mind has been color wise. These are all the colors of my living room and house in general. My walls are a soft muted beige color, my carpet and couch shades of blue, my drapes are green and there are plants everywhere.
Isn’t it just darling? It’s the first one I’ve made for myself, but I have three more planned. One for my bathroom, my craft room and my bedroom. I think the bathroom will be all different shades of brown. I think the one in my bedroom will be all shades of green, and the one in my craft room will be bright yellows, oranges, reds and pinks! I can’t wait to start! If only I had more time to craft. Le sigh.
Alright! This has been a very productive post so far but I have one more thing to share! The kind of couch we have doesn’t have any padding on the back of it. We have a few small cushions but they are not nearly comfy enough when crocheting for hours. So it struck me one day over my Christmas holidays, why on earth haven’t I made any before now!? Clearly something I had to rectify post haste. I chose colors that matched the couch and tied in the wall color.
I ran to the linen closet and dug out two old pillows we never use but keep for emergencies or (non-existent) guests. I also grabbed two pillow cases that came with a set of sheets that we almost never use because they’re quite rough. I cut the pillows to a perfect square and altered the pillow cases to match. I then crocheted two different styles of granny square patterns and sewed the completed squares to the pillow case and voila! Two comfy cozy cushions!
I think that’s all the show and tell I’ll do for now! Thank you so much for reading
Have you done any crafty home improvement projects recently? I’d love to hear about them!
In peace and love,
Christine
Originally published at C.P.. You can comment here or there.