As you already know (or maybe not), I am doing the photo tutorials for the Block a Week CAL 2014 hosted by the Official CCC Social Group on Facebook. We are reaching the end of our year-long journey and I have had so much fun! Not only will I have my first ever grown-up afghan at the end of this year, but I have also learned so much and made so many good friends.
I am in the process of doing the tutorials for the joining methods I will be using. While you wait for me to get my act together, I thought you might like to see what I have been sharing on Facebook over the past couple of weeks.
When I started following the Block a Week CAL 2014, I really didn’t know what I was doing and I definitely hadn’t decided on a proper colour scheme. I just bought the Stylecraft “Lucy Pack” and started crocheting.
The more squares I made, the more apparent it became to me that I did not want to use all of the colours. After the first 14 or so squares, I settled on Saffron, Meadow, Magenta, Pomegranate, Lipstick, Fondant, Turquoise, and Sherbet as my main colours.
Even so, I found all the colours overwhelming and although I am crazy about colour, I just didn’t like the look and feel of this layout as much as I’d hoped I would.
So I started thinking of a way to tone it down a bit without actually doing anything to the squares. My solution was to join the squares to each other in 4’s, matching squares with the same outside round colour.
I wasn’t quite sure that it would work… But I kept on joining, working one Round of dc’s around each 4-square (in the same colour as the last rounds).
And now I have 7 giant 4-squares. The rest will have to wait for the last of the CAL blocks. You can now find all 12 Foursquares HERE.
I have to say that I think I am going to like how this turns out. I was scared that adding more colour would make it more wacky. Instead I think that the 4-squares break up the colours and make the squares feel more harmonious. But that could just be me.
What do you think?
The photo tutorials for each square (from Week 5 onwards) have been done with the kind permission of the designers. You can find all the information for the Block a Week CAL 2014 HERE.
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Linda says
Dedri, I just completed joining my 48 blocks into 12 Four Squares. I love how it turned out. Now I will join my 12 large blocks together and add a border. I added a row of double crochet around each block that I used as an adjustment row to make all blocks 46 stitches. Then I used the same color for joining and double crocheted around the Four Square blocks. This will make my finished blanket larger to fit on my bed. Thank you so much for all your help.
Dedri Uys says
You are welcome, Linda. I still have to finish mine. It is all joined, but I cannot decide what I want to do for the border.
Diana Anderson says
PleasePleasePlease pleeeeeeeeeese say you will do a tutorial,on the flatbraid join! I have been struggling like crazy to figure this thing out. I’ve read all the instructions out there and watched the YouTube videos. It seems that they describe the Flat braid join as a “method”, and leave it a bit vague on purpose. I’m sure it’s me, you must think I’m very challanged in the mental department. :-) I hope your finger is all better. Thank you!
Christina says
D3, I like the way you tamed the colours by ‘squaring’ them together. I do not know how many of these large blocks you will have in the end, but you can even use them then in same colour groups from one side of the blanket to the other (diagonally) to tame it down even more, but the way I understand these blocks are LARGE!?
Carol D says
Love the color scheme….before reading what you were doing, I saw the sample on previous page (in your email) and thought what a clever idea!
Please get better! we cannot have our favorite teacher hurting!
Your son is beautiful! Enjoy every moment you can with him….you’ll wake up one day and he’ll be all grown up! I still miss having my little ones around….the absolute best days of my life!
Dedri Uys says
Thank you, Carol. Don’t worry about my finger. It’ll be fine soon. And I do cherish the moments with the boys! They are my greatest treasure.
Cheryl says
Beautiful!
San says
I love how your squares turned it! It always makes me really happy! Compared to yours mine is super boring!