I used to crochet…prior to the knitting. It never went well. I made afghan type things. Never could master the symbols and such. And I never could figure out how to make a granny square.
Fast forward several years and folks are making all these beautiful afghans and such with modernized granny squares. I’m jealous. I mentioned this on a Ravelry forum last night and I was assured that granny squares aren’t that hard.
I did some research. Found several sites and one video all with conflicting instructions on how to make the ever-so-simple granny square. Patched all the instructions together, did a little redneck engineering and after 6 failed attempts were chucked into the trash , I made this…..
One Granny Square
Edges are wonky. But not nearly as wonky as those disasters that I threw in the trash.
So…. I know how to make nice, straight edges with knitting. How do you do that with crochet?????
As I recall, it’s all about keeping an even tension.
You’ll get the hang of it, honey. Just takes a little time.
I think I remember having 3 chain sts on the corners of the square and only 1 chain stitch between the groups on the sides. That might tighten it up a bit for you.
Now I have to go dig out my granny square afghan and see if I remember right.
HTH,
Cathy
It looks like you’re chaining between sets of double crochets; I usually don’t chain, or I only chain once to help keep the edges neat. If you want the added stretch in the center, you could just reduce the chaining on the last row. I once tried to crochet a king-sized afghan made of granny squares (I still have it, and it’s still incomplete!). I think that might have cured me of granny square temptation forever.
Your square looks really good, and those edges won’t show at all if you join the squares into something bigger. =)
ooops I think it ate my comment before I was finished Anyway I was saying that my daughter asked her KNITTING mother to CROCHET an afghan she found and fell in love with on Ravelry. (the nerve of the child) After several attempts I actually have circles in squares all the same size. I don’t think there is any worry of me being a convert though, that wrist action involved in crochet kills me.
I just started “Fugly Sock Yarn Blanket of Doom v2” yesterday. Looks like your tension is off…you loosen up when you start your first double crochet, that seems to be where you have a looser stitch and it’s forming the scalloped edge.
For the record, I’m doing a 3 double crochet, chain 2 all the way around, including for the corners except I do 2 sets of DC with a chain 2 in one stitch. If you need help starting a granny “rectangle” or anything else, just ask…I can even coach you by phone if it helps
Here are the youtube videos I used to learn the various granny squares.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E13D21C2E1F58CD7
It’s true that tension is very important in crocheting; I had no idea until someone looked at my crocheting and mentioned that I had incredibly even tension (yes, I brag). But I should also think that blocking would work on crocheting too. Try it?
It looks like someone already said this, but I find one chain b/w the 3DC clusters on the edges and 3 chains between the corner clusters keeps the tension well. I hadn’t done a granny sq in 20 years so I had to look it up myself before I made my granny blanket last month.