Crochet granny square

Dada’s lion granny square pattern

19/07/2018 by Dada Filed Under: Crochet granny square 9 Comments

Yes, I know, this probably looks familiar! That’s because I already have the pattern for the lion granny square, which is a part of my Little lion baby blanket. But, I couldn’t resist playing with that pattern, because let’s be honest, it’s so cute! Besides, I wanted to improve it a bit and to make it compatible with a classic granny square. So, I designed this new little lion granny square. It is very similar to my previous lion square, but they’re not completely the same. Also, I wanted the square pattern which I could sell separately for only $3.97.

I love the fact that you can combine this square with a classic granny square (as I did in this blanket above) and make some interesting combinations. Also, you can make it in any size. It could be as small as 8.5 – 9 cm or as big as 15 – 20 cm, and even bigger, there is no limit to how big you can make this square, because you can add as many rows as you like.

To make this granny square you will need 5 mm plastic beads with a hole in the middle large enough to pull the yarn through easily. You will need some yarn. I prefer cotton yarn for this kind of crochet projects. I used 100 % cotton yarn “Tango” from St. George, 125m/50g. I know that if you live outside Serbia, you aren’t able to buy this yarn, so I would like to recommend two other yarn brands. They’re both the same weight as “Tango” and as I can see, of similar quality. And they’re available online. The first one is Catania by Schachenmayr, and the second one is Catona by Scheepjeswol.

As always, the pattern is very detailed. There are more than 60 step-by-step pictures, a crochet chart, explanation on how to string beads onto yarn, as well as the written pattern. I think that any ambitious beginner who mastered the basic stitches like: magic ring, single crochet, double crochet and treble crochet would be able to make it effortlessly.

I’m very curious to see what are you going to make with this square, so I decided to host a yarny giveaway. I would like you to post your finished crochet projects made using this pattern on Ravelry, and I will choose the project I like best. The winner will receive these 16 skeins of “Tango” yarn. Actually 15 skeins of “Tango” + 1 skein of “Tanja” yarn.

To enter:
1. use at least four Dada’s lion squares in your project,
2. make something useful. You can’t just make four squares and join them together,
3. post your project on Ravelry, by August 18th. You don’t have to buy the pattern on Ravelry, though.

The pattern is now available for purchase for only $3.97 in Dada’s place shop. (payment options: Credit cards and PayPal)

You can also purchase it in my Ravelry shop, and in my Etsy shop. (payment option: PayPal)

A crochet pillow that makes me smile

29/05/2018 by Dada Filed Under: Crochet granny square, Crochet pillows 21 Comments

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been working on my first ever poncho pattern, and although I’m very excited about it, the process of making it has been a little boring. I’ve been working with only one color, back and forth in rows, the same stitch for over 150 rows… You can imagine how monotonous it could be. And in the middle of making the second poncho, which I’m going to take the pictures of for the photo tutorial, I felt that I needed something colorful, and interesting and happy and quick to make. All at the same time. So, I decided to make a crochet pillow.

I was wondering which pattern I should use? Should I use one of my existing patterns, should I try some new pattern from my Pinterest crochet board, or should I come up with a new pattern? I grabbed my crochet hook, played around a little bit and came up with this flowery granny square.

Then I looked at my yarn stash in search for the appropriate yarn, and first thing that caught my eye was the green glittering yarn I have had for ages. I think that we should always have something shiny and sparkling in our lives, even if it’s a simple skein of yarn. I decided to use it as the background. Then I chose several other bright colors, and the ivory color to balance everything.

If you don’t live in Serbia, you can skip this section where I write about the yarn, because unfortunately, you can’t buy this yarn anywhere outside Serbia, nor you can order it online. All the yarn I used was manufactured by St. George. The green glittering yarn is “Una” 50g/115m 50% acrilyc, 45% cotton, 5% metallized polyester.
The ivory yarn is “Cotton classic” 100% cotton, 50g/120m, and yellow, orange, pink and blue yarn is “Cotton Cable”, 100% cotton, 50g/95m.

I used 3.5 mm crochet hook. At first I didn’t know which method of joining squares to use. In the end, when I finished all 9 squares I decided to use join-as-you-go method to join the squares together which I think works well with these squares.

As with all of my previous pillows I didn’t crochet the back side. I just took a piece of plaid fabric, installed a zipper and sewed it on at the back of the crocheted piece. Nice and easy.

What else can I say about this pillow? First, that I really like how it turned out! I especially like the colors and the yarn I used. Second, that I decided to make the pattern and tutorial for this flowery granny square. Not sure about the whole pillow, though. Will see. Maybe I will also make a baby blanket using the same square pattern. I’m curious to see how it would look, and I have so much yarn in my stash that I could use in that project. Or in some another project…

Update: The flowery granny square pattern and step-by-step tutorial is now available in Dada’s place shop, (payment options: Credit cards & PayPal), in my Ravelry shop, and in my Etsy shop. (payment option: PayPal)

3 Blooming Bags

31/10/2017 by Dada Filed Under: Crochet bags, Crochet granny square 6 Comments

Do you remember my Blooming Blanket and Blooming pillow? Yes, I made something else bloom, too. This time these 3 bags. With a little help from crochet, everything can bloom. I think.

For these flowery, romantic crochet bags I used the same granny square pattern as for my Blooming blanket. The joining method is different though. This time I joined the squares with single crochet. I also omitted the last row of the square. The rest of the square is the same.

They are quite small, but you can easily put your basic things, like phone, wallet and keys inside.

I lined them with a cute plaid cotton fabric, which I always do because it’s so easy, and the bags look so nice and neat because of that. Also, there’s no way that anything can fall out from your crochet bag, which might be possible if they aren’t lined with a fabric.

Yarn: As always, 100% cotton yarn, this time “Vera” (which means faith in Serbian) 125m/50g from Yumco (manufacturer from Serbia)

The pattern for the Blooming granny square, as a part of the Blooming baby blanket is now available in Dada’s place shop (payment options: Credit cards & PayPal).

Yo can also purchase it in my Ravelry shop, and in my Etsy shop (payment option: PayPal).