Yirggzmb's Stuff
Topic: Yarn Crafts - Crochet
Back to Main - Back to Yarn Crafts
Red Heart Granny all in one Square Yarn Experiment
I'm fascinated by novelty yarns, especially the kind where it's something they're doing with color rather than texture. So while I knew going in that this "make a many color granny square without having to change yarns" idea was going to be a bit futzy, I was really curious JUST how annoying it would be. So here is a log of my attempt and general thoughts.
So for starters, here's the yarn. It's very clearly just a self striping, not much different than other self striping yarns other than the marketing. The pattern on the ballband is for a bunch of granny squares sewn together into a vest.
The pattern recommends starting from the centerpull strand, so I pulled out a bunch of yarn to get a feel for the stripe sequence. As it turns out, the end of the centerpull did indeed start with the first color, though I imagine that's pure luck. There's also not really any way to know if the entire length of the color is there, but I figured some of it would be extra for the starting tail anyway so I could probably make it work.
Using the recommended hook as a starting point, I figure I'll follow the pattern and see what happens. The pattern says to leave a 4" tail, so I roughly measured out that much from the start of the strand and began crocheting. The pattern is a bit strange to me in that they have you start with a ch6 at each corner. It's clearly to prevent you from having to slip stitch across to get to the next ch3 space, but it's just not what I'm used to.
My first attempt ends up with quite a bit left over of the first color. So I measure how much extra I had, rip back, and add that to the tail at the start. This time it matches up perfectly.
The second round, of course, leaves me with a bunch of extra yarn too. Enough to make me realize that I should probably just start over with a bigger hook. Which I do. I go from the recommended I (5.5mm on the pattern, but all the ones I've found in stores lately are a 5.25, though this is usually a negligible difference) to a J (6mm) and just do the entire beginning again. I go back to intentionally measuring off 4 inches for the tail (or as close as I can get using my finger as a measuring tool) and this time there's minimal fussing to get it to the right point.
Of course, the second round still leaves me with extra of the orange. But it's a much smaller amount this time, so I rip back about half of the round and do my best to keep my tension just a little looser as I do. This time it works out and the color changes right as I slip stitch into the start. Clearly, the answer is to have a light touch with the tension.
Except no. I work the third round, being sure to not pull the yarn too much. And the color changes before I reach the end of the round. Ok. So rip some of it back and redo closer to my natural tension. It takes a couple tries, but eventually I get there.
Ok, so not too loose and not too tight. Round four ends up being similar to round 3, changing just a bit too soon. It's not the end of the world if I left it as is, since it's only the last stitch. But it would bug me, and anyway this is an experiment. I rip back and adjust tension again, repeating until I get there.
Finally, the last round. I figure, this will be easy. I'll just crochet at my natural tension, and any extra can just be woven in with the rest of the tail. Except NOPE. The color changes almost perfectly at the end. If there had been another round to go, I would have been ecstatic. I rip back about a quarter of the round..
This time I make a point to be significantly snugger than I usually am, at least for this side of the square. It works, there's still tail left in the right color, but gosh it's really short. I decide the best thing to do is to rip the entire round out and do it again. This time, instead of the pattern's 3 chain corners, I do 2 chains and keep close to my usual tension.
This works. And yet, somehow, the white yarn left at the end is significantly more than I would expect just having taken out 4 tiny chains. Oh well, that's plenty to weave in, or even use for seaming. I decide not to think about it too hard and just finish it off.
In the end, I think this is a really cool idea. I also think that maybe, just maybe, this is not a great choice for a beginner. I know what I'm doing and have a decent understanding of how things like gauge and tension work, and I didn't have to fuss with it unreasonably much. But definitely some. Meanwhile, this is absolutely the kind of thing that I can see baffling a new crocheter, thinking they've done something wrong even if they've followed the pattern to the letter.
I haven't decided, yet, if I want to make some more squares and use them to make something. Not enough yarn here for the vest in the photo, even the smallest size says it needs two, and even still it's not really my style. But things like bags and pillows made from squares are cool. Another thought is to use the yarn for something else, and just use it as a regular self striping yarn. I think hats, in particular, could be really cool.