Tuesday Tutorial - Crochet for beginners granny blanket part 1

I finally finished Jaybugs granny square blanket. I remember blogging about it here in February and saying that it would be finished in no time. But my problem is I get distracted. I tend to have about 10 projects that are either on the go or in my head begging me to make them....

With moving two weeks ago I made myself promise myself that I wouldn't touch or think (too much) about another project until the blanket was finished. And whatta know?? I did it!, I finished - finally!

For the blanket:
I used Moda Vera Marvel Plain 8ply yarn (from Spotlight). It comes in lots of great colours and I have used 6 colours in this blanket. I think I used between two and three balls of each colour in the end so roughly 15 balls of yarn.

The blanket size is 10x11 or 110 squares - this fits Jaybugs single bed which is what I wanted.

A 4mm crochet hook (or a 6 in USA and 8 in UK)

Please note I crochet in US terms as it seems to be mostly what I find online and it also seems to make sense with the stitches and stitch names.
Here is a crochet stitch conversion chart to make it a bit easier.

Abbrev	American	Abbrev	English
ch	chain	ch	chain
slip st	slip stitch	sl st	slip stitch
sc	single crochet	dc	double crochet
hdc	half double crochet	htr	half treble
dc	double crochet	tr	treble
tr trc	treble triple crochet	dtr	double treble
dtr dtrc	double treble double triple crochet	triptr	triple treble
trip tr tr trc	triple treble triple triple crochet	quadtr	quadruple treble

Before I start with my square pattern and then how I joined them using a border I will give you some good resources I use. Stitch instruction for complete beginners can be found in lots of place online or in crochet books.

Some good online rescources:

Crochet Australia here - they also have left handed instructions if you need them
Crochet for Dummies here
Crochet Dictionary here
Crochet How-to the basic stitches here
and there are plenty of others out there if you search for them.

There are heaps of great videos links on Youtube for beginners here

And a few good blogs I read

Meet me at Mikes - here, 

Paisleyjade - here and 

Crochet school - here

And many more....

A few good beginners books in my crochet library are:

Stitch and Bitch - the happy hooker by Debbie Stroller

200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton

Cute and Easy Crochet: Learn to crochet by Nicki Trench

Hooked on Crochet! Hats by Annis Attic

Crochet Bouquet: Quick and Easy by Cony Larsen

Little Crochet: Modern Designs for babies and toddlers by Linda Permann

Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli

Note: All the links are to the book depository as this is the site I personally use for my book purchases but you could find these titles any where you like.

And my favourite resource of all is Ravelry for crochet and knitting. Here there are patterns, ideas, forums, yarn suggestions, an online project library and so much more

So I will leave you will a whole lot of reading and searching but will be back with part 2 and part 3 soon.

Crochet - not so granny after all

So as you can probably see we have been through a major upheaval of life recently and with this comes little structure and room for being creative and crafty - wrong!
I have found how much I truly love crochet during this busy time of life. I have found it easy to carry around a hook and a yarn or two. There are plenty of simple crochet patterns which can be taken out and about, in the car, on holiday.

At the moment my favourite yarn is Moda Vera - Marvel 100g balls (available from spotlight stores) It is an 8ply yarn (or double knit) which is able to be used for a large variety of projects and best of all it comes in a HUGE range colours and it is really affordable - which it needs to be as I can't just pick a colour or two...

I was seriously stuck when it came to crochet. I really wanted to be one of the cool kids (seems everyone who is anyone is crocheting right now). I was point in the right direction by Kristy over at Paisley Jade to learn the technique of granny squaring first. To be honest I was too caught up in wanting to make cool things to realise that some basics may be what was first need.
So over to Meet me at Mikes I was sent and what an amazing set of Granny Square 101 instructions it is. I was hooked - haha I know bad joke....
Seriously if you have tried and failed (as I did in the beginning) or are wanting to try crochet this is a seriously good place to learn the basics so you too can become one of the cool crochet kids!

After making a few squares I thought I was a bit too cool and moved on to other projects like headbands, hats, shoes and slippers. But the truth is when you are on the go your love for squares soon returns when pattern, internet, computers or paper fail to stick by you.

So here is what I have been working on for Miss Jaybug - and to be honest I am starting to get excited about finishing it as there has been plenty of time in the last week to Square away.

I don't really have a plan in mind just six colours and I'm going for it. I am hoping to have it complete very soon and will be sharing the finished blankie with you all.

What projects are you currently working on? Have you recently found a new hobby or craft? I would love to see. Leave me a link to your blog in the comments and I will pop over and have a look.
And if you are thinking you might like to try your hand at crochet pop over to Meet me at Mikes and try Pip's Granny Square 101