Traditional Granny Squares: Baby Groovyghan CAL(8)

I am still suffering from extreme Manda-litis.     This seems to be having a serious impact on my other crocheting - that is why this post is a little late - I am still playing catch up with my own Baby Groovyghan!

For those joining in now (or for those who are a little behind) here are the links to the previous posts:

WEEK 1 - RAINBOWS AND DAISIES SQUARES

WEEK 2 - RAINBOW HALF GRANNY SQUARES

WEEK 3 - THE FIRST STRIPES

WEEK 4 - CIRCLES IN SQUARES

WEEK 5 - ZOOTY OWL SQUARE

WEEK 6 - ITS STARTING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE A BABY GROOVYGHAN

WEEK 7 - POPCORN FLOWER SQUARES 

This is what my Baby Groovyghan looked like at the end of Week 7:

 

I chose the Mirage 4ply, which comes in these cutesy little 25g balls, because it the only locally available brand with a selection of wonderful bright (almost neon) colours!   A number of people have asked me where they can acquire yarn in the colours used in this project.   Mirage 4py does, however, only seem to be available here in South Africa,  but I have noticed that our South African 4ply is more or less equivalent to the Stylecraft Special DK HERE.

There are 59 shades to choose from in the Stylecraft Special DK range, among which you will find a lovely bright orange, yellow, a green, a pink and a purple!   Deramores delivers worldwide and their service is brilliant!

Our final row will be a row of Traditional Granny Squares since no Groovyghan would be quite complete without at least 1 row of grannies!

Pattern Terms:  US 
Yarn:  Mirage 4ply 
Hook Size:  350mm

My patterns are all written in US terms.  For those readers who are used to UK terms I will be including this little conversion chart in all my patterns for ease of reference.

Crochet 5 Stripes onto the bottom of the row of Popcorn Flower Squares as follows:

Row 1:   Join your white yarn (or whatever colour you are using as your border colour) into the corner 3ch of the first square in the row;    3ch in same place as join (counts as 1dc);  1dc into the top of each dc, when you reach a corner on a block 1dc into corner, 1dc into loop of  join, 1dc into corner on next block.   Repeat this to the end of the row of blocks.  1dc into the last corner 3ch. 

Rows 2 - 5:   "Granny Stripe"

Row 2:  Into space between first 2 double crochet on the wrong side of your work, crochet 3ch, 2dc,  *skip two spaces, into third space from hook 3dc* rep *to* to last 4dc, 3dc into space between last 2dc. 

Row 3:  turn work - now working on the right side;  ch 4;  *3dc into space between clusters* rep *to* to last sp between clusters, ch 1, 1dc into sp between last dc on final cluster of Row 2

Row 4:   Working on the wrong side of your work;  3ch, 2dc into 1ch sp at end of prev row (i.e the start of this row);  *3dc into space between each cluster* rep *to* to last sp between clusters

Row 5:  Repeat Row 3

Crochet 5 Stripes onto the Top of the row of Popcorn Flower Squares as follows:

Row 1:   Join your white yarn (or whatever colour you are using as your border colour) into the corner 3ch of the first square in the row;  3ch in same place as join (counts as 1dc);  1dc into the top of each hdc, when you reach a corner on a block 1dc into corner, 1dc into loop of  join, 1dc into corner on next block.   Repeat this to the end of the row of blocks.  1dc into the last corner 3ch.

Row 2 - 5:   In the colour of your choice join yarn into first dc of previous row;  3ch (counts as first dc), 1dc into top of each dc; 1dc into the 1ch over each join;  repeat to end

NOTE:  Rows 1, 3 and 5 are worked on the right side of your work;  Rows 2 and 4 are worked on the wrong side of your work.

Join the 5th (bottom) row of the Popcorn Flower Squares  to the 5th (top) row of the Zooty Owl Squares using the VISIBLE JOIN

Another photo hurriedly taken while precariously perched on a wall!  (Hubby fears finding me lying on the ground with a few broken bones!  - so I quickly take photos from my "perch" when he is not looking!)

For the final row make 8 Traditional Granny Squares.

I was going to do a little tutorial for the Granny Square, but I found a brilliant one over at LITTLE TIN BIRD 

Join your traditional granny squares using the Visible Join.

Crochet 5 Stripes onto the Bottom of the row of Traditional Granny Squares as follows:

Row 1:   Join your white yarn (or whatever colour you are using as your border colour) into the corner 3ch of the first square in the row;   3ch in same place as join (counts as 1dc);   1dc into the top of each hdc, when you reach a corner on a block 1dc into corner, 1dc into loop of  join, 1dc into corner on next block.   Repeat this to the end of the row of blocks.  1dc into the last corner 3ch.

Row 2 - 5:   In the colour of your choice join yarn into first dc of previous row;  3ch (counts as first dc), 1dc into top of each dc; 1dc into the 1ch over each join;  repeat to end

NOTE:  Rows 1, 3 and 5 are worked on the right side of your work;  Rows 2 and 4 are worked on the wrong side of your work

Next week is the final instalment of this CAL - the border!!

Happy crocheting until then!