My mum found a disintegrating rubbish bag full of yarn in the sunroom at my grandparent’s house. She didn’t think it would be any good, but my late grandmother only bought the best and the Patons bluebell ‘patonised’ wool was perfect, even though it was probably from the 60s or 70s.
So she gave it to me and I decided to make a blanket for my niece. I don’t know exactly what I did, (perhaps my husband’s helpful comment “I reckon it’s your tension” is correct), but early on, it started going askew and was dubbed “dancing” by some fellow LCers. I used up all the yarn, except a little of the red and dark pink and it ended up about 3’ square.
Here is the progression (which took me way longer than I anticipated) and the final product (which was “very cute” according to my 7yo niece).
AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
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yay! I think you will need to tell her the story of it being made during the pandemic! I am sure the dancing was tension on different days…it will make a good story, someday…lovely colors and perfect for your niece since it was made from your granny’s stash.
Let me start by saying I love the order you put the colours in, and then let me say I can let you know how to stop your work from ‘dancing’ as much…tension would cause how it pulls/dips along the sides somewhat, but to stop the square from dancing, you need to reverse the way you travel every row, by this, I mean crochet one row, flip the work for the next row, and go back the way you came. Because our work naturally ‘slants’ the way we crochet, eg towards the left for right handers or to the right for lefties, to stop it, you need to go back the way you just came from. This will even things out and your squares should (once you have tension sorted) all be even and square. However, if you like your squares the way this one is, then continue to make them the same way…Alternating the direction you work helps when making several granny squares to make a blanket…joining them is easier and they sit flatter when they’re ‘square’. Great work, and your Granny would be proud.
Nice yarn save! Nothing you did wrong, I don’t think. I’ve made quite a few giant granny squares, and the “dancing” swirl seems to just be the nature of the beast. The swirl isn’t as noticable in smaller squares, especially when they are sewn together and the seams keep them all in line.
