Thursday 28 October 2010

Joining Those Popcorn Grannies


Hello dear patient crochet friends (and other friends who don't crochet but are happy to scroll down to the latter part of the blog post for the other stuff that isn't wool related).

I've finally got around to doing you a little How To Join Popcorn Granny Squares Tutorial, and here it is for you.  As usual, the crochet terminology is USA, so if you work in UK stitches, just amend accordingly and it should all go swimmingly.


First of all, take two of your squares and join them evenly, corner to corner with the good sides facing in.  On my grannies there are two stitches per corner, try and match these up.


Push your hook through the corner stitch (this will be the left stitch of the two corner stitches as you look at them), and pull a loop of wool through.



Wrap your yarn around your hook again and pull it through the first loop on your hook.



Take your hook out of the loop, yes - don't worry it's quite safe, and pull on the loop to make it a little larger with your fingers.  Next, feed the short tail end of yarn through it and tug on the ball of wool end to make a secure knot.



Once the knot is firmly in place and you're happy it's not all going to unravel, wrap the yarn around your hook:


Push your hook underneath the two stitch loops on each square that lay on the outside, wrap your yarn around your hook and pull through another loop (2 on hook).


As per a slip stitch, pull the second loop through the first loop; one loop left on hook:


Push your hook through the next stitch, through the two outside loops of the stitches and pull a loop through...


Continue in this way, slip stitching along to the end of the row.



At this point, you can carry on around the corner, adding another square, or cast off in your usual way, sewing in your ends.

The front looks something like this when you join at the back, but you can also join on the front if you wish to have colourful strips running through your work, and instead use SC instead of SS if you prefer.  Just put the backs together at the beginning instead of the good sides facing.


As usual, I hope my tutorial makes sense, please do holler if you think I've missed an important bit out or if there is something you don't quite understand and i'll try my best to help.

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For those of you who have just joined us and skipped the tutorial; 'Hello!'

Well we've had some wonderfully bright, sunny days of late.  The moors close to our home look gloriously wild and vast at the moment...


And to say it's almost November, things still look decidedly Septemberish to me, very green wouldn't you say!


This time of year is all about crunchy walks in the woods, big blue skies and cascades of crimson, gold and lemon yellow leaves.  It's also about cosying up in nice scarves, warm socks, eating roast dinners and lighting candles as the darkness draws itself in ever earlier...it's starting a new crochet project (I caved in and bought Rowan Cocoon ~ more about that next time) and re-designing my note card collections.

Oh my, I am so happy with these...



Both sets of cards feature five of my most popular artworks, the choice of cards have been updated with some newer work and the boxes redesigned completely.  The only thing I haven't changed is the price, which is still £7.50 per box with free P&P to UK Mainland customers.

These boxes of cards would make a really nice gift for someone, or for yourself (why not!), and are available in my gallery shop here where you can have a look at the card images that come with each set.

They will also be available in my Etsy and Folksy shops within the next day or two.

Although it's still only October I'm finding myself rather busy with all things Christmas, so it's left little time for me to work on anything else!  I think I could do with advertising for a Little Helper.  
I did try engaging my three year old in a spot of leaflet printing the other day, and for a time she was delightedly making neat piles of freshly printed paper...but she got rather bored (after about six) and started pulling the leaflets through the printer before they'd actually finished printing...I discovered it before too many were ruined but needless to say, she was swiftly put onto house building duties in the lego department while I tidied up the mess.

Well, I must make an effort to visit Blogland now, as this last week I've hardly had the chance and I miss my little roamings and readings.  Do forgive me, life is rather full at times and the nice bits have to be shoved firmly to the bottom of the pile while the Important Stuff is dealt with.
Welcome also to some new followers, please do drop in and say Hello if you have the time, it's always lovely to hear from you!

Sending love and hot mugs of spicy pumpkin soup;  have a glowing and spooky Halloween weekend!

Much love, Julia x x x

9 comments:

  1. Hi Julia.

    Wheeeeee! I've just bought some of your Lovely Dream notecards - they're gorgeous! I'm thinking of framing a couple rather than sending them all to other people! :-)

    Thanks for saying such nice things about 'my bunting which is your bunting'!!! The only change I made was to do trebles for the first round and rather than doing them into a chain ring, I did a chain of three (counts as first treble) and then nine more trebles into the first stitch of the chain. (Does that make sense?) That way you can pull the tail of wool which closes the hole in the centre (bit like a cat's bottom!).

    Enjoy the rest of your day,

    Hx

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  2. Lovley cards and a great tutorial. Your pictures are great. Very clear. x

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  3. Thanks for the tutorial. Makes total sense.
    Love the photos, beautiful landscapes.

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  4. Thanks for this great tutorial
    I love your cards!

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  5. I wonder if you saw the butternut and nut butter soup on Hugh F-W's programme last night? Just the usual butternut squash, cubed, with fresh chilli and ginger and onion and stock, pulverised in a blender, then a tablespoon of cruncy peanut butter mixed with a small amount of the soup, returned and blitzed again. Sounded gorgeous, looked divinely silky and the butternut squash in on my shopping list.
    Love your cards, and reading what you have been up to.
    Maggie x

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  6. oh if only I could crochet, they look fab. Love the story about yout little helper trying her best, printers do take too long sometimes so I can see where she was coming from :-) Do you get your cards printed from on-line printers? I really want to get some of my photographs made into cards for me but I can't seem to find a good priced printer :-(

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  7. Thanks so much Julia for the tutorial! I'm currently making a cushion from little granny squares and was dreading the stitching together stage. Hopefully now it should be much more fun! xx

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  8. Great post as usual - your cards are great - I WILL get round to ordering some this week. xxxxxxxx

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  9. Hi Julia
    You know everytime I read your blog I wish I could create something beautiful out of wool! I think I may have to ask my Mum to try and teach me to knit again lol!! I love the boxes of cards. Glad to hear you have had some help ;-)
    Love Em x

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