After last time, I started to realize that this project was going to cost me a lot of money and time. I thought how I could save some of both, so I decided to revise the pattern slightly.
One square doesn’t really photograph well, but all in all, much better than the brown experiment, don’t you think?
Here’s my modified pattern:
Materials:
- Super bulky yarn, 3 colors + border color (I’m using white)
- 6.5mm crochet hook
Abbreviations & Notations
- ch – chain
- dc - double crochet
- hdc - half double crochet
- st – stitch
- yo - yarn over
- [ ... ] - repeat instructions in [ ] as many times as specified.
- double cluster stitch - [yo, insert hook in indicated st and pull up a loop, yo and pull through 2 loops] twice, yo and pull through all 3 remaining loops on hook. For first st in round, the ch 3 replaces the first yo and pull through.
- triple cluster stitch - [yo, insert hook in indicated st and pull up a loop, yo and pull through 2 loops] 3 times, yo and pull through all 4 remaining loops on hook. For first st in round, the ch 3 replaces the first yo and pull through.
Notes:
I like to join as I go, which means that I stop after round 3. Then, when all the semi-finished squares are ready, I crochet the 4th row and join as I go. I will explain about this technique later in the series. If you’d rather complete the 4th row and then sew the squares together, that’s just as acceptable…
Instructions:
Round 1 (requires 3m of yarn): With 1st color, make magic loop, ch 3 (this counts as first dc). 15 dc. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.
Round 2 (requires 5m of yarn): Join 2nd color with sl st between any of the dc in the 1st round. ch 3, complete double cluster st, ch 1. [double cluster stitch between next dc, ch 1] around. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.
Round 3 (requires 8m of yarn, instead of 11m): Join 3rd color with sl st in any of the ch 1 spaces in the 2nd round. ch 3, complete triple cluster st, ch 2. [triple cluster stitch in next ch 1 space, ch 2] around. Join with sl st to top of ch 3. Cut yarn.
Round 4 (requires 8.5m of yarn): Join 4th color with sl st in any of the ch 2 spaces from the 3rd round. ch 3, 2 dc in same space. [3 hdc in next ch 2 space, 3 times. 3dc, ch 2, 3dc in next ch 2 space]. When you reach the first ch 2 space, 3dc, ch 2, join with sl st to top of first ch 3 (to complete the corner).
This round turns the circle into a square.
I’ll spare you the calculations (you can to the first post in the series to see how I calculated the amount of yarn I would need of each color) and get to the final numbers: I would need 1536 meters of colored yarn (all colors) and 986m of white yarn. Originally, I was going to get 4 colors, but when I got to the store I decided that 8 colors would be much more fun!
Yes. That is a pile of 26 balls of yarn. Incredible. Each ball contains 110m of yarn, so I have plenty to spare (assuming I didn’t make any gross calculation mistakes).
8 colors can be combined in 324 different ways, but I only have 96 squares, so I guess I’ll have to come up with some method of making sure I keep the colors well balanced and the amount of yarn from each ball even so I don’t run out of too many colors… I’ll share how I decide how to do this when I know myself…
Until next time, happy crochet!
