The trip to Serbia was drawing to an end, yet I had still some time to spare. I used to spend time there meeting with old friends, but on every subsequent trip there were fewer and fewer friends that had time or interest to meet, so I just stopped even letting them know I’m there. So I had time to hang out with my family and do some work too.
My mom and I have been looking at these AI generated crochet coats made up with granny squares and looking nothing like the real crochet would look, yet they are interesting to look at and could provide some ideas, though the execution would still be up to us to figure out – or not? Apparently, AI is now being used to generate images of all kinds of crochet works along with crochet patterns, and we watched a video of a lady demonstrating that this pattern does not yield the result shown in AI generated image – not even close. Some are even selling these patterns on Etsy and making money without even having to know how to crochet.
So that got us looking at granny squares. I personally have never done them, but my mom has been making them for sweaters and shirts – not entirely made of granny squares, but having a row of them around bottom of sleeves and front/back. That’s how I ran into a video of rather interesting looking granny square – but it was in Spanish! OK, I can still follow along, even if I don’t understand much of it. So I began making it, the next day I finished it, and started another one, and by the third day, I had four of them. For the second and third square I still had to watch parts of the video where I wasn’t sure how exactly to crochet particular row, but I was able to do the fourth square without referring to the video. I also went ahead and modified the last row, and added an extra color for the third row, which originally had the same color as the second.
Completed squares require steam ironing to get into shape. It’s not wise to iron them flat, because they are dimensional and have puffy accents that should stick out, so the ironing is best localized to the last few rows, those that turn the round motif into a square, with the corners pinned into a foam cushion. I connected these four squares with either a slip stitch, or sewn them with thread and needle, I don’t remember which. And again, I had no idea what to do with the finished piece, so I left it to my mom to use it as she likes. I liked working with that yarn, so I wound up a ball of each color and brought those home.
Back in the US, I wasn’t sure what to start working on next, so I ended up just continuing where I left off in Serbia: making these granny squares, remembering how to make them without a video, with the yarn for it freshly unpacked. I made nine more squares and thought I had enough. I had some vague ideas for using them on a jacket, or perhaps a bag, but so far they are still not attached to anything:
I grew up browsing Burda’s hard cover thread/yarn arts book that had whole colorful blankets made out of granny squares and loom flowers. I like experimenting and designing, and I don’t usually use someone else’s patterns, but if I do, it’s mostly just for certain parts of the project. Likewise with these granny squares – I look forward to using them as the building blocks for another project, whatever that ends up being.