patterns for Share a Square

It's that time again. I've begun work on squares for Share a Square. I doubt I will do 150, but I will certainly do a good number.

I have begun with my very favorite square, which is my daughter's design using the cross-stitch. This pattern and four others are available at my Etsy shop - 5 squares by Kate Smith. She designed the squares and I wrote them up. We have included pages of additional tips as well.

The first group of red squares below were worked to Round 4 then another x-stitch round done. They came out to exactly 6". In fact, all of these are as close to 6" as could be. They are all square even though the angle at which I took the photos makes them look a little off.

This one is worked to pattern but with one color. The last round follows the hdc suggestion.

This one is the same as the one above but with Round 5 in blue.

This one is worked exactly to pattern but uses Red Heart Soft yarn (navy and grey). That yarn is a little thinner so I used dc as my last round. I loved the final product. These colors work well together.

These next three are the V stitch square. The first is Red Heart Super Saver, red and navy.  Red never photographs well. I know this. Yet I still use red.

This photo is only slightly better. I wanted to show you the measurement as I know it's hard to tell when just looking at the photos. They can be deceiving depending on the way they are taken.

And here is the V stitch made with Red Heart Soft. It is just a smidge smaller than the red.

Here are some of the other squares made with the different patterns in the packet.

In the pattern packet tips are included to help you get to the size you need. It's a good value, if I do say so myself. :-)

In other news, Red Heart has put out a new yarn called With Love Yarn. I'm anxious to try it. In the meantime, I received my Red Heart Soft and will be making scarves and squares for the next little while.



Happy crocheting!
Sandie

orange in my blue

I received an explanation for the bad yarn I got - the navy with the orange bits. Thought I'd share.

Thank you for your recent inquiry about the reason you may sometimes find a different color fiber in a yarn.  Occasionally, two different colors may be processed in the same spinning room at the same time.  Fiber from one machine can be accidentally blown into another (for example, if a door is opened at the wrong time).  Because the manufacture of yarn is so highly automated, the wrong color can be spun into the yarn and transferred on to the finishing process without being seen.  Unless the color migration can be seen on the outside of the skein, there is no way to know that the situation has occurred.  And, even at that, occasionally a skein will be missed due to the high volume of product processed and finished in a single day. 

So now you know. Basically it is caused by the fact that everything is automated and they are putting out more yarn cause we eager beavers are using it up so fast. So I'm going to extrapolate and say it's our fault, folks. Heheheh

One would think at least this particular problem might be solved by working on only one color at a time. I guess that is not practical. I've never been to a factory where they wind these. Would be interesting to see how it's done. The address on the Coats and Clark web site is in South Carolina. If you live there, maybe they'd give you a tour? If anyone does that, do holler out and post pics. :-)

[Edit: I wanted to add here that they DID send a snail mail follow up on this problem and indicated they would be sending replacement yarn. So kudos to Coats and Clark for taking care of this in such a speedy manner. Also thanks to CrochetBlogger for sending the link to Vickie Howell's tour of the Caron plant. I would think the Coats and Clark would be similar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz-H4yFZd2E ]

Happy crocheting!
Sandie