Scarf bouquets and OCD patterns

Some of you might remember my mammoth granny square blanket, which was how I taught myself to crochet in the summer of 2011:

God I love this beast

I still had quite a bit of yarn left over from this project, but all scraps and half-skeins. I needed a patchwork kind of project to use these odd bits up.

Last Christmas, as well as making scarves for small relatives, I decided to make one for a friend as part of her secret santa present. I've done a lot of work with scarves now - partly because I'm lazy and they're quick, but mostly because they make good gifts. So I was working on four scarves last November/December... I do like to bite off more than I can chew.

I hadn't done any smaller granny square projects before, and was keen to learn how to join them together. I found this pattern by the brilliant Lucy of Attic 24 (all of her stuff is amazing) and figured I could use these squares to make up a scarf. I was really keen to find a granny square pattern with flowers in because I'd recently made a few flower brooches for a Twitter friend and had flowers on the brain:

Mmmm broochy

The squares were really easy to make. They start out as little circles with what looks to me like a sun in the middle. Lots of little suns. It's quite odd at first when you start turning the little circles into squares, but satisfying.

You can see the square starting to form on the right there.

One of the biggest beasts when it came to this project was sewing in ends. Ye gods, that took a long time.  

Here an end, there an end, everywhere you look an end.

Another 5 bladdy ends

I decided to do the third round of each square navy blue so that I could join them all together with the same colour later and to make the finished item look all neat and tidy. Also I liked the way this made the colours pop out like actual flowers.

...Also also, I had a lot of navy yarn left over from the Spiderman blanket.

I have a mild form of OCD, which really kicks in when I'm doing any projects with multiple colours, because I like to get the pattern just right. Before starting crocheting I worked out the colour combinations.

The (self-imposed) rules were:
- each colour of yarn would be used in two different squares
- no two squares would have the same colour combination
- each colour had to be used once for the inside of the flower and once for the second row (the petals)

Once I had crocheted them all I could start the really fun bit of working out colour combinations. I now added in an additional rule:
- the same colour of yarn couldn't be in adjoining squares.

These rules combined meant major flippin' brain ache as I tried to work out all of the possible colour combinations. Add to this that I was working with two different (but very similar looking) shades of yellows, reds, dark pinks and greens and... *brain explodes*

This is me joining them together. If it looks like this kind of a mess then you're doing it right.

I didn't want to follow how Lucy had joined them in her pattern, as I wanted them to look like they'd been crocheted at the same time, as one big piece of work, rather than sewn together later. I had found this pattern for joining squares together as though you're just putting in another row, by a lady called Carina. It worked pretty well. The joins do have a visible front and back in the way they bend though, so I alternated how I joined them to give a kind of accordion effect. This probably makes no sense, as explaining it requires hand gestures, drawn diagrams and maybe a large glass of wine.

All explanations require wine.

 Joining... joining... joining...

Feeling pretty chuffed with how it had all come together, I finished up joining the squares and had this...

In case you're wondering, bottom left are two different shades of green and top right are two different shades of dark pink. And yes, this does still bother me

Excellent!

Except it's waaaay too small for an adult and probably even a child to wear.

Oh dear. 

More squares required!

Because I am batsh*t crazy, I had to continue with the rules. So now:

- each colour of yarn would appear in four squares

- each colour would be used twice as the inner circle and twice as the second row (or 'petals')

- none of the squares would repeat a colour combination

- the same colour couldn't appear in two adjoining squares

- I didn't mention this earlier as it seems obvious, but I couldn't use the same colour for both the first and second row of the same square (because that would look ick), or use the navy blue in the flowers

- and my brain should be doing a cry at all times, trying to work this out.

Also I was starting to run out of some of the colours, which was really limiting my options. 

And I was unwilling to introduce new colours into the sequence. 

........

 

Every time I use multiple colours in a project it becomes a massively complicated mathematical equation. And it's not even like the friend I made it for will ever notice the very specific sequence of colours *sigh*.

Anyway, once I'd finally cobbled together my squares and joined them, I could begin the border. 

Leopard print nails FTW

I just went around the whole thing with an extra few granny square rows to straighten out it all out (particularly after the accordion joining technique) and make it look all neat and tidy.

 I had sewn in the ends after each stage, thank goodness, or it would've been a hideous task at the end!

TA-DA! I LOVES IT!

Why yes, I did just spell out WIN in pictures, what of it?

 

My friend loved it, and I was pretty chuffed with how it turned out. 

I'd definitely like to make a blanket with small granny squares in the future, even if it does mean a lot more work joining them together.

When taking photos of the finished item I thought I'd give wearing it a go. I've seen other crafty blogs where they have worn the item and done a selfie...

 

Probably best to change out of your Christmas pyjamas and put a bit of slap on first though. This is my 'wanted by Scotland Yard for further questioning' look.