CAL - Week 1

Its officially time for the Amethystry Cal!!!

I'm very excited to see how this goes!

So welcome to Week 1!

Before we begin, I would like to reiterate that I am not a teacher, I've never tried to write a pattern or show someone how to do this before so if anything doesn't make sense, please feel free to let me know and I will try my best to clear those questions up. I will also add some of my most used references at the bottom of this (youtube and website tutorials) incase you feel someone who knows what there doing may explain it better haha.

This week we are going to focus on getting our squares together. If you remember, the blanket we are going to make is going to look like this:

The blanket is 6 x 6 rows totalling 36 squares all together, 18 red, 18 pink. So that is what we will be working on this week. Again, this is supposed to be a super chilled challenge, a way to learn something new and enjoy the feeling of creating something with your own hands. If it takes you 2 or 3 weeks to get all the square made, thats totally cool! Everyone has different availability, crochets at a different speed, has different learning levels etc, so just do what you can, when you can and when you want to and enjoy it!

- 5mm Crochet Hook
- Red Yarn
- Pink Yarn
- Stitch Markers (optional)
- Scissors
- Yarn needle

We are going to be making this blanket using solid granny squares. This uses slip stitches, chain stitches and double crochets to make up the squares.

A quick note on terminology. The UK and US have different names for the same types of stitches, because, why not just confuse the fuck out of people for a laugh right? Below is a little comparison that explains the UK vs US terminology.

UK: Chain Stitch     US: Chain Stitch
UK: Slip Stitch     US: Slip Stitch

UK: Single Crochet     US: Single Crochet
UK: Double Crochet     US: Half Double Crochet
UK: Triple Crochet     US: Double Crochet

Fun huh?!

So the following pattern and this whole project will be written in American terminology.

A few tips before we begin:

Tension: you don't want your tension to be too tight. You want your stitches to glide and it to be fairly easy to put your hook through, so if you find you have to really wrestle, your tension is too tight. On the flip side though, you don't want your stitches to be too loose, this will make your blanket look a little loose and floppy. I like to hold my yarn first wrapped round my pinky and then between my thumb and index finger. 

You should be able to run the yarn through pretty smoothly.

Ends: When it comes to the ends, you want them to be around 2 1/2 inches long to allow for weaving in. You can make them as long as you want, just remember you will be cutting them so you don't want to waste too much yarn, but you don't want to cut them so short you cant weave them in well enough causing them to come out after use and then have your blanket unravel.

Size: A lot of patterns (if you go on to try something else after this) come with a gauge which will say how many stitches per 3" square you should have. I personally don't bother with these. I probably should, especially when it comes to making jumpers, but honestly, I can't be arsed haha. I trust that I know my tension and i've never really taken on clothing projects (just one sweater that I started 2 years ago and never finished!) The squares we're making here should measure around 7 1/2 inches once finished. But this also changes depending on your hook size (say you used a 6mm vs the 5mm I've recommended, then it will naturally come out bigger due to your stitch sizes being bigger) If you use everything i have recommended and it's still coming out bigger or smaller, I really wouldn't worry about it. We will be laying out all the squares before we put them together so if when you lay them all down and you feel it's too small or too big you can always just add another row and column of squares or take some away. Again, don't stress, this is just some fun.

How each round will increase: The way this pattern works is you start with 3 posts per side on your first round (so 12 posts for all 4 sides) this will increase by 4 posts per side (2 posts on either side of the pervious round) each time you go round. Again, this will make more sense as you move forward 

So let's get into it!!!

Here is my mega professional, completely inspiring, filmographer extraordinaire youtube video! I walk you through the stitches, how to get started and so on while I do it myself so you can see how it's done. I haven't edited it at all. and I did forget how to show you to cast off originally so there are a few cuts where I have to jump back and show you haha but I'm not here to make you think I'm a film maker, because I'm defiantly not. But I do hope it makes sense and can bring some clarity on what to do. Scroll past the tutorial to find the written pattern.

Difficulty: Easy Peasy

Finished Size: 7.5″ square approx. (6 rounds)

Stitches we will use:
- st/sts: stitch/stitches
- ch: chain
- ch 2 sp: chain 2 space (this will be the chain stitches that make your corner. You can also call this your corner space)
- dc: double crochet
- sl st: slip stitch

Pattern Notes:
- Written in American terminology 
- Chain stitches at start of each round count as a double crochet
- Remember to slip stitch before chaining stitches to start a new round (this will make sense as you go)

Start by making a magic ring.

- Ch 5 (this counts as your first double crochet and your first corner space)

- Into the ring: work: 3 dc (this will make your first full 'cluster') then ch 2

- Into the ring: work: (3 dc, 2 ch) 2 times

- Into the ring: work: 2 dc

- Pull the cut end from your magic ring tight so it closes the ring completely.

- Join with a sl st in to the 3rd ch st you started with (officially the top of your first dc) [12 sts, 4 ch 2 spaces]

- Make one more sl st into the ch 2 sp (the corner space)

- Chain 5 (first dc and ch 2 corner space)

- In the ch 2 sp work: 2 dc

- Work: *1 dc into the top of each dc from the previous round, then make (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) into the corner space* repeat this on the next 2 sides

- Work: 1 dc into the top of each dc from the previous round. Then 1 dc into the ch 2 sp (or corner space if you will)

- Join with a sl st in to the 3rd ch st you started with (officially the top of your first dc) [28 sts, 4 ch 2 spaces] 

- Make one more sl st into the ch 2 sp (the corner space)

- Repeat Round 2 but with the increase of posts on each side [44 sts, 4 ch 2 spaces] 

- Repeat Round 2 but with the increase of posts on each side [60 sts, 4 ch 2 spaces] 

- Repeat Round 2 but with the increase of posts on each side [76 sts, 4 ch 2 spaces]