A couple of weeks ago, I took 18 squares that had been waiting to become their project and began putting them together. Their destiny is a wearable garment, a sweater. I’ve never made a sweater before. And the first iteration was beginning horribly. Horribly.

Enter my friend Rah-Rah from my Crochet with Friends segment from way back in 2021. She’s my best friend, so she’s at my house regularly and every week for our homeschool co-op. I showed her the beginnings of my sweater and she didn’t think it was horrible. In fact, she gave me some advice on how to fix it, and she was right!

The garment needed four more squares before it could transform, so that’s what I spent this week doing.

A little bit of encouragement from a friend, goes a long way.

If this is your first time reading about my current crochet challenge, make sure you go back and read this post for a refresher of my self-imposed rules. As I post each square, I will post the name and difficulty rating given to each square by Diana Krenz in her book 100 Vibrant Granny Squares, which I’m using for this challenge. Then I will give my difficulty rating and notes about the yarn I used and any new stitches, etc., that I encounter. See squares 1-2 here and squares 3-5 here and 6-11 here and 12-19 here and 20-25 here and 26-31 here and 32-40 here and 41-46 here and 47-50 here and 51-52 here and 53-55 here and 56-66 here and 67-73 here and 74-82 here.

The squares

You might recognize this square. I did the 12″ version in the last post, but this is the only pattern in the book that has the 12″ and 9″ squares written as completely different squares that both count toward the final 100.

I’ll put the squares side by side below for a quick comparison.

Keeping in mind that I dubbed the 12″ square the “hardest in the book”, the 9″ version I took back to a 3 in difficulty. It is easy to see that the essence of these squares is the same, but the 12″ version adds more difficulty with the subsequent rounds. The 9″ version really didn’t seem to hard after that.

Do you see the viola in the middle? I know some people who keep violas as houseplants on their window ledges. I can see the flower and the variety of color they allow.

I chose to make the 9″ version of this square. I wrote the note “straight forward” about this pattern, but looking at the picture, it shouldn’t be. This square has layer upon layer of texture. It is a testament to Diana Krenz of the thoroughness of her patterns. I have to pay close attention to how each round is constructed, but can easily follow the pattern when combining the written instructions and the diagrams.

I’m loving diagrams. I had toyed with them before starting this project but now fully understand how they help. I’m getting ready to release the Pocket Full of Posies Blanket pattern, which I actually wrote before starting this project, and it has diagrams! I can’t wait for you all to see it!

This pattern was not written to be a 9″ square, but I needed one, so I adapted. I stopped at round 12 changing from a double crochet to a single crochet for size. After some of the previous squares, this one seemed easy peasy.

I followed the 9″ directions for this square, but stopped one round shy because it was getting big. This square obviously would have benefitted from blocking (that was one of the tips I gave for good photography), but as I was going to be putting it into a garment, I did not. The stretch and weights of the other squares will square it up enough.

I continue to be amazed at the different construction techniques in these patterns. This one has a fun zig zag ridge, which she’s used before, that just makes it so interesting. I don’t love my color choices, but the square itself is beautiful. Had I gone to the 12″ instructions, there would have been even more fun textures!

There you have it. The last four squares for my bright, gaudy, fun sweater. I hope to finish it up this week and be able to show it to you soon. Hopefully you’ll like it. My husband has dubbed it perfect for an “ugly Christmas sweater contest.” One of my daughter’s has greatly judged it strongly based on her facial expression alone. It won’t work as camouflage, but the colors are happy and I’ll wear them.

In the meantime, keep stitching, Heidi