Yesterday, as my crochet day drew to a close, I had worked on several motifs, including this partially completed Seville square from Jan Eaton’s 200 Crochet Blocks:

This morning, I picked up where I left off with my 5.0mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver soft white. After making (and correcting) more errors than I thought were possible to make in 7-round square, I finished it:

While I think I could use more practice (and a 4.5mm rather than a 5.0mm hook) to perfect my technique and make a square that better highlights the beauty of this design, I was very happy with my first effort with this square, and it is definitely on my list of things I plan to explore more thoroughly one day.

With the Seville square’s ends woven in and trimmed, I turned my attention to another project that is also outside my color comfort zone: the “Textured squares afghan.”

This is a project I had been meaning to get to for over a decade, and I have finally surrendered to the Red Heart Super Saver aran and made a genuine effort to complete it (with just a few revisions).

When I last wrote about my efforts, I had just joined two additional large squares for a total of four:

My revision of the original design calls for six of large, unbordered squares (rather than four large bordered squares). So far, I have finished and joined four of large, unbordered squares leaving me with two more to be made, and I have been getting a start on that over the last couple of days.

Today, I completed one of the eight medium squares I will need and four more of the 32 small, textured squares that will comprise the remaining 7 medium textured squares that will, in turn, comprise the large, unbordered textured squares:

A project such as this does not go quickly. Because it is all one color (and I am using the word color very loosely here), and because that color is very light, it is easy to see any and all mistakes.

As a result, I have frogged errors that I might otherwise think could be allowed to stand, not because I think that perfection is an achievable or desirable goal (I understand that a hand crafted time will not have machine like precision in the stitches), but because some of the errors, while small, have (because of the clarity the design requires) had the potential to undermine the aesthetics of the finished piece.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I suspect that I will once again be drawn to this vanilla adventure that will both take longer than I thought it would and be done before I know it.

Video Tutorial: How to make the crochet textured square/magic motif

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