Sometimes you get a grip on a project and sometimes a project gets a grip on you.

The textured squares afghan is, for me, definitely in the latter group.

While I had thought of making this project several times in the dozen years that I have owned the book (Maggy Ramsay’s Magic Motif Crochet), it wasn’t until the Saturday before Christmas (nine days ago) that I finally took hook to yarn and began work on it, and it has not let me rest since I made the first four chains and joined them into a loop.

The pattern calls for four large squares constructed from four medium squares that are bordered by six rounds of the textured stitch that forms the basis of the project; I have decided to forgo the border on the large squares and make six of them rather than four; today I made some headway on my second large square:

While the patterns are not entirely visible in the yet-to-be joined medium squares that will form the second large square, the overall patterns that are emerging can be seen somewhat in the large square on the right:

In addition to the small textured squares that form the foundation of this project, there are also the horizontal and vertical texture lines, as well as the small gaps in each corner that create small open spaces which look like dotted lines.

Using a simple technique that consists of working single crochet stitches through the backloop of the previous round, the design possibilities are endless as is (or so it would seem) my crochet journey.

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