This weekend we had a day of weather just right for laundry: not raining, not so cold that the wet laundry would freeze before drying, and not so humid that the laundry would sour before drying, so in addition to working on bringing order to my crochet empire, I did laundry.

In between washing loads of clothes and towels and sheets and hanging them out to dry, I worked on writing patterns for one of the motifs I recently unearthed:

The first problem I faced was “what to call this motif?

After giving it some thought, I decided to go with “Pop goes the granny square” because using a main color to outline and create visual space between the changing colors, really makes the changes visually “pop.”

The next question was “What colors should I use for a crochet tutorial?”

In my first effort (pictures above) for the main color I used black, but for the purposes of the almost write pattern and tutorial, I decided to use Red Heart Super Saver aran because it would allow the reader to better see how the stitches were worked.

All that was left was to figure out the four colors I would use to create the “popping” effect.

After giving it some thought and doing a bit of research, I settled on what I think of as the original “LifeSaver®” colors and their corresponding versions in my favorite Red Heart Super Saver yarn: cherry red (cherry), pumpkin (orange), yellow (lemon), spring green (lime), and aran (pineapple).

Then, with my 5.0 mm hook in hand and my computer opened to Evernote, I got to work, starting with a one-round cherry red square:

From there, I worked my way out, round after round, until I had nearly finished both the square and the pattern:

I still have a little work to do to call the pattern for this motif “finished,” but after a weekend of laundry and crochet, I am closer to my goal.