Square 29

If the importance of any lesson I have ever learned was reinforced today, it was this:

When all else fails, read the directions.

While I did manage to make extremely modest progress on the granny square sampler, an inordinate amount of the day’s crochet effort went into Square 29 of Jean Leinhauser’s 101 Crochet Squares.

It was not supposed to be that way.

It was supposed to be quick, it was supposed to be easy, it was supposed to keep me treading water in the crochet-a-long while at the same time generating some finishing mojo, and it didn’t really work out that way.

It started off well enough. Having decided that I would work the square in multiple colors instead of one as was shown in the exemplar, I got off to a good start with the first round:

first round of crochet square 29
The first round of crochet square 29

I made no mistakes, there were no errors in the written directions. I thought sure I would finish this square in well under an hour.

I moved on and made similarly spectacular (to my mind) progress up until I reached the fourth round, seen here:

four rounds of a crochet square
The first four rounds of crochet Square 29

From that point, in my fervor to continue at the same breathtaking pace, I failed to read the directions completely or look at the accompanying photo.

As a result of not reading the directions, I failed to notice that in round 5, there was a departure in how the sides were worked from the pattern that had been established in the first four rounds.

After I completed the necessary frogging and reworked round 5, only to find that the directions for round 6 told me to work a double crochet stitch in a ch-1 space where I had, in fact, made a chain-2 as directed in in round 5.

A close examination of the picture led me to once again frog back to round four, but this time I was able to move forward and finish the more-challenging-than-I-expected Square 29:

multicolor crochet granny square
Crochet Square 29

I’m not entirely certain what lesson (or lessons) I should draw from this crochet adventure. Is is the importance of writing clear directions? The necessity of time consuming pattern testing and editing? The value of a good photograph when words are insufficient?

I don’t really know what I was supposed to learn, but tomorrow is going to be an errand-free rainy day, so maybe, just maybe, I will be able to sort out the lessons learned from Square 29.

3 thoughts on “Square 29

  1. so uncharacteristically not your usual color choices… more in tune with my rustic earthy level of comfort….
    I also had some level of frogging that had to be gotten through and the it was clear sailing the remainder of the time I had to crochet….pictures to follow -its the Japanese floral I have been longing for…Sweet dreams and here’s to rainy crochet filled tomorrows for us both!!!!

  2. The same thing happened to me the other day, I unraveled again and again! I guess we learn that we always have something to learn…

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