I lived in Michigan one year, and while native Michiganders might scoff at what passes for winter here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, it is sufficiently wintery for my delicate sensibilities.

So today, as my son started back to school and we had our first below freezing morning of the new year, I bundled up and as part of my bundling up, I got out these gloves that I had recently purchased:

I bought them in large part because I liked the colors and thought the gloves would be a nice accent to a coat I have, so later in the day, when I was getting ready to take my youngest son to a dentist appointment and I was looking for something portable to work on while I waited, I grabbed my copy of Jean Leinhauser’s 101 Crochet Squares, my crochet hooks, and (using these gloves as a color guide) Red Heart Super Saver yarn in brown, shocking pink, and petal pink.

Once my son was situated, I got out my 5.0 mm hook, along with a skein of shocking pink yarn, and began work on square 4:

As can be seen from the photo above, the first round is a very interesting and unusual construction, with an elegant result. Using the petal pink, I proceeded to crochet the second round:

The second round was more traditional in its construction and served as a bridge from flower to granny square. I used brown to finish the square. The third round carried forward with the granny square technique established in the second round, while the fourth round was a simple and straight forward single crochet:

I have yet to work a square from this book and not learn something.

The beauty of Jean Leinhauser’s motifs is that she did not rely on fancy stitches to create her work. Instead she used basic stitches in creative ways that resulted in squares that are not just fun to make but also impart new skills and perspectives to crocheters at any level.