Using what you have

Leslie Stahlhut

I am learning a lot from my quest to have an organized workspace, and one of the things I am learning is that using what you have is a great way to not get overrun.

This is probably obvious to a lot of people, but I have a tendency to think that somewhere out there in the world there one more color that is “exactly” right and that one color will make all the difference.

And that is, on a theoretical level, possibly true.

But then there is a practical level.

The one where I am limited by what color yarns are made by yarn companies and indie yarn dyers. I am still further limited by whether or not I know about their products, and even if I could buy them all, I would be limited in the amount of time I had to evaluate the interplay of the colors and how the various yarns worked together, and time is one of those non-renewable resources which you must guard jealously.

I have learned the hard way that time spent choosing a color is time spent not crocheting.

So this weekend, not only did I rehab these two pieces (the square on the left is practice swatch I made for one of my crochet course certifications, and the one on the right is ordinary granny square made using Gertrude Taylor’s specifications):

Two more rehabbed five-inch crochet squares where I learn to "use what you have"
Two more rehabbed five-inch crochet squares where I learn to “use what you have”

I also made headway on using the seemingly endless two-round granny squares and crochet rosette squares that were in my crochet empire.

I got this photo of fifteen of the sixteen squares I have completed:

Fifteen rehabbed crochet squares made with the "use what you have" ethos
Fifteen rehabbed crochet squares using the “use what you have” strategy

which shows not just the interplay of color between the contrast yarns and the squares, but also the texture I have added as I have rehabbed them in the form of appliquéd crochet flowers and crochet rosettes.

I also got this photo which shows my overall progress when the squares are laid out as they might be in a blanket:

crochetbug, crochet roses, crochet flowers, textured crochet flowers, crochet squares, granny squares
Sixteen rehabbed crochet squares with crochet flowers and roses

When I received an email asking me if I would be willing to donate a few squares for a project,I had no idea that lurking in my crochet empire was not just one or two crochet blankets waiting to be made, but possible three or four or five.

And when I was done with my crochet square rehab, I made this video tutorial for how I make a seven round textured crochet square:

As I move forward in my quest for an organized space, I am realizing more fully than before, that I will only ever be able to work one stitch at a time.

2 thoughts on “Using what you have”

  1. Thank you so much for this video! I have admired your projects using this technique and wondered how to make these. Actually I admire ALL your projects and so enjoy following you….one stitch at a time :))

  2. Hi, I was looking at your rehab squares with the flowers in the center and I was struck by how much they look like iced graham crackers. I don’t know what this may help you in your quest for rehabbing your squares but that does really strike me as a really neat idea: making an iced graham cracker blanket with flowers, which is an unwieldy name. Perhaps you can make it more interesting. Thanks for your insights.

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