Tag: afghan squares

Time flies …

I don’t know where the time is. This year just seems to be flying past me … We’ve just been on holiday, got a new car, celebrated Easter and now it’s already May – my birthday month …

To be honest, I haven’t done that much crochet recently. At least not much I am able to show right now.
I am still playing around with Tunisian crochet. So far I have never worked with two colours in Tunisian crochet. So I am just practicing different techniques and I’m curious to see what effects you can achieve with it.

Besides, I am currently working on a shawl in Tunisian crochet, designed by Rachel Henri.

Comme un Air de Printemps

means Spring is in the Air in English and is available on Ravelry.

I love the construction of this shawl! It is more ore less worked in strips that are connected as you go. Therefore you even don‘t need a Tunisian crochet hook. A normal hook is absolutely sufficient as long as it is long enough to carry 12 stitches or so.

I am using a 4-ply sock yarn with 76% Cotton. The colours are a soft mixture of grey, pink and lilac. Unfortunately they do not show so well in my picture.

And I was also able to do two small tests.

Easy Come Easy Go

is the new pattern by Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity that was just released. Her the link to Ravelry, but it’s also available her other platforms.

I was happy to test this pattern a few days ago and am very pleased with the result.

My version is made Stylecraft Special DK and a 4 mm hook. I followed colourway 1 – Pam offers two different ones in her pattern – and replaced the colours as follows

  • Colour A – 1067 Grape
  • Colour B – 1026 Apricot
  • Colour C – 1240 Soft Peach
  • Colour D – 1832 Mushroom

First I was a bit unsure about this colour combination but I think it worked quite well. However, I am sure this square will also look great in just one colour.

The finished square has 39 stitches per side. Of course the final size will depend on the yarn you use. Mine measures about 26 cm / 10 inch.

At the moment I’m thinking about making a wall hanging from different afghan squares. This one would be a good start. Let’s see….

Dream, Sparkle, Shine

I also helped testing a new pattern designed by Ana. Her lovely Dream, Sparkle, Shine.
Ana had chosen a great colour combination from Hobbii Mocktail yarn.

The pattern is available on Ravelry too.

I had no suitable colour changing yarn in my stash so I had to experiment a bit with my Stylecraft Special DK.

Photo credit: Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love

This turned out to be more tricky than I thought and I was not quite able to achieve the effect I had in mind. That‘s why I made only a smaller piece over a few repeats.

I used Cream as background colour and always used the 5 contrasting colours in the same order. I love the colour combination! (Although I didn’t get the desired effect and although a bit more contrast might be better for mosaic crochet.)

  • Background – 1005 Cream
  • Colour A – 1064 Mocha
  • Colour B – 1844 Toy
  • Colour C – 1832 Mushroom
  • Colour D – 1218 Parchment
  • Colour E – 1240 Soft Peach

Originally I wanted to make a cushion out of it, but then I had another idea. I had a simple cotton bag, a promotional gift from a pharmacy, with logo on one side. My patch had the perfect size to fit on the front side. So I made a small border – just one round of single crochet – and sewed it on. Voila – a new project bag.

And that’s all there is for today! Have a lovely time 💕

Pinwheel Square

Last updated on May 12, 2026

Another test for Pam

I recently had the opportunity to test a new design from Pam Knighton-Haener / A Yarn of Serendipity: The Pinwheel Square.

The pattern was just released and is available on Ravelry. You will find a link at the end of this post.
The skill level of the pattern is categorised as mid-intermediate. As always, the written instructions are very clear and accompanied by detailed photos for each round.
Made with Aran / Worsted Weight yarn (#4) the final size of the square will be 11 or 12 inch / 28 or 30,5 cm – depending on the size of the crochet hook used. And of course, the final stitch count matches all the others from Pam’s squares.

My yarn and colours

As you may know, I often use a light weight (#2) cotton yarn for these tests. For example Schachenmayr Catania or Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4. The reason is simply that I’ve accumulated a wide variety of colours of these yarns through crocheting amigurumi, so I am happy to use them up. Besides the great colour range, both yarns also have good stitch definition.

Somehow this time I decided to go with my stash of Stylecraft Special DK.

I recently used a similar colour combination for another overlay mosaic crochet test.
It was all in neutrals, and I loved the result.
I was curious to see how a colour palette like that would look in traditional crochet.

Well, I am more than happy with the result!

I used a 4 mm hook and the final size of my square is 26 cm – about 10 1/4 inch.
If you are interested in my colour way, here my notes.

Pattern Link

Pinwheel Square on Ravelry

Happy hooking 💕

Progress with my Legacy Blanket

Last reviewed on May 14, 2026

YAY! It took a while because I spent so much time thinking about the colours and how to arrange them … But finally … all 12 squares are finished! All tails are worked away and all squares are blocked.

These are the last three squares that were missing from my collection.

Lauren Rose

Brood of Angels

Macey Ann

I’ve just prepared the first squares to be joined together and spent a while working on the layout.

After arranging and rearranging the squares a few times, I settled on the layout shown on the left. I hope it will look nice!

The Zipper Join

In the Justyce Destany Border pattern for the Legacy Blanket Pam recommends to use the Zipper Join for joining the squares.

I have to admit, I’m no expert when it comes to joining squares. I once used the ‘join-as-you-go’ method to join a few granny squares – but I think that’s about it. So, for the Justyce-Destany border, I’m trying my hand at the zipper-join for the first time.
The pattern includes a useful link to a video tutorial showing how to do this join. But if, like me, you prefer written instructions, I’ve also found a very clear and helpful guide from Raffaella from Raffamusa Designs.
Nevertheless, the beginning is a bit fiddly – at least I think so … But I am slowly getting the hang of it.
I experimented a bit with the crochet hook size at first and eventually settled on a 5.0 mm hook. I crocheted the squares using a 4 mm hook. However, with the larger hook, I find it easier to crochet even stitches when joining, which don’t end up too tight. So far, I’m happy with the result. It’s a very neat and flat join. Now on to the next squares!

Have a lovely time 💕

More Squares of my Legacy Blanket

Last reviewed on May 14, 2026.

Progress with my Legacy Blanket. The joining comes closer, 11 of 12 squares are finished now. All tails worked away and most of them already blocked!
I also revised some of my colour placements and am happy with the result!

Besides Pam just released the pattern for the Justyce Destany Border .

I was happy to help testing the border pattern. Even though my blanket isn’t finished yet, I can already give you a little sneak peek at the border.

For testing purposes I used two of my ›old‹ squares which I made right at the beginning of this journey: Drops Merino Extra Fine #50, Light Beige as main colour, #06 Brown Mix and #07 Light Brown for contrast. I discarded this colour scheme after I had worked the first two squares – somehow I didn’t like it. But – advantage – it gave me some ›leftovers‹ for testing the border.

And here some of my finished squares

Madux James

Brixton Carter-Lee

Marley Mae

Jalen Miles

Carter Jude

Olivia Grace

So far so good!
Lauren Rose (one of the revised ones) and Brood of Angels are still on the blocking board. The last one to finish is Macey Ann. Actually, Macey Ann was the very first Legacy Square I made. So it still has the ›old ‹ colour scheme and – besides now being part of my border patch – needs to be redone.

All patterns for the Legacy Blanket are available in Pam‘s Ravelry store.

Have a lovely weekend 💕

Em Cabal Square

Last updated on May 14, 2026

I don’t want to miss the chance to show you my Em Cabal Square. I tested this pattern – designed by Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity – a few weeks ago.
The Em Cabal Square is a special design for the Ravelry BAMCAL2023 – Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long, a group on Ravelry.
Every month, three different Afghan crochet squares are featured in this group. The designs are chosen by the moderators and/or group members, and you can decide whether you’d like to crochet one (or all) of them. By the end of the year, you’ll have a beautiful blanket. What a brilliant idea!

Em Cabal one of the squares for the month of October. It is a 12 inch square with 39 stitches per side. The skill level is beginning advanced. Like all of Pam’s patterns, this one also includes detailed stitch descriptions and helpful pictures for each round.

For my test version I used Drops Safran (160 m / 50 g) and Cotton Kings 8/4 (170 m / 50 g) and a 2,75 mm hook. Both yarns are 100 % cotton – soft and nice to work with.

I followed Pam’s colourway and used

  • A – Drops Safran, # 60, Moss Green
  • B – Cotton Kings, # 41, Spring Green
  • C – Drops Safran, # 71, Marzipan
  • D – Drops Safran, # 11, Strong Yellow

At first, I wasn’t sure whether the two shades of green would go together, but I’m really pleased with the result. That said, the square looks great in a single colour too!

Somehow, the pattern reminds me a bit of Florentine Tiles. What do you think?

The pattern is available in Pam’s Ravelry store.

Em Cabal Square on Ravelry

Some new Squares – My Legacy Blanket

Last reviewed on May 14, 2026

Do you love crocheting squares?
I’ve only just discovered my great love for them! A square is usually finished in no time and – something that’s very important to me – you see results quickly. That also makes them great ‘in-between projects’.
What’s more, they’re lovely to crochet when it’s still warm – you’re not stuck under a big, warm blanket. However, that’s not so important to me at the moment as it’s suddenly turned cold and autumnal here.

You may know that Pam Knighton-Haener from ‘A Yarn of Serendipity’ designed a very special blanket some time ago as a legacy for her grandchildren. It consists of 12 different squares, each symbolising her grandchildren and her family. The instructions for joining the squares and for the border are currently being tested. She has also revised the instructions for the squares, and I’ve had the chance to test a few of them. A great opportunity for a new blanket. It will only be the second one I’ve ever crocheted from assembled squares. Unbelievable!

So far I have already made 9 out of 12 squares. Unfortunately ›made‹ does not mean that they are actually finished. Only 3 of them are blocked with all the yarn ends worked away. For another 3 I am currently rethinking my colour placement and 3 squares still have a lot of loose ends that need to be done.

I’m afraid that’s one of my bad habits: I only weave in the loose ends once a square is finished. Yes, I’ve tried to change that! Yes, I know it’s much easier and less frustrating to do it straight away!
The only problem is: if I weave in the loose ends straight away, I often spot a mistake afterwards (again, yes – of course I know I should check it beforehand – but still…). By now, I’m almost convinced that weaving in the loose ends straight away might bring bad luck – so I just let them live a little longer.
Good things take time, as the saying goes.

Nevertheless, I love working on this blanket and I love my finished squares.

I am using a combination of Drops Lima and Drops Merino Extra Fine – both DK / Light worsted yarns – with a 4 mm hook.
Drops Lima consists of 65 % Wool and 35 % Alpaca. It has 100 m per 50 g. Merino Extra Fine is 100 % Wool with 105 m / 50 g.
My main colour is Lima #100, Off White. The accent colours are Merino Extra Fine #07, Light Taupe (Light Brown) and #15 Light Greyish Green.

I hope the blanket will wash well. Lima can only be hand-washed, but I really like the feel of the yarn. And I decided to combine the two yarns because of the colours. Colour 100, Off White, is identical in Lima and Merino Extra Fine, yet it still looks slightly different. Probably due to the structure of the yarn, the contrast with my accent colours looks softer in Lima. And I much preferred this look.

My finished squares are about 25 cm / nearly 10 inches.

Landyn Tahj

Kinnedy Nichelle

Jalen Stanley

All patterns for the Legacy Blanket -some paid, some free – are available in Pam’s Ravelry store.

Now on to finishing the next ones!

Have a lovely week 💕

Jewel Square

Last updated on May 12, 2026

Ta-Dah … – another new design by Pam!

Already in April, Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity released a new design: another beautiful Afghan square, the Jewel Square.
Fortunately I was able to help to test this pretty pattern – I am a bit late with this post though.

The Pattern

As with most of her patterns, Pam has used Aran / worsted weight yarn (#4) for this design. The finished size will be 11 or 12 inches (about 28 or 30 cm), depending on the hook size you use (4.5 or 5 mm hook).

As always, the pattern is very clearly laid out with detailed stitch explanations, helpful pictures for each round, and two different colour ways.

My Yarn and Colours

I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 and a 2,75 mm hook. The finished size of my square is about 20 cm / 8 inch.

As colours, I’ve chosen a soft, light grey, two different blues and a mint tone.
I bought the blue and grey tones a while ago. I planned to use them for all of Pam’s pattern tests and eventually piece the squares together into a lovely blanket – some day…. So far, it never came to it.

I still really love the shades of blue. But at the time I opted to pair them with grey as a neutral colour as the contrast with white just seemed too hard to me. Now, however, I find that this colour combination can sometimes look a bit dreary and dull, especially in photos.
So I decided to spice up the colour scheme a bit while I was working on the ‘Jewel Square’. That’s why I added the mint green.

At first, I wasn’t sure for a long time whether this was really a good idea. Perhaps it would have been better to use dark blue again instead of mint green? But now I quite like the contrast. It’s a lovely touch!

My Colourplacement

I followed Pam’s colour way 1 using the following colours

Colour A 25, Pastelmint
Colour B – 29, Jeans Blue
Colour C – 97, Mist
Colour D – 28, Light Jeans Blue

All from Hobbii, Rainbow Cotton 8/4 (Fingering weight – 170 m / 50 g)

The only change I made: I swapped the colour D for A in round 11.

In case I’ve made you curious: the pattern is available in Pam’s Ravelry store and all her other places.

Pattern Link

Jewel Square on Ravelry

Efflorescent Square

Last updated on May 12, 2026

Another test for Pam

Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity just released one of her new designs: Efflorescent Square. I am happy that I was able to test it!

Efflorescence demonstrates the growth and beauty of nature’s flower bloom and the personal growth and splendor of human love.

Pam

My test piece is made with Drops Safran. It is a sport weight cotton yarn (#2) with a yardage of 160 m per 50 g.

It was the first time I’ve used this yarn and I am very happy with this choice. It is a soft yarn and nice to work with. I definitely will get some more colours. It also will be a good match with my Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4!
As recommended on the yarn label I used a 3 mm hook. But it should also work with my 2,75 mm hook that I usually use with Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4.

I didn’t follow one of Pam’s colour ways this time, but created my own. Therefor I have listed the colours for each round below.

Here are the details of my version:

Pattern

Efflorescent Square
Available on Ravelry (link below)

Designer

Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity

Technique

Traditional crochet

Yarn and Hook

Drops Safran
Clover Soft Touch, 3 mm

Colours

A – 28, Orange
B – 10, Vanilla Cream
C – 23, Dark Taupe
D – 18, Off White
E – 11, Sunshine
F – 65, Pistachio

Colours per round

Round 1 – A, Orange
Round 2 – B, Vanilla Cream
Round 3 – C, Dark Taupe
Round 4 – D, Off White
Round 5 – E, Sunshine
Round 6 – A, Orange
Round 7 – F, Pistachio
Round 8 – B, Vanilla Cream
Round 9 – D, Off White
Round 10 – D, Off White
Round 11 – A, Orange
Round 12 – D, Off White
Round 13 – D, Off White
Round 14 – D, Off White
Round 15 – A, Orange

Finished Size

about 21,5 cm / 8,5 inch

Pattern Link

Efflorescent Square on Ravelry

New Colourway

Mere Curiosity

I have spent the last days with translating the Mere Curiosity pattern into German. Oh dear! Since German is my mother tongue I actually thought this was a good idea. Well … I hadn’t considered how long it had been since I had worked with a German pattern! In some places it was really difficult for me to find the right terms. I hope I have done it well! Any feedback is welcome!

However … To check the German instructions I made a new square. Originally I had planned to use four colours. After 10 rounds it looked too much like 70s for me, so I decided to add another colour. So now there is a new colourway available using 5 colours!

I used yarn from my stash, the brands are a bit mixed.

Schachenmayr Catania
# 206 – Honig
# 254 – Taupe
#+392 – Lime

Scheepjes Catona
# 520 – Lavender

Uschi Wolle Superglanz
# 63 – ?

Uschi Wolle is a German brand and unfortunately I only have the colour number and no name. I’d call it ‘Lachs’ which means ‘salmon’ in English. It is a little bit lighter than # 427 Scampi from Catania.

If you are interested you can download the new colour chart here.

mere-curiosity-colourway-3Download

Please also see my other posts about Mere Curiosity and

Have a nice weekend 💕

Mere Curiosity

Mere Curiosity is Live

Mere Curiosity

Last updated on May 14, 2026

What was your biggest crochet adventure last year? Apart from testing all these lovely patterns shown here on my blog, mine was simply ‘Mere Curiosity’!

Last year, Pam Knighton-Haener from ‘A Yarn of Serendipity’ set up a design group within her testing group. Towards the end of last summer, I finally began working with her to create a design. The result was ‘Mere Curiosity’.

What an adventure and what fun!
Each of us designed a few rounds and then passed the pattern on to the other so she could continue it.
The bulk of the work – as I already knew – involved writing up the pattern with all its details, such as abbreviations, the types of stitches used, and so on. Finally, the pattern was tested by Pam’s test group in December. I’m currently making the final minor changes, and then the pattern will be available in my Ravelry shop – stay tuned!
We’re donating the proceeds from the sales to Unicef.

The finished square has 39 stitches per side, making it a perfect match for Pam’s other Afghan squares. The final size will, of course, depend on the yarn weight and crochet hook size used.

We obtained the following results regarding the size of our samples

Pam’s sample, shown in the pattern

Aran / Worsted Weight / #4

4.5 mm hook

24 cm / 11”

My sample, shown in the pattern (the blue one)

DK / Light worsted / #3

3.5 mm hook

24 cm / 9,5”

The two samples shown below

Sport weight / #2

3 mm hook

21 cm / 8,5”

Fingering weight / #1

2,75 mm hook

20,5 cm / 8”

Mere Curiosity in Colourway 1

is made with Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4, a 2.75 mm hook and measures about 20.5 cm / about 8”.

Colour A – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 64 Dark Powder Rose
Colour B – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 50 Light Coral
Colour C – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 02 Natural White

Mere Curiosity in Colourway 2

Is made with Schachenmayr Catania, a 3 mm hook and measures about 21 cm / 8.5”.

Colour A – Schachenmayr Catania – # 427, Scampi
Colour B – Schachenmayr Catania – # 263, Soft Apricot
Colour C – Schachenmayr Catania – # 437, Sunkissed
Colour D – Schachenmayr Catania – # 402, Reseda

For this square I followed Pam’s colourway and only swapped colours C and D for rounds 7 and 8.

I hope you like Mere Curiosity as much as we do!

Edit May 2026:

Pattern Link

Mere Curiosity on Ravelry