Part 1 Left Hand Motif of the Month May 2013: 3D Crochet Granny Square Tutorial ~ Free Purse Pattern

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com, and we have our new motif of the month. It's May 2013, and this is the three-dimensional granny square. As you can see, it's got some cool three-dimensional effects. It's not quite a square because of all the three-dimensional, but it's pretty close. And you can either print out the free pattern that the link is below. And it'll show you how to make the granny square yarn stash bag. I call it a yarn stash bag because these holes are great to run your yarn through, so when you're working a project, you can run your yarn through the holes and keep all of your different colors separated. You could also make a blanket out of this. Whatever you like. If you're handy with sewing, then you can put a liner inside of the bag also. I don't give instructions on that because I am not too handy with a sewing machine. But this is what we're going to be working on right now. 100% acrylic yarn is perfect for it. This is Knit Picks Bravo Worsted. Dove Heather is the gray, Peapod is the green, and I think the purple is called purple. But you can get that at knitpicks.com if you like these colors. Or you can follow the pattern and the colors and yarn given for that pattern. So I'm going to grab everything and we'll get started. Okay, so to begin my motif, I'm going to start with a slipknot on my hook, as usual. Nice long tail that's easy to weave in at the end. And my pattern is telling me that I'm going to chain eight. So this is a little bit bigger than the normal chains that you would make when you're working a granny square. And it's just so that you can have a more open hole in the center. Plus, we're going to be putting a lot of stitches around this ring that we're about to form. So we need a bigger ring to fit all those stitches. So I've got eight chains, now I'm just going to go ahead and join it with a slip stitch to make a round. And when I do that, I can stick my hook just pretty much anywhere I want to in my very first chain that I made. It's not a big deal where you put it because it's going to be completely covered by the time you're done with all the stitches you're going to make right now. So you just stick your hook wherever you want, I usually catch just that back loop, you yarn Yarn over and pull that through and pull through the loop that's on your hook. So now I have a nice big ring that's going to be really easy to work into and I'm going to go ahead and start my first round of instructions. So the first thing it's telling me to do is to chain 7. And it says that my seven chains count as a treble crochet and three chains. So that very first one is going to count as a treble crochet, or the very first four are going to count as a treble crochet, and these last three are going to be part of a corner because it's going to turn, it's going to become a corner once we finish all the rest of our stitches. Now it wants me to go ahead And... treble six times into the ring so to work into a ring you're going to yarn over twice of course for a treble crochet and then put your hook right through the center you're going to yarn over and pull up the loop around the ring so you're not working into actual stitches when you work in a ring now yarn over and i pull through the first two loops yarn over i pull through the next two loops and then i yarn over and i pull through the last two with a treble you're You're kind of yarning over and going through two loops at a time for three times. So again, I yarn over twice. Insert my hook through the center, yarn over, and pull up that loop. And you notice that I keep my loop close to my ring. That's going to keep all of my treble crochets even and consistent because I keep all of my loops the same size as my hook. And as I work my loops off, I go diagonal, so it's almost a 45-degree angle that I'm pulling my yarn over through. And you can see that my trebles are lining up. They're staying the same size. If I pull everything up really high before I start- oops, I'm sorry, I didn't yarn over twice. If I pull up everything really high as I work these stitches You see that this one's a lot taller than my previous two, off, and trying to keep those even when I'm pulling stuff extra high, I'd have to keep pulling it the same height every time. So instead of having to pull them high and keep the height the same, I keep them low. I keep my loops on the same size as my shaft and work them off, and that keeps all of my stitches nice and even. So I'm going to work these last three real quick. If you need help with your treble crochets, I have tutorials to show you how to do these, so you can check those out if you need extra help before you try this motif. But once we do these six, now we're gonna have a repeat. So we're going to chain three and then treble six times into the ring again two more times. So I'm going to go ahead and do that. And that's going to create two more sides of my granny square. And I'll meet up with you right after I finish all of those trebles so you don't have to... sit through all of those. So I'll see you in just a second. Okay I finished those two repeats so now I have three sides of my square. Now I just have to finish this last side. So I'm going to chain three. That's going to create my last corner and then I'm going to treble five times into my ring. I'm not doing six times because that chain four that I made at the beginning counts as the last Um, treble in this set of six that I'm doing. And you'll notice that my tail's hanging out. Some people like to crochet it in as they go inside the ring. That's totally up to you. I usually like to leave it out so I can get a really good weave, um, when I sew it in. So I can, um, when it's going around in a big circle, sometimes it can pop out pretty easily. Um, sewing it in back and forth is going to secure it better. better, so... Whatever you're comfortable with, you go ahead and do, that's just my preference, and I'll show you how I weave in my ends at the end of the motif, so that if you've never seen anybody weave in their ends, because that always seems to be the mystery part of everything, people just say, fast enough and weave in ends, and then you have no idea exactly what you're supposed to do with those. I'm going to show you how when we're all said and done. Okay, now I'm going to go ahead and join our round with a slip stitch, and you can either count back four from your first treble that you made, or start at the bottom and count up four, but you pretty much want it to be at the very top of your fake treble crochet, which is the top of your chain four. So one, two, three, and four. I'm going to insert my hook in and do a slip stitch join. So yarn over, pull that through, and pull through the last one. So now I am ready for round two, and you'll see that there's a special stitch that's being introduced. It's a TR6TOG, which means I'm going to treble crochet six stitches all together. So I'll show you how we do that right now. It's a lot easier than the instructions probably make it seem, because it gets very, very wordy.