Left Hand Motif of the Month: Feb 2013 Log Cabin Crochet Granny Square

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com and we are going to do our newest motif of the month which is the Log Cabin Granny Square. That's its most common name. This motif is great for variegated yarn, so if you have some multicolored yarn that you haven't figured out what to do with it yet, this motif is going to be perfect for it. It's also a really versatile motif because you can make it in any size square you want. You can make a whole blanket out of just one square or make a bunch of little squares and put them together in really interesting ways. So I'm going to show you how to do it and all the different things that you can do with it. So let's get started. Alright, I am going to show you how to make this very cool log cabin motif. Um, I really like using variegated yarn for this motif because it really shows, um, the stitch pattern how different it is and it really shows off the versatility. So this is just a small sample of what this can look like. This is probably about a four inch square. This motif is great because you can make it as big or as small as you want. I could make little tiny one inch squares and attach them if I wanted to. Or I could make a whole blanket out of this motif. And it's a super easy motif to remember. You can, once you do two rows of it, you already have it down. So let me show you how to do it. Let me show you what yarn I'm using because it's a really cool color. This is Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable. It's a parrot, is the name of the color, and it does remind me of parrots. The color number is 3945, hopefully you can see that. Or it's E793. I'm never sure which one is which until I look it up to see which is the actual color number. It is a worsted weight. It's a little bit thinner than a normal worsted weight, but it's still a good, nice thickness that you can use. I like using the smallest size hook recommended when I'm making this pattern or this motif because the stitches really look... good when they're close and tight so that you can see the color changes so I'm using a 5 millimeter hook an H hook. So let me pull out my yarn so I can start I'll save you the yarn barf, you know, untangling of and I'll come right back. Okay I'm back, I have pulled out my yarn, I'm ready to start so I'm just gonna make a slip knot to put on my hook and this has a very easy beginning all you need to do is chain two Because you are working just into that very first chain that you made. So the second chain from your hook. That second chain is going to just be to get you the correct height for your single crochets. So your very first row is going to be three single crochets into that chain. And that's going to make that very... Beginning corner of your log cabin motif. So what this is, is this is going to be the corner, and it's going to grow out from there. And it's a very simple repeat. All you're doing is adding one stitch every single row before you increase in that corner again. So I'm going to chain one. For my next row, I'm going to single crochet in this very first stitch. If it's a little difficult to see because it's all mushed together with these three and one, just turn it sideways and look for your V's. Here's one, two, and three. So you just want to go under that very first V. Only catch those first two loops, and then perform your single crochet. And then I'm going to do three single crochets in this middle stitch. Which is going to create my other corner, my opposite corner of where I began. So every single row I am increasing right in the middle stitch that I get three times. So three single crochets and then a single crochet in that very last stitch. So now I've got two rows made. Doesn't look like much yet but as I keep working it'll start looking more like a square. So I'm going to chain one again. Now I'm going to go single crochet in two stitches, so I'm going to single crochet in that first one, single crochet in the next one, and now I'm at my middle stitch again, so I'm going to single crochet three times in that middle stitch. If you want, what you can do also is use a stitch marker and put it in the middle of your three increases that you're doing. And then you can really not pay attention, you can just keep single crocheting until you come to your stitch marker, and single crochet three times in the stitch where the stitch marker is, and then place your stitch marker in the middle stitch of the increases again. So let me grab a stitch marker real quick and I'll show you exactly what I mean by that. Alright, I got my stitch marker, so I'm just going to place it in that middle stitch that I made of the last row of increases. So if you're not using your stitch marker, you're going to chain one, and this time you're going to single crochet three times before you get to your middle stitch. So if you notice there's a pattern happening, the very first row is one stitch to the middle stitch, the next row is two stitches to the middle stitch, this one is three stitches until the middle stitch, and it's just going to keep going up every single row by one. So I'm going to take out this stitch marker so I can increase three times. One, two single crochets, and three single crochets. This, for the smaller, if you're making these squares on the small side, you probably won't need the stitch marker or wanna use it, but say you were gonna make an entire blanket out of this one single motif. You might want to use this because then once you get further and further, if it's hard to visualize the three stitches in there, if you can't, if it gets a little difficult to see where that middle stitch is, this can really come in handy because you don't have to pay attention. You just keep single crocheting into each stitch you come to until you come to that stitch marker. So I'm doing three more single crochets across. And then I turn my work, and I'm starting to get a color change, so now my square will become a little bit more interesting. So I'm going to single crochet in the next four stitches. I always chain one at the beginning of my row. I single crochet into four. And now I'm at my middle again. And I'm going to go three times in the middle. One, two, and three. Then I'm going to clip it right in that middle stitch again. You may not need it for the first few rows, if it's easy to see and easy to count you might add your stitch marker later on in the project, if you get up to maybe 20 or so stitches in each row, or each side. So as you can see I'm starting to get my square, and it's just kind of neat because it comes, the colors change only on one side, instead of working from the center out, I'm starting I'm starting in one corner and working out. So again, I turn my work, and I chain one, and I'm going to single crochet into the next five stitches. My previous row was four, so now I'm up to five, three, and five. And there I am at my stitch marker again. Just pop it out. I like locking stitch markers because they don't fall out when you're working. That little extra step doesn't bother me of unclipping them. Add it back in. Where'd it go? Here it is. Once you get used to locking those and unlocking them, it's even easier. Then I have five more single crochets on this side. So you can see how my yarn is changing color, and I'm getting some neat effects from it. So let me show you that other swatch I made again, because that's all you're doing is you turn your work. So we did five on the previous row, now we're going to do six. Increase in six, then you turn, you have seven, increase in seven, and it just goes up and up, no matter what size you want, until you're happy with the size. So, I just pulled out some of my stitches from this one, and it's pretty easy if you do pull out some stitches, it's very easy to find where you left off and fix it. Fix my little motif here real quick. I should have had a stitch marker in my loop so it wouldn't pull out the stitch marker from my other project here. Put it in here. I really like this yarn. It has a really neat color change. It's very pretty. So here is my motif. Here's my beginning row. And as you can see, you just work down one side, you increase in the middle, and you work down the other side. And you just keep going and going until you have the size that you want. Now when you join these, you have a lot of different Because you can join... You know, beginning to beginning, and make a really neat colored square, or you can put them offset to where your beginning is maybe down here, and your ending is up here. You know, you can move them around in lots of different ways, and especially with the variegated yarn, you can come up with some really neat color patterns of how you join these up. So I would just whip stitch these, or you could even border them, maybe in white would be neat. That would really make these colors pop and then join the white with a single crochet join or a whip stitch join. But this motif is really simple but creates a really neat effect. So if you have any questions about it, you can substitute for any stitch. So if you wanted to do this in half double crochet or double crochet or even treble, you could do it. You would do the same thing. So let's start with three and just increase right in the middle. And it would just give you a taller stitch. But definitely you can substitute any stitch for this single crochet. So if you have any questions, leave them below. If there's any motifs that you really want to see, leave that below too and I'll get to work on those. But thank you for watching.