Circular Squares

Fishie Fishie Fishie Fishes!! Don't you just love fish tanks? Especially when they are full of fish that glow like they are lit within, that dart around and catch the light. I spent about an hour earlier this afternoon sitting next to this tank, watching the fish (and the crabs!) whilst working on a slightly different crochet project.

I took a little (small, minute, miniature) break from hexagons today to teach one of my friends, Vicky, a: how to crochet and b: how to crochet circles into a square. It was inspired by her need to make a blanket that was originally spied on the wonderful Pinterest, as a present for one of her friends who is having a baby.

The blanket above is the one that she saw, and is called Retro Circles. It was made by Adele of the brilliant 3 Beans In A Pod blog, and her making process (not the tutorial) can be found here. At the time of originally posting about this blanket, she hadn't written a tutorial, although has since very kindly written one up for everybody, which can be found here. UK people, be aware that this is written in US terms so you will need to translate the stitches.

Before Adele wrote her own tutorial, she referenced eager readers to another blog called Little Tin Bird, written by Heather, who has her own tutorial for the very similar Bullseye Square, the tutorial for which can be found here (and is pictured below).

Both of them reasonably similar looking and with the same principle of turning a circle into a square but made completely differently!! We tried both of these tutorials earlier to see which one was the easiest and most favourite to work with. Vicky eventually decided to use Adele's pattern because of the swirly line that is created by stitching each round out of the back loop of the previous round.

One of the things I noticed from playing with these patterns is that they start off very similarly to my hexagons (it always has to be relate-able right? I am sleeping and breathing these shapes at the moment!), which inspired me to have my own play at making a circle to square pattern. I have come up with this....

It starts out the same as a hexagon shape would, so using the beginning of the Attic 24 hexagon pattern (found here), but rather than having the chain stitch round to begin hexagon shaping, it continues on with an extra circular round and then changes colour to begin the different stitch sizes which will square up those edges, followed by an extra round of trebles to make absolutely sure that it is a square.
I am quite chuffed with this little square, and whilst it will have to go on a back burner until the block colour hexagon blanket is finished, I have written my own full picture tutorial, found in the usual place on the right hand side of the screen or by clicking the link below, so that you can have your own go at my pattern should you wish to and so that I can remember what I did when it is my turn to continue it- for now I shall keep my first little square in a very safe place.

For my Circular Square Crochet Pattern Tutorial, please click here and let me know what you think!