Granny Square Inspiration | Podcast Episode #121

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Are you looking for a quick and portable project?

The granny square is perfect! You can turn them into just about anything – blankets, purses, coasters, totes…and they work up with only scraps of yarn and a few spare minutes you find here and there.

Special Guest

In this episode, you’ll hear from Kate from Jellybean Junction and get an earful of granny square inspiration. She’ll share some traditional and different ways to use granny squares, how to incorporate color and texture to change things up and ultimately why the granny square is the perfect little go-to.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Hey there, and welcome to episode 121 of the B.Hooked podcast. I’m your host, Brittany, and today we’re going to talk all things granny squares.

I know you’re probably thinking, how on earth can you have a podcast that talks about granny squares? It’s something that’s really visual, right? Well, let me just say it is really easy to talk about something that is so unique and so beautiful with somebody who really just loves granny squares.

I’m joined by Kate from the Instagram account Jellybean Junction, somebody who creates all sorts of things, but you really know her beautiful granny square projects if you go and visit her Instagram account. So today she’s going to share why granny squares are so important to her, why they might also be so important to you, the different projects you can create with them, how you can create an almost endless supply of different types of projects just with granny squares by changing colors and joining technique and playing with textures and the list goes on and on.

I’m really excited about this one. Now before we get to that though, I want to remind you that the show notes can be found at behooked.com/121 for this episode. There’s a couple of resources that we mentioned, but I do want to make sure that you can go and see some of the projects that Kate has made with granny squares, specifically on her Instagram account if that’s where you like to hang out, because you’ll find that it’s very inspiring.

And if you’re feeling like your Crow Joe is just not quite as good as it once was, really, a granny square is a great way to just fuel your fire, play with your creativity, play with color, and make something really beautiful in the process.

So here we go with Kate from Jelly Bean Junction. Kate, welcome to the show. It’s so exciting to have you here.

Kate: 3:12
Hi, thanks for having me.

Brittany: 3:14
Well, the pleasure is all mine. I really just couldn’t wait to get into this topic with you because one, you do amazing things with color and then you also make some really, really pretty and unique pieces. So I’m excited that we can tap into a little bit of that today.

Kate: 3:27
Thank you very much.

Brittany: 3:28
Well, before we get to all things sort of granny squares and color and all the pretty things, I would love to hear a little bit of your story. When did you first like fall in love with crochet?

Kate: 3:40
I started crocheting in 2015, actually, when I was pregnant with my second son. I was suffering a little bit with pregnancy issues—general pregnancy nausea and just not feeling great. So one of my friends suggested I picked up crochet or knitting as a way of feeling a bit better and keeping my mind off of things.

I couldn’t pick up knitting. I’ve tried a few times, but crochet seemed to be a bit more natural to me. So I started making very simple swatches, just back and forth, practicing my stitches. And then I took on granny squares as a way of slowly making a baby blanket for my son, for when he was born. And it was great, and I loved it.

I’ve just gone one step at a time and gradually increased the stitches that I can do—practice, practice, practice. And yeah, so I love it. And I find it very therapeutic. It does exactly what it says on the tin. I think it’s very relaxing.

Brittany: 4:28
It is, yeah. And it’s really cool that it helped you through a lot of that struggle too. And you’ve sort of kept it up now, even after the fact. So yeah, it’s really neat.

Kate: 4:38
Yeah, I was able to make a few things for my son before he was born. I’m a bit quicker now than I was back then, but I still managed to whip up a couple of blankets and a few hats. It’s lovely to be able to make something for your children.

Brittany: 4:52
It is. So how did you learn? Were you a YouTube person or did you use books or do you have somebody to show you?

Kate: 4:59
A bit of everything, really. My grandma is a crocheter. She was able to help me with some basics and just practicing chains, making lots and lots of chains and trying to get my tension right.

YouTube I found very helpful. The tutorials on there are really good, some really nice basic ones for beginners. And I think that you can pause and rewind, which is really helpful. I don’t find books very useful sometimes because pictures, I don’t think, are as descriptive as the text is that goes with the pictures. I think actually seeing someone do it in front of you, even if it’s just on a video, I think it’s really useful.

Brittany: 5:42
Yeah, I always struggled with trying to get my hands to do what the picture was showing. For some reason, I just couldn’t make that connection. So I’ve benefited a lot from videos as well.

Kate: 5:54
Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just getting used to how to hold the yarn. Although I don’t think I hold my yarn in the traditional way that most people do, but it works for me.

Brittany: 6:06
Do you have a video maybe posted somewhere on your Instagram? I’d love to see it.

Kate: 6:11
I don’t have any videos. There’s a few photos of me holding my yarn. Yeah. I like to take a picture of what I’m doing from overhead. So you can sort of see that I clutch it with my index finger, which is not traditional at all. I know a few people that do it like that.

Brittany: 6:29
Yeah. I think I’ve seen that before. And I remember thinking to myself, I feel like my finger would cramp if I held the yarn that way. Does it? You have to push through the cramp?

Kate: 6:43
I think that happened quite a bit in the start, but it doesn’t happen anymore. I have tried to teach myself to hold it the way that people do by wrapping it around your fingers, but I can’t get the tension to be nice and consistent. That’s my problem with that. I like it being neat and consistent. If that works for me, that’s what I’m going to stick with.

Brittany: 7:05
I don’t blame you. I say don’t change a thing. I know I have played around a little bit with trying to change the—or not really change it, but just experiment with the other grip style. I like to hold my crochet hook knife style. So I kind of hold onto it like I would hold a butter knife. And I am really curious and really more just fascinated with people who are pencil grips. I just can’t do it. It just doesn’t work for me.

Kate: 7:31
No, I am a knife hold as well. I can’t—yeah, that baffles me. But there you go. Everyone’s different, aren’t they?

Brittany: 7:39
Yeah, and I think that’s what makes all of our work so unique too.

Kate: 7:44
Yeah, definitely. I think, yeah, tension’s quite a big thing, isn’t it? That’s why, you know, gauge is so important because everyone’s so different. One person with the same size hook and the same yarn could crochet something completely different size to the other.

Brittany: 8:02
Yeah, it really is fascinating. We’ve touched on tension and gauge quite a bit here on the show because it is such a big topic and it’s such an important one. I’m surprised sometimes by how many people don’t do gauge swatches. And I know there’s a time and a place where at some projects you could argue you definitely don’t need one, but then again, sometimes projects you really do need one.

And I love having a lot of people—you know, a lot of different people come on and talk about that topic because you know how it is when you’re learning from somebody. Sometimes one particular person’s style just really clicks with you. So I could say it until I’m blue in the face all day long, but then I could have somebody else come on and it just click for them.

Kate: 8:48
Yeah, definitely, yeah.

Brittany: 8:49
I know it comes into play for granny squares too.

Kate: 8:53
Yeah, I think it does, but usually granny square projects are not—well, you can get garments made from granny squares, of course. I think garments are where it really counts with gauge. So you know that you’re putting all that time and effort into something that is going to eventually fit the person it’s intended for too. It’s heartbreaking when you hold something up and it’s too big or too small and you have to rip it all back.

Brittany: 9:22
Oh, yeah. That is so sad. I get so many questions. I’ve worked it up to this point. It’s too big or too small. Is there anything I can do to avoid frogging the entire thing? And nine times out of ten, there’s really not.

Kate: 9:37
No, no. Learn from it and do your swatch.

Brittany: 9:43
Exactly. Yeah. So bringing it back to granny squares, I know you crochet like all kinds of different things. But what was it about that particular type of project that really just drew you in and made you want to make more and more projects with just this one seemingly simple but incredibly unique square?

Kate: 10:04
Yeah, so I think it was quite a simple pattern. So it was really good for learning. You can use up all the little bits of yarn that you’ve got. So it’s great for sort of scrappy projects where you’ve got little bits of yarn here and there. I mean, I’ve got quite a lot of yarn now. But when I started out, I was just given a few bits from family just to try out.

So that was always good. You could just take what you were given and make a square with that. And it is simple, but just by changing colours every few rows or every other row, they look completely different. You can get solid granny squares as well and traditional ones and add a few other stitches here and there to make them look completely different. And how you join them makes them different. They’re very versatile, I think. You can make all sorts of things with them.

And I think my crochet style generally is using simple stitches and techniques to make various different things. I like to keep it simple, but use colors and a couple of extra stitches here and there to change things up. So they seem to suit my style and I keep going back to them all the time. So we’ve obviously got something going on between me and Granny Squares.

Brittany: 11:33
It’s a really great type of project for somebody to grow into, I think. It’s really hard to get bored with the granny square because of all those reasons you just mentioned. You can change colors, you can add different thicknesses of stripes, you can join them certain ways, and all of that makes something completely different and unique.

Kate: 11:56
I think they’re very relaxing. I often, if I’ve done a big project or something a little bit more complicated, I often pick up a granny square project or just make a few granny squares. I find them really relaxing and really easy. They’re great for doing in the car if you’re going on a long journey or you don’t have to have a specific project in mind. You can just make a few and then perhaps think about what they’re intended for later on.

Brittany: 12:26
That’s a really cool strategy. I know a lot of people, especially this time of year, it’s warming up and people are not really wanting to do like big bulky or heavy projects. I think it’s neat that you just make granny squares because you enjoy doing it and you don’t necessarily have a specific project in mind for them, but I’m sure they always become something.

Kate: 12:49
Most of the time I have. Got quite a few bags of little bags of acrylic Aran granny squares and some cotton granny squares I’ve made that haven’t yet been turned into something. But if I’ve used the same thickness of yarn for lots of them, they can be different brands of yarn, but so long as they’re all the same thickness, then they’ll all join together pretty easily. They’re definitely something you can just pick up and put down.

Brittany: 13:22
For sure. What are some of the projects that you have used granny squares for?

Kate: 13:29
So I’ve used basic blankets. That’s where I started. I’ve done cushion covers. They’re good for homewares. I mean, you can make a set of coasters just with a four- or five-round granny square. If you use cotton yarn especially, they’re brilliant for things like that.

I have one on my desk actually at the moment. I’ve got a lampshade in my craft room that features quite heavily in my Instagram account if you’ve ever seen it. It’s just two rows of granny squares just sewn together and attached to a lampshade. All sorts of things. I’m trying to think now—table runners. I’ve done table runners and big granny square wall hangings. Endless.

Brittany: 14:16
Yeah, I’ve done some bags with granny squares too and, like you said, pillows. One of the cool things that I found with granny squares is you don’t always have to put them together so that it looks like a square.

This might be hard to visualize, but for one particular pillow, rather than put four together to be the front and the back, I used just four big granny squares. And I turned them so that they were kind of offset so that all four of the points came together in the middle of the pillow. And that just was like a completely different look.

Kate: 14:53
Yeah, yeah. I’ve done that with just one big square and turned it so that it was a diamond. Yeah, and then brought all four corners together on the other side of the cushion. And yeah, so you have a nice granny square on one side, but you turn it round and it looks completely different on the other side.

That’s a really good idea, actually. That’s a good one. I haven’t done one of those for a long time, actually.

Brittany: 15:19
You’re going to give me ideas for new projects. When you’re coming up with ideas for this, do you use the squares that you have in your hand or do you play around with like paper or maybe fabric even to see what other shapes you can make with squares?

Kate: 15:36
I’ve tried that, but I think that using a yarn and a hook is the best. I find that the best way to play around with stitches because I think sometimes it just flows. If you’re in the right mindset and you get an idea and you try a stitch and it doesn’t work, so you undo it and you try something else, I don’t think you can get that from anything other than doing it yourself.

I’ve tried to draw them out and design them like that. I mean, I often sketch designs out, but I don’t think until you actually start making it, then you can adapt it to fit a project.

Brittany: 16:16
I agree, too. I don’t always have the best of luck with sketching things. Sometimes I will do… not really drawings, but maybe computerized drawings of stuff on the computer, just because I’m a little better at that than I am freehand.

But almost, I would say the majority of the time, I’m always making some kind of tweak because it didn’t turn out exactly the way I had envisioned or maybe drew it in my mind.

Kate: 16:43
Exactly. I think that sometimes we have an idea of what something’s going to be like, but when you actually come to make it, it does, it evolves. And I think I only really use the computer to draw it out once I know it works. And then you’re doing that for a pattern. It’s usually that way around rather than the other way around for me.

Brittany: 17:04
So I want to address a couple of questions. Now, granny squares are pretty straightforward. I think they’re easy enough for a beginner to do, but they do have a couple of little quirks, we’ll say.

I know one of those things for me, I remember the first time I experienced this, I was 100% sure that I did something wrong. And after I learned a little bit more about how the square comes together, I realized that, oh, it’s just really an inherent quality of how you’re crocheting it, and that’s the granny square lean. Is that what you call it, or do you have another name for it?

Kate: 17:40
That’s a good way of—yeah, I know what you’re talking about when you call it that, so let’s call it that. Yeah, I think as soon as I get past a certain round, they can start to lean. I think if you’re doing a small granny square, only three or four rounds maybe, you don’t seem to see it so much. But when you get starting to get bigger, if you’re just making one big granny blanket, yeah, that lean will start to appear.

There’s a few things that I’ve learned over the years when I’ve been making them. A few tips, if you like. So I turn my square after every round, I flip it over and I start working on the reverse side and work back in the other direction, which I don’t think you can really tell after you’ve made a blanket.

All of my big granny square blankets are like that. So every other round I’m flipping it over. I find that helps. If I am working a different colour every round, when I join the next colour, I join it in the opposite corner. I’m not 100% sure if that works. It’s just something that I do and I always get nice square squares. So I won’t ever not do that.

So I flip it over and go the opposite direction and join my next color in the opposite corner each time. Yeah, those are good tips.

I think that I don’t tend to put chains in between my clusters. I quite like my squares to be quite tight together. I don’t like lots of big gaps. I don’t know whether that really makes any difference or not. That’s just the way that I work mine.

Yeah, I think it’s making sure as well, obviously, that you have the right size hook for the yarn. I think if it starts, if it’s a bit too loose or a bit too tight, then it can start to lean a bit.

Brittany: 19:37
I used to make granny squares and omit that chain in between too. And I really did like the way that looked a lot better because like you said, it eliminates any gaps that could potentially be there.

But because I was demonstrating some of this on YouTube, I really wanted to show people quote, the right way. And then they can sort of make that distinction whether or not they want to. But I really do like to leave out that chain. And it doesn’t mess with your stitch count or anything as long as you know to leave it out every single time that you don’t have a muscle memory committed to making that chain after each group.

Yeah, I would encourage people to play around with that because it does give a neater look.

Kate: 20:23
I think so. And I think if I’m making a baby blanket, I don’t like it to be too gappy because baby fingers get stuck and toes get stuck if there’s lots of big gaps. So I like to keep it tight for that reason as well.

I always do a chain two in the corners, obviously. But yeah, down the sides, I leave that out.

Brittany: 20:43
Yeah. Now on the topic of the lean still, let’s say somebody has a granny square that they’ve already completed and they didn’t turn it because they didn’t really know that that was an option, but they still have this square and they’re like, oh, it’s leaning. It’s a little bit crooked.

Is there anything that they can do after the fact? Like, have you experimented with blocking and do you think that helps any?

Kate: 21:07
I have. Yeah. So blocking, I think will definitely help. Whether it completely takes that lean away, I don’t know. It really depends on the material in the yarn that you’ve used.

If it’s an acrylic yarn, I think I’d usually block an acrylic yarn square because they do tend to be a little bit misshapen, even if you’ve done all of that afterwards. Maybe perhaps just because it’s a slightly lighter yarn that’s made different—different makeup all together. So I would block it. I think that would definitely help.

I have laid out—I have polystyrene—not polystyrene, like foam mats that I lay out and pin it all to that and use a good spray of water over it. That’s how I block.

If it’s cotton yarn you’re using, I don’t tend to find those issues so much with cotton. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed the difference there, but I don’t tend to have to block so much with cotton yarn.

Brittany: 22:07
Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve noticed it definitely in other projects. I have to say, I don’t make granny squares or even motif squares probably as much as I would like to. So I haven’t really had that fresh side-by-side comparison of this is an acrylic versus a cotton to make that connection. That’s really interesting.

Kate: 22:27
I think it depends on the project as well. If it’s a blanket made of lots of smaller squares, then I would always block them. I think that then they’re nice and consistent size and they’re nice and sharp for when you join them.

Except—actually going off on a tangent—maybe if you’re using a join-as-you-go, then I wouldn’t worry too much about blocking them because I think that straightens them out again.

But if you’re doing, say, coasters—I have made coasters before with granny squares—then I would probably block those actually, just to make them look nice and square because they’re just going to sit as a square on your table. So I would block those.

I actually have a little solution that I make up when I’m making things for like coasters and homewares or garlands that I block with half water, half glue, and it halts them. A few people I’ve heard use a starch spray to hold the fabric stiff. But I use a glue and water mix. We call it PVA in the UK. I’m not sure what craft glue—just white craft glue.

Brittany: 23:40
That’s what I was going to ask. We have like Elmer’s glue is one of the big names. But yeah, I’m sure any kind of crafting. So you said it’s half and half?

Kate: 23:49
So I do 50-50. Yeah. And I sort of brush it on. I have an old brush, one of my children’s paint brushes, and I just use that. And when it dries, it dries clear, but it holds it stiff. So I do it just on the reverse of the project.

So it depends. I wouldn’t obviously do it on a blanket, but if it’s a coaster or something that I want to hold its shape, that’s what I would use. I make quite a lot of garlands—not usually granny squares, but stars, things like that—and I want the points to be nice and sharp, so I’ll pin them out and use that. That works perfectly.

Brittany: 24:24
Do you do that after you block and like after it’s dry or do you do it when it’s still kind of wet from the blocking?

Kate: 24:30
I don’t use water to block it. I pin it out and instead of using water to block it, I use the 50-50 mix.

Brittany: 24:38
Okay.

Kate: 24:39
Then let them dry and then unpin them.

Brittany: 24:41
I am definitely going to have to try that. I’m in desperate need of some coasters here in my office. I’ve got my desk here with my computer and then I have another desk set up where I do some writing and journaling. And I always have my coffee cup in the morning and I just would really love to have a nice coaster.

So I’m going to try that. I’ve sort of steered away from making them because they don’t always hold their shape that well, depending on what type of yarn you’re using. So I’m going to try that one.

Kate: 25:11
Yeah, I’ve made lots of small ones for—you know, we have Granny Square Day. I think it’s in the States as well. It’s not just in the UK, Granny Square Day every year. And I make half a dozen granny squares just for that, just trying out different patterns and things. So I have a little box of granny squares that I pull out every now and again to use as a coaster.

Brittany: 25:31
That’s cool. Let’s talk about Granny Square Day for just a little bit. I know if you’re in the Instagram community now, you’ve probably seen this at some point because if you go under the hashtag, is it Granny Square or Granny Square Day?

Kate: 25:46
Granny Square Day, and it’s usually got the year at the end of it.

Brittany: 25:50
Okay. Well, when you look at the grid, everybody takes a picture of their Granny Square to fit the photo. So when you’re looking at the grid, it’s like a wonderfully diverse Granny Square blanket or something. It’s so cool.

Kate: 26:04
It is, yeah. A virtual blanket. You can spend a lot of time on there, scrolling through, creating collages of your favourite ones.

Brittany: 26:15
Yeah.

Kate: 26:16
I know, I think it’s Sandra @MobiusGirl on Instagram. She’s made lots of virtual blankets over the last few years and actually had them printed onto notepads and all sorts of things just as a decor thing. Yeah, I think it’s a great idea and I look forward to it every year. I think it’s in August.

Brittany: 26:39
Okay, I was going to ask you that next and put you on the spot and see if you knew the date.

Kate: 26:45
I believe it’s in the summer. I think it’s either late July or beginning of August. I’d have to double check. I really should know that. It’s an important day.

Brittany: 26:57
Yes. Well, I will figure it out and have it included in the show notes. That way, if you’re listening and you want to partake in this, which I definitely encourage you to, like you said, it’s not just the UK. I know here in the States, I mean, I see it everywhere on Instagram. It really seems to be a big Instagram thing. So I’ll have that in the show notes for you.

Kate: 27:15
Yeah, lovely.

Brittany: 27:16
Now let’s move on and talk a little bit about the joining because there’s so much you can do with joining and there’s a lot of questions that come up as a result of joining. I know some of the questions I hear are, they have to do with using a darning needle, like should I do that or should I crochet them together? And I’m interested to just get your perspective on joining. What do you like to do the most?

Kate: 27:41
I like to sew mine together. That’s the way that I prefer, but it is slower. Join-as-you-go, I’ve really only done a couple of projects using that. And it’s quicker to do it like that. But I do like how neat it looks when you’ve sewn them together.

There’s lots of different ways you can crochet them together and create ridges in between the squares, which might work for certain projects. I’ve got one of my blanket patterns calls for that. You crochet down using the back loops, crochet them together. But I mean, that’s quite a slow process as well.

But you can use a contrasting color to join them all. If I’m sewing them, I do tend to use the same color yarn, the squares that I’m joining together so that it basically becomes an invisible join. I like that. But that’s just because I like it neat.

Brittany: 28:39
Yeah, I do too. I’ve experimented with both. I don’t know if I have a favorite. I think the most recent granny square blanket, I sewed them together because I wanted them all to lay flat. But in the past, I’ve crocheted them together and it’s neat because it gives it sort of like a 3D, almost like a shadow box sort of effect to it.

Kate: 29:02
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it can definitely add to the texture of the blanket and how it looks. Yeah, there’s no right and wrong way. I think it’s whatever you prefer to do, however you want your project to finish looking, really.

Brittany: 29:16
Yeah, and another method I’ve seen a lot of people use is it’s a crochet method, but they’re chaining back and forth. So they might make two or three chains and then slip stitch that to one square and then make two or three chains and slip stitch it to the next square next to it. And it creates like an open sort of lacy look.

Kate: 29:36
Yeah, like crisscross kind of thing. Yeah, I’ve tried that once or twice, but I found that a bit fiddly, if I’m honest.

Brittany: 29:44
Yeah, it seems like it. I can’t say I’ve ever played around with that or finished a project that way, but it does look pretty.

Kate: 29:51
But just like there are endless number of ways to border a project, there are lots of ways to join as well. And it can make the squares look completely different. An invisible join against a join-as-you-go—for the project they look completely different, but basically they’re the same and they’re all made up of just a plain old granny square. But if you join them in a different way, it makes the finished product look really different.

Brittany: 30:17
Yeah, that’s something I would love to work with a little bit more is to join as you go. I feel like it’s more of a… it’s a more complex topic to teach or to show because it’s not as cut and dry as you would think. It’s not like you’re starting at the bottom of your blanket and you’re seaming all the way up. You’re actually working around the blocks in like a specific order.

Kate: 30:45
Yeah, yeah. I think maybe there might be a little bit more thought needed into it before you start. Although I am making—I’ve got lots and lots of leftovers of acrylic aran, because that’s what I use for a lot of my blankets. And I’ve got a big bag of balls of scraps, and I am gradually working through those and making little granny squares and joining those as I go. I’m purposely trying not to put too much thought into it because I want it to be random. So you can do it like that and not really think too hard about what you’re joining and what colour you’re joining with and what side you’re joining with, so long as it isn’t a long strip, obviously, and it is turning into more of a blanket shape.

But yeah, I think join-as-you-go… yeah, it does need a little bit more planning if you want it to not be quite so random and have a bit more of a pattern to it. Or you just crochet lots of different squares up until the third round or something and then use one colour to do the fourth round and all the joins.

Brittany: 31:49
That would be a really neat looking blanket too. And that sort of brings us into color, which I feel like is something you’re just really, really good at—pairing bright and pretty colors together.

Kate: 31:59
Thank you.

Brittany: 32:00
Is that something that you’re just really good at? It just comes naturally? Or is there some thought and research that goes into—

Kate: 32:10
That? I can’t say there’s much research that goes into it. I just pick the colours I like. I like bright colours. I like rainbow colours. Sometimes I’ll just do a rainbow of colours. Sometimes I’ll pick my favourite colours from a rainbow and use those. I like to mix them up a little bit. I think the more projects I do, the more colours I find actually look really nice together.

My work’s quite heavy on pinks and mustard yellows and things like that. I like to throw in a neutral grey or a cream in with them as well sometimes, but there’s not a huge thought process that goes into it. I like to just pick them—pick the ones I like—play around with the order that they go in a little bit maybe.

I do have yarn pegs. I don’t know whether that’s something that you work with or not, but I like my yarn pegs.

Brittany: 33:02
Yeah, it’s not as common here, I feel like. I mean, you can certainly get them from either Love Crochet or Love Knitting. And I really love that they’re all paired together. But you can’t really just walk into a craft store and buy a pack of one type of yarn in different colors.

Kate: 33:19
No, I didn’t buy them in-store. I actually—I found someone on Etsy that makes them up herself and sells them as sets. So I’ve got Stylecraft and Paintbox yarn pegs, which are the two that I would probably use to make blankets. A few years ago, they were the only two yarns I really used. So I got the packs of yarn pegs and I found them really helpful.

And even now, I might not specifically be using that brand, but I’ve got lots and lots of different colours that I can play around with and come up with different combinations—and then maybe go out and find a yarn that fits those colours better. They’re really useful to play around with without going out and spending a lot of money on yarn and finding out that it doesn’t really work.

Brittany: 34:05
Exactly. So do you spend some time looking at the colors online, or are you able to go into a store and try to make that comparison?

Kate: 34:13
Yeah, there’s a few stores around us. I think you’re very lucky—you’ve got some really big shops in the States that seem to sell a lot of the different brands. We don’t have as many over here. We have some independent shops that you can go to that sell some of the yarns and a couple of craft stores that have departments for yarns. So you can go and have a little bit of a browse, but mostly it has to be online.

I think online, when you’re looking at colours… they seem to be getting better at the colour likeness, but sometimes still you receive a yarn and it doesn’t look like it did on the screen. So there is a little bit of risk involved when planning it on the computer.

Yeah, you can obviously—you can send them back and everything—but it’s nice to know that the colours you’re choosing are true to what you’re seeing on the screen. And once you’ve used yarn a few times, you tend to stick to the ones you know. A lot of the ones I use are ones that I’ve used many times, so I know what the colours are like. And I’ve got bits left over from other projects that I can help use to choose with.

Brittany: 35:22
Yeah, that’s another good use of scraps.

Kate: 35:24
Yeah, keep a little bit here and there. Yeah, I don’t like to throw anything away, so I try and keep hold of it—and keep the bands from yarn balls and I attach a bit of yarn to each one so that I know what the color was and what the code for that color was. I try and do that as much as I can.

Brittany: 35:45
That’s a really great tip too. Do you keep that in sort of like a binder or do you have some way of organizing it?

Kate: 35:53
I’ve just got a box that I can rummage through. I should take the time to make a binder or something like that with them all laid out—it would be much easier when I have some time to do it. But for now, so long as I’ve kept it, I’m happy.

Brittany: 36:10
I would definitely encourage somebody who has to shop online to do something like that because screens can be a little deceiving sometimes—especially if you’re shopping from your phone. I know for me, the brightness of my phone changes based on the lighting in the room or it sort of goes like this amber color towards the nighttime. So it’s supposed to help you fall asleep easier. And that is really tricky if you forget that those features are on, and you’re looking at yarn colors and you open the box and realize it’s something completely different.

Kate: 36:46
Exactly. And I think so many of us now do it on our phones, don’t we? Rather than going on the computer. It’s so easy to go and buy some yarn on your phone.

Brittany: 36:55
It really is. It’s a little too easy, I would say. Yeah.

Kate: 37:00
So, yeah. So when it comes to color, I go with the colors I like. There’s a few colors I don’t tend to use so much. There’s not a lot of red in my work. Maybe orange. I like pastel shades. I like bright shades. I like a bit of neon here and there.

I’m getting a bit braver with neon colours. I’m making a shawl at the moment, actually, that’s grey and neon yellow—which is something that maybe a while ago I wouldn’t have put together. But it’s working really nicely. And I think if you balance… you’ve got to try and get the balance right. So there’s just a splash of yellow compared to the grey.

Brittany: 37:40
Would you say there’s a rule of thumb that you have as far as how many colours should go into one project?

Kate: 37:49
I don’t know, necessarily. It really depends on the project. Sometimes if you have too many, it can perhaps look a little bit more fussy. If I’m doing a repeating pattern, maybe five or six colours I think would be about right.

But then I’ve made projects that I’m just using up what I’ve got left. So it can have dozens of different colours and each row is different. I might only have enough yarn to make one round using that colour. Those projects are really good as well.

Yeah, it depends. I’ve made a few blankets in one solid colour, but I tend to just have lots of different colors all included.

Brittany: 38:31
Yeah, with granny square blankets, it’s so fun to use lots of colors because I feel like that’s the one project where you can really get away with it. And it’s almost expected to have a bright granny square blanket, but there really is something beautiful about just a solid color.

Kate: 38:49
Yeah, I haven’t done—oh no, actually I have done—a solid cream blanket granny square last year. Beginning of last year. It was just three balls of cream yarn that I had and I just made as big a granny square as I could make with those three balls. And then I bordered it with four or five different colors—just straightforward stitch rounds in the border, but five or six different color stripes.

Brittany: 39:14
That’s a cool idea too—using the border to bring all of the interest.

Kate: 39:19
Yeah, I really love that blanket. That was a good blanket. I keep thinking about making another one—maybe in a grey with different colours or maybe a rainbow of colours. One of the ladies I follow on Instagram, it was inspired by her. She did one with a rainbow edge. I think it’s just a really good way of using up some plain yarn that you’ve got and just making it as big as it can be and then just adding a pop of colour on the edge.

Brittany: 39:47
Yeah. Now you’ve talked a lot about mixing your yarns, like, you know, being as efficient as possible, using up those bits of yarn that you have. Do you have any guidelines that you try to follow when you’re mixing different brands of yarn?

Kate: 40:05
I keep the fiber the same. So I won’t mix cotton and acrylic in one project. I don’t tend to do that. And the weight—I think if you start mixing different weights, it can make the project a bit… it doesn’t sit right, or the hook size is not right for a tighter yarn.

I don’t think I’d mix double knit and aran weight. I keep it all one weight—although you can obviously hold two strands of double knit together. Maybe if you wanted to use up some double knit for an aran project, you could always hold two together and work that with the aran, and that would probably work.

But generally, I keep everything separated by weight and fiber and do it like that. I’m sure it would probably be okay—I don’t think the world would end if I mixed some cotton with some acrylic—but I just…

Brittany: 40:58
Don’t do that. Yeah, I can’t say I’ve done that before either. I know I have mixed—we’ll say—a not-so-smooth acrylic with a more smooth acrylic, and you could tell the difference between the two. But if it’s a scrappy project, it’s okay.

Kate: 41:16
Yeah, I think every now and again, I’ve used sort of one with a bit of mohair or something like that. But on purpose to create a little bit of texture. Every now and again, you can do things like that. I’ve got some four ply mohair that I had no idea what I was going to do with. And the only thing I could think of was to hold it with something that I work with normally to create a bit of texture. So you can do that without really having to go up a hook size because it’s so fine, but it creates a little bit of texture.

Brittany: 41:47
Yeah, that opens up a whole other door when it comes with granny squares. So you can play with the size, the color, the joins, the texture. I feel like these are the things—the reasons—why you’re just immersed in granny squares right now. I mean, there’s really no reason to try something else when you’ve got so much to learn and so much to explore with.

Kate: 42:11
Yeah, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do other things, but I always come back to a granny square. Yeah, I actually have—I do have a, um… there is a hashtag I use: granny square therapy. And I started using that, oh, quite a while ago now—probably the beginning of last year.

There’s an amazing Craft Therapy / Crafters Therapy account on Instagram, and I thought that I would do something similar, but just granny squares, because I know how many people out there appreciate a good granny square project and love how relaxing they are. And if you need to get your creative juices flowing again, you can just pick up a granny square and do that.

So I started the granny square therapy hashtag, and now there’s actually—I’ve got an Instagram account using that tag—thousands of people that use it and tag their projects because they feel the same way as I do about a granny square.

Brittany: 43:12
Now that’s really cool. That’s a great way for somebody listening now to connect with you. I’m sure that you’re not the only one who gets this with granny squares and who gets the benefits from it.

So where can somebody listening connect with you? I mean, obviously you’re on Instagram—can you give us your handle and that information again?

Kate: 43:31
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram. It’s jellybean underscore junction. If you look on my profile on Instagram, there’s a link there that takes you to my blog and my website as well, if you wanted to look into that.

I’ve got some free patterns on my blog. There’s a couple of granny square projects on there and a few hints and tips. And the Granny Square Therapy account is—it’s just Granny Square Therapy. That’s all it is.

There is actually a link on my main Jellybean Junction Instagram page to the Granny Square Therapy account. And if you look under the hashtag #grannysquaretherapy, it takes you to thousands—there’s thousands of posts on there now—that people have used that tag for. And it’s those posts that I share on the Granny Square Therapy account, tagging the makers behind the projects.

It’s a great place to go and have a look for inspiration if you’re wanting to make something using them—think of other ways of using them and different colours and ways of making them. Just lots and lots of ideas. So you get lost on there sometimes. It’s a good time waster. You can spend a lot of time on there.

Brittany: 44:53
For sure. I’m sure it’s a great place to be inspired. Yeah, definitely.

Well, I will have all of that in the show notes. So if you’re listening and you want to partake in that—and really, I mean, I encourage you to check out her Instagram account just so you can see all the bright colors. I mean, it’s a great way to brighten your day. I mean, it really is.

Kate: 45:14
That’s very kind. Thank you.

Brittany: 45:15
Well, Kate, it has been so much fun chatting with you about granny squares. I mean, who would have known that we could sit here and talk for 45 minutes about granny squares?

Kate: 45:26
Yeah. They’re great. They really are.

Brittany: 45:29
They really are. So thank you for sharing a lot of your tips and your ideas with us here. We’ll definitely have to have you back for a part two of the Granny Squares. So I do appreciate it.

Thank you very much for having me. All right, that was Kate from Jellybean Junction. Definitely check out her Instagram account so you can see all of the beautiful things that she was talking about. So you can check out that Granny Square Therapy hashtag, be inspired by that—especially if it’s something that you’re really passionate about yourself. There’s a whole community there.

Now on the topic of Instagram—you may have noticed if you do follow me there—that every now and then, about once a month or so, when I’m about to have an interview with a guest just like Kate, I share a story.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Instagram Stories, just go to your home feed and you’ll see all of the little profile circles with a colorful border around them. And that’s how you know that that person has a new story.

But what better way to know for sure than you tell me yourself? So if you go to Instagram and you follow me and you just happen to catch the day that I post a story about a guest—I will have a picture of the guest I’m about to talk to and say, “Hey, what do you want to know about from this person?” Type your question and hit submit.

It’s really simple. I get all of those responses, I read them personally, and I take that into consideration when I’m about to chat with those guests.

Now, because Instagram Stories are sort of short-lived—they’re only there for 24 hours—you kind of have to be in on the right day in order to do this. But that’s just more incentive to follow me on Instagram if you haven’t already and just watch for my stories. And if you see one of those and you have a question for that guest, please submit your question because I’m here to serve you.

All right, so enough about Instagram. Don’t forget that you can find the resources that we talked about and more information on Kate and where you can connect with her online on the show notes page. And for this episode, it’s bhooked.com/121.

That’ll wrap it up for this week’s episode of the B.Hooked Podcast. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate that you tuned into the show.

I hope you learned something great about granny squares and you took some inspiration away from Kate and her story and what she loves about granny squares.

I know we all share in our love of crochet—but more importantly, yarn—because let’s be honest, yarn does so much more than make pretty things.

All right, I’ll see you in next week’s episode. Thank you so much. Until then, have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.