I Love Accidental Afghans

I keep a dedicated size I-9 Susan Bates hook and a small scissors, in an old sewing basket where I toss all orphan yarn such as discontinued colors and/or otherwise random odds and ends. What do I mean by a dedicated hook ?  It is your favorite size hook, your "go to" size hook and always stays with the squares.  I have many. 

I was never huge fan of granny squares but when I only have a few minutes or if I am bored with my current project, I make granny squares.  Oh we "love" making them but most of us really, really, really hate joining them.  I make many styles of grannies, the only rule is "never mix different weights of yarn" then if a dedicated hook is used, all the squares, with the same number of rounds, automatically become the same size.  Completed squares get tossed back in the basket.  I did not realize how quickly they accumulate as I don’t usually pay that much attention to the basket. But now I am taking a closer look at them because you can make so many different things with them. I find I can create 6 or 8 extra afghans a year this way and who does not want to have an accidental afghan or two around just for donations or impromptu gifts ?

Assuming you already have a collection of granny squares, there is no material list for this item because much of it came straight from the odds and ends basket. The amount of additional yarn that you need would depend upon how large you wish to make your afghan.  
But this is how I did so anyone can make it.  

As always with your project it's your choice of colors.  I searched the basket for matching or identical, 4 round granny squares.  To create this afghan I needed squares of a neutral color yarn so I selected Red Heart Super Saver yarn in an off white color.  Always choose a "NO DYE LOT YARN" when the amount needed is unknown.  Then you can buy one skein at a time if you run out.  When buying no dye lot yarn, I found the yarn I bought in another state perfectly matched the yarn I brought from home.  I love no dye lot yarn.

To create this afghan you must have the same number of a plain color squares as you have of the multi-colored squares.  While creating the off white, squares, I attached the matching squares to them, diagonal to each other, in the “Join as you go" method.  This turned the 4 individual small squares into one large square block. I felt joining fewer large blocks would be easier than joining many small blocks. 

Learn Join As You Go    this is an off site link.

When all the blocks are finished I always lay them out before I begin to join. When I get an arrangement I like I take a digital photo of that layout.Then I stack the blocks in the order in which they will be joined so can check the photo as I work to be sure I am following the pattern.  For this afghan you can see I alternated the large blocks so  each multi-color block would be surrounded by 4 plain blocks.

To join this particular afghan I used a 5 chain flat braid join.  Again I chose a neutral color of Red Heart Super Saver No Dye Lot yarn.  I call Green neutral because if you look in your garden you will see every color blends with green.  There are many videos on how to do a 5 chain flat braid join on your tube as well as written tutorials on the internet so I will not cover that here.   As always in my patterns, you may chose the join you like.

10 different ways to join granny squares  this is an off site link

After I created this afghan I discovered the continuous join method.  The best part about the continuous join is I can join a whole afghan in one night.   The other best part is after you join a whole afghan in one night you only have two (2) yarn ends to work in, 1 where you started and 1 where you ended.  I highly recommend it. 

Here are the off site links to the continuous join videos.

Part 1  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoBG9W9rpog&t=9s

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foQB6X8q2a0&t=6s

If you wish to see what the continuous join looks like on a completed afghan

 http://idealdelusions.blogspot.com/2013/04/35-squares.html

How To Protect Your Photos

There are free apps you can download to watermark your photos but this is the easiest, free way i know how to do it, all you need is Microsoft paint on your system. This is written for computer but I am pretty sure where I say click, you can probably  just tap on your tablet or phone. 

Open your pictures folder and locate the photo you want to watermark, right click on the photo and choose “open with” from the drop down menu.  Then Choose “Paint” from the list of options.




When Paint opens, the photo will probably be huge, so open the view tab and click on zoom tab to get your photo to a usable size.




On the “Home” screen, you can rotate your photo, or not, before you place your watermark.   Click on the “A” in the tool bar to activate a text box. 



Choose where you want to place your watermark.  Drag the cursor across the photo and down to create a text box.  It will have a dotted line around it.  You can resize it by dragging it more. You can make it the size of the whole photo, or you can just start over.  When the text box is open you see a new tab with “text tools”.   Choose  your font style, font size and font color.  I suggest you choose a contrasting color for your font.  Light gray or white on dark photos and a darker shade on light photos.  Also be sure to choose “transparent” in the background box so you will not have a white background bar across your photo when finished.



Once you have your tool selections made, click inside the text box, that you have drawn.  This is where you write the information you want to use for your watermark.  This is your choice.  I use my blog URL (internet address), you can use your name, the URL of your Etsy Store or Blog page.  Anything you choose.  Just don’t make it too long as it needs to fit on the face of the photo. While working in the text box you can still change the color of the text or the size by highlighting that text and select the new color or text size.  That way you can judge what looks best.
Once you have typed what you want for your watermark, click anywhere outside the text box.  The box lines will disappear and your watermark is set.  But if you don’t like it you can go to the little blue “redo" arrow and keep starting over until you get it how you want it. 
I suggest you give it a bit of thought, and create your watermark with a plan for long term usage.  By watermarking all of your photos with the same watermark, you are marking your property and style. 

This method is also excellent for writing names and/or dates on old family photos for the next generation or even events, awards or vacation photos. 

Once the photo is marked the way you like it, choose “File” then choose “save as” and click on JPEG Picture.  Be sure to choose a “different name” for your photo before you save it.  That way your original photo will still be intact. 
You can change your photo as long as it is active in Paint.  Once you close paint there is no way to undo your watermark.
I suggest you use only watermarked photos on the internet unless you don’t mind if someone steals them. 

PS:  This is the link for the pattern used in this tutorial.

http://idealdelusions.blogspot.com/2012/03/raspberry-sherbet.html
Dorie