At long last I was able to purchase some chunky acrylic yarn at my local fabric shop that seemed like something worth trying out, (There is one other brand of chunky that starts to pill while you are just looking at it.....well you know what i mean) and at only 10 shekels a skein of course I scooped up a bunch of pastels to make something for my daughter. My first project, crocheted hand warmers for my daughter. A few years ago I did crochet basic crocheted hand warmers, but those were for the boys, and my daughter never actually received any. So, with her in mind, I've been dreaming of crocheted hand warmers made with granny squares, so I decided to design one myself, starting with this sunburst granny square, which I just loooooove.
In chunky yarn, the results are so cozy and plush, and perfect for so many winter crochet projects. So lets get started with this granny square pattern, which you've just got to try!
Hook: 6.5mm/US K
Special Stitches:
Puff stitch: *yarn over, insert hook in indicated stitch and draw yarn through stitch* three times (7 loops on hook). Yarn over and pull through all loops on hook. Chain 1 to lock.
Cluster stitch: *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through 2 loops* 4 times (5 loops on hook). Yarn over and pull through all loops on hook.
Treble stitch (trbl): Yarn over hook twice, insert hook into next stitch. Yarn over hook and draw yarn through stitch (4 loops on hook). Pull yarn through two loops (3 loops remaining on hook). Yarn over and draw through two loops (2 loops remaining). Yarn over and draw through the last two loops on hook.
Round 1: With color A
Chain 4 and join with a slip stitch, or make a magic circle. Chain 3 to count as the first double crochet and work 15 more double crochet stitches into the ring. Join with a slip stitch to top of beginning chain 3. (16 double crochet stitches in total) Fasten off.
Note: Standard crochet technique is as stated, though I actually started with an initial ch2, and then 16dc into ring as I prefer to hide the chain as much as possible, and it works!
Round 4: With color A (In this round we will turn our sunburst rounds into squares, so hold on tight!)
Attach color A with a slip stitch to any chain 2 space. Chain 4 to count as the first treble stitch and then crochet two treble stitches in the same space, ch3 and crochet 3 more treble stitches into same space to form first corner. (corner is: 3tr, ch3, 3tr). Now crochet the side: *3 dc in the next chain 2 space, 3 hdc in the next chain 2 space and 3 dc in the next chain 2 space*. Now crochet another corner, another side, another corner and another side, and another corner and side. Join with a slip stitch to the top of the beginning chain 4.
(Note: I'm always breakin' the rules, so honestly I made a ch3 instead of the standard ch4 as I found the ch4 to be a bit too wobbly looking.)
If you'd like to use this square to make a blanket, I'd recommend using the fourth round as the way in which the squares are joined, but you'll have to google "join squares as you go" for a tutorial.
Now go have fun playing around with the sequence of your colors in this square to see what works and what doesn't! (Hint there were two more color ways that I actually crocheted, one is already worked up into hand warmers, and the other will be torn out as it just didn't look great, but more on that soon.)
