WoollyRhinoCrafts

I am going to try my gosh dang hardest to consistently do some sort of pattern roundup every month. It's going to be a mid-month thing, I decided. It will be somewhere between the 14th and16th to give me a little flex in case I have a lot going on. This month I'm hitting you all with...oh, no...not...GRANNY SQUARES?!?! I know, I know. There are already numerous collections of granny square patterns all over the internet. Lists and lists. So many. Endless. Grannies for days, months, eternity! I'm bummed there's not alliteration because y'all know I love alliteration. Anywho, I'm doing my own little granny collection here now. These are some of my favorite NOT BORING grannies and they are all FREE! But listen, most of them also have an ad-free paid version if you want to throw a couple dollars toward the creator, which I strongly encourage. Always.  Also be sure to check out my Etsy shop to see what I have for sale and scope out my Ko-Fi if you're interested...

UPDATE 2/11/23: Pattern still valid and good, just corrected some minor formatting. I must comment this here to know that I already looked at this pattern during the Great Blog Update of 2023. Need a fast, easy, and fun blanket pattern? This wavy blanket looks pretty snazzy with two contrasting colors, but it would also look great with three or more colors. Heck, do a gradient of colors. It's easy to customize a bit too by adding in treble crochets to make your waves taller if you want. There's a pattern on Moogly with a similar motif in smaller squares. The blanket I made is baby blanket size and square, but you can make it whatever size you like. Seriously. Do what you want. Don't let a pattern rule your life. ;) Anywho, let's get to blanket-making business! I worked in BLO (back loop only)! Materials and Stuff yarn in at least two colors (make sure each of your yarns is the same weight is my only caveat) - I used sport weight for this particular blanket a...

UPDATE 2/6/23: Lord have mercy! Where are the links?! Please, visit my Etsy to see what I have available and check my commission status! If you're looking patterns then I recommend my Ko-Fi , where I also offer a cool monthly subscription! I managed to not fall behind on my mood blanket despite my extreme video game binge. The binge is now over, more or less. I'm going to replay Dragon Age II for my missing achieves and then blunder through Inquisition again to get some different outcomes. I will do this at a leisurely pace that doesn't interfere with my making stuff. Video game chatter is not for a craft blog! Moving on... So here are seven new squares and this row will be finished up this week! Finishing rows is my favorite. Also, look at my scrap yarn bin, which is now a basket! It was a tangled mess that took up a bin about three times the size of the current basket before I got started. I'm hoping to get through all of the little balls of yarn and get rid of ...

UPDATE 2/6/23: My dedication to frequent updates about this blanket was admirable. My lack of including links to my own pertinents was not. So, Etsy . Also, Ko-Fi . To recap: Mood Blanket Challenge 2015 I'm making my squares from scrap yarn and disregarding my moods. This is helping me get rid of uselessly tiny balls of yarn I've accumulated, but making some of my squares hilariously ugly. I'm seaming my squares with an sc seam and then doing a round of sc around each completed row before sc seaming the rows together. Now, excuse me. I have to go play Dragon Age: Inquisition. Cool updates on less boring things later this week, I promise. BUT FIRST I NEED TO CLOSE THE BREACH AND KILL ALL THE TEMPLARS.

UPDATE 2/5/23: I know how to do SEO and I also know that the whole point of me doing this blog and all of these regular posts was to redirect people from the internet to my shop, and yet...I did not mention my shop or link to it in this post and I am so confused as I am here going through all of my old posts so many years later. WHAT WAS I DOING?! Anyway, shop . Day 82 has brought this blanket well into its fifth row. This time next week I'll be one square away from finishing the fifth row, so I'll probably just make an extra square and get it done. Then I'll probably still make seven squares and I'll be a square ahead. Mood Blanket Race, anyone?! I used what I felt like were a lot of subdued colors this past week. There's no particular reason for it. Again, I don't understand "moods." I may or may not be a robot. Also, yesterday was my birthday, but that doesn't really have anything to do with anything, does it?

UPDATE 2/5/23: My spite. It seeps through my words. Shop . Granny square stuff is really in right now. I don't totally hate all grannies. I just hated these? Or this whole project? I don't know. It's a great use of scrap yarn. I'm running out of clever things to say about this. I'm still doing it. I haven't stopped. I confess that I don't make one square a day though. I actually usually sit down once a week and make all seven. Sometimes more. I am keeping them in the order I'm making them at least. Finished the fourth row this past week. Got started on the fifth. The end.

UPDATE 2/5/23: I hated this project so much and I hated posting about it. I also failed to include a link to my shop . I seriously hate promoting myself so much. I can stand on a mountaintop and scream praises of my friends' work but I feel so dirty doing it myself, but here I am, going through all these old posts and beefing them up and adding links because you gotta do what you gotta do. I almost forgot to make my arbitrary post about this magnificent yearlong crapghan. Look at this week's sexy yarn squares, aren't they sexy? Of course. I'm four squares away from finishing the fourth row, so next week's arbitrary update will be extra exciting. Finishing rows is always exciting.

UPDATE 2/5/23: Going back and reading all of these posts is sort of hilarious. I can feel my spite for this project resonating through the screen. Again, this blanket now belongs to my cats if for some reason you were wondering and somehow found this ancient blog post. And hey, if you're here, why don't you go look at my shop !  This past week consisted of a lot of bland colors. Again. This encapsulates my default mood: apathy. The three-colored square on day whatever-that-was-math is symbolic of my different layers of apathy. Perhaps this week I'll be compelled to make some more brightly colored squares or, at the very least, work on something that isn't a bland color. You never know. I'm full of surprises. The surprises are sandwiched between my layers of apathy.

UPDATE 2/5/23: I love the random posts about this where I was really enthusiastically spiteful. I only did this project because I had so much scrap yarn. I hate waste. I hate wasting ANYTHING. It's part of my charm. You know what else is charming af? Buying things from my Etsy shop or becoming a monthly subscriber to my Ko-Fi . You know what is NOT charming af? That I have to do this awful self-promotion.  Day 54?! Whoa...did I maths right? That's three whole rows. This last row was a lot of pastels and, uh, browns. This thing is getting more and more random and I can't wait to put it to use when it's done. To recap, I'm making basic SEXY YARN squares in whatever color or colors I feel like using from either my scrap yarn bin or from whatever other project I'm working at the time. I'm joining them with a run of the mill sc join in black and then doing an sc border around each row then joining each row again with the sc join. I think this is creating some...

UPDATE 2/5/23: That kickass blue ombre square is Bernat Handicrafter, isn't it? Is that still a colorway they do? I could look it up but I'm not going to right now. I'd love to use it for some of my current projects, which you can get a better gander of on Facebook . I'll do this research later.  I sort of took this last week off from yarncrafting. I still worked on my super sexy yarn squares though, of course. Row 3 is coming along nicely and I did some repeating in this row. I not only used a color I used in the first row, but I had some temporary color blindness and I used it twice in the third row...a day apart. Whatever! Crapghans FTW! I made a pretty cool square out of the little bit of Moondance ombre that I had. It might be my favorite square yet. Just look at it. Wow. Such ombre! So gradient! Anywho. I did a little work on my pleated skirt for my crochet Sailor Saturn cosplay. I hope to finish up the skirt this week. When it's done, you can expect ...

UPDATE 2/5/23: Well, this post had some weird formatting. I really don't know why some posts had weird formatting and some did not. Did I copy/pasta from another document or something? I really don't know, but it's why I'm here and doing this and literally looking at every single blog post I have ever done on this blog. I'm not totally sure how to fix the formatting of this post because I cannot find what's causing it in the HTML. I am a jack of all trades, master of none (which is a fun way to say I have ADHD, amirite?). Anywho, let me learn you something about blogs. They are covered with ads for ad revenue for the posts (e.g. my free patterns) that people visit a lot, then the other posts are WORDS WORDS WORDS for the search robots, so that there are lots of links to my Etsy shop floating around the internet.  I think the images are what blast the formatting to hell. Maybe. Or at least it has to do with them.   I've got two rows and then four very brig...

UPDATE 2/5/23: Is that treble crochet? What did I do for these squares? I could go look at the blanket, but I don't feel like getting up. I've gotten a lot better about not saving useless tiny amounts of yarn, EXCEPT black and white because I sometimes use that for stitching eyes and such. When I get near the end of a skein, I ask myself: Is this enough for a granny square? If not, I Marie Kondo it and yeet it into the trash. If you're here and you think I am entertaining, then please visit my Etsy shop and/or my Ko-Fi page . If you really want to get weird then I also have a Twitch . I am smokin' hot. Such a snacc.  The second row will be done this week! The end of January also saw some exciting sexy squares and I used a couple variegated yarns this week too.  Let me explain what mood each square represents so that you can get a better understanding of my fluctuating emotional state. Day 28: This square is three colors. Why did I save these tiny, useless scraps ...

UPDATE 2/5/23: This was a horrible project. I hated it so much. I'm not a huge fan of solid granny squares. My idiot brain also doesn't really understand equating colors to a mood, so I have no comprehension of a "mood" blanket. My mood also changes 9865 times in a single day. Enough fun facts about me! YOU should take a look around my Etsy shop . The whole point of this blog was a way to promote my shop, but for some reason I did not mention my shop at all in this post. I am constantly baffled by everything I was doing back in 2015. Next month when the day numbering starts over at 1 I'm going to have to do math to determine what day I'm on for this. Bummer. OR I could get a calendar and count the days each day...or number them accordingly. Or I could just finish the blanket this week. Is this a race? I guess I could just for real do one square a day instead of doing a bunch of squares one day and then no squares for days. Such great dilemmas I face in my lif...

UPDATE 2/5/23: I don't think it happened in this row, but one single square of this blanket was made of wool and it shrunk in the wash and like...felted itself. lol that was my bad! This blanket belongs to my cats now, so it doesn't matter! Cats don't care! They just want to lay on yarn!  First row: Done! Second Row: Not done! I created a border for the first row in black. I just used scs around and then 2 sc + 2 ch + 2 sc in each corner chain at the actual four corners. I'll do the same for the second row and then an sc seam to join them. I'm getting into some smaller balls (like really, really small) of my scrap yarn so you'll see more multicolored super sexy yarn squares (granny squares sounds more and more unappealing the more I think about it) soon. I don't even know why I saved such obscenely tiny amounts of yarn. Most likely it was a bit of hoarder-logic - "I might be able to use this later." The only thing I hoard is yarn. And loo...

UPDATE 1/27/23: I've mused a great deal about this blanket on some other posts. I did a lot of posts about it as I was working on it. I am a big fan of the nested V stitch AKA the Moroccan tile stitch. I'm not sure the origins of the name "Moroccan tile" and it makes me sort of cringe to call it that. I don't know why! I have no basis for this! NESTED V STITCHES.   I won't wax poetic here about JRK nor the Harry Potter series. I touched on it all in another post. It's neither here nor there.   Moogly has a great NESTED V STITCH tutorial here .    If you want Harry Potter stuff from me, absolutely, I will still make said stuff for you. All proceeds go to me, a gay, not to JKR. Speaking of which, my Etsy shop !    Whew! Finally finished this. I'd been working on it on and off for what feels like forever. I would work on it whenever I needed a break from knitting. I'm super happy with it. It's really cozy (the cats also loved it so I'm going...

UPDATE 1/27/23: I honestly have no idea what happened to this blanket? Did I take it apart? Did I give it as a gift? Did I maybe actually sell it. I do love me some nested Vs, y'all. It do be like that.   JKR's behavior in recent years has been disheartening, but it does not take away from the impact of her silly book series. You can be a Harry Potter fan without a JKR fan. You can pirate the novels so that not a cent goes to her. Keep making Hogwarts house stuff, sell it, keep all of that money.    And let us all revel in the irony that her books have been a source of joy for so many people she apparently despises. The very themes of her novels somehow escape her.    That being said, I won't continue to wax poetic on the matter.  Just a quick update - I finished the Slytherin section and I got excited. Hufflepuff is up next, but it's Friday night so I'm going to drink some bourbon and play video games. I'm also thinking about doing a "Free Pattern Frida...

UPDATE 1/23/23: I will not be discussing JKR here. What I will discuss is the Moroccan tile stitch AKA nesting V stitches.    You can find an awesome tutorial by Moogly , not by me. I love this stitch and I've made some new items with it that are in my Etsy shop .    I have no memory of what I did with this blanket. I know I didn't sell it and I priced it at like $40, which is batshit. I probably gifted it to someone or maybe I took it apart. It was a nice blanket.    ~~~~    Behold! I finished the Gryffindor section of this afghan. I even had some leftover Gryffindor colors, so I'm going to make an argyle hat. The hat isn't very interesting yet. I'll post a picture later this week. I am for real out of the colors I need to finish the rest of the sections. I'll get more yarn shortly and carry on. I know how I'm going to finish this thing - with granny square stitches (3 dc in space stitches) in the appropriate color over each section. Like...

UPDATE 1/23/23: Like, I have come a long way since I first started knitting. Look at that disaster. Yowza! YOWZA! I can't even. I learned to knit from youtube videos, you know! And I think I'd only been knitting for a few months at this time.  I've made a ton of changes to that turtle chart over the years too, and I swear I'm going to share the Beam Guardian charts. I just have to find them...and probably tweak them a little.  I'm also still on the fence about doing WIP Wednesday posts again. I always have WIPs because I'm constantly working on all sorts of things! I will continue to ponder this. In the meantime, check out the current inventory of my Etsy shop .  ~~~~ Oopsies! I missed WIP Wednesday! Beam Guardian Scarf This is coming along nicely. I'm bringing the sides in and the two cables are going to merge to make one fat cable. I'm going to do something or another in the middle of the scarf then carry on to the end with the bear. I actually a...

UPDATE 1/23/23: Should I start doing WIP Wednesdays blog posts every week? I would generate more words for the search robots. I really hate this part of marketing. I want to focus on my Ko-Fi page but I'm having trouble getting people to that page and this blog has been around for years and is established. Hmmm...a conundrum.   This posts also reminds me that I never did make the Beam Guardian animal charts available. I might, in fact, put them on my Ko-Fi .   I love the Moroccan tile/nested V stitch. Still. To this day, and as of right now I have some market bags in my Etsy shop that feature this good ol' stitch.    I won't be waxing poetic on JRK, Hogwarts, etc.  ~~~~   Dark Tower Beam Guardian Scarf - Turtle and Bear I haven't worked on this as much as I meant to after the disaster that lead to me pulling the whole thing apart last week. It looks a lot better this time and I'm approaching the top of Maturin. The scarf is double-sided so Maturin i...