Granny Goes Improv: Four colours and some creative twists
After a few months of creative hibernation — something that seems to follow naturally after my annual Christmas crafting marathon — I’ve felt that familiar itch in my hands again these past few weeks. The urge to crochet, knit, tinker and try things out is back in full force, spurred on by Pinterest (which keeps bombarding me with crocheted tops), and also by my visit to FACTS in April, where I saw so many beautiful and inspiring things. Time to take you along on my latest crochet adventure!
The flood of crocheted tops on Pinterest — and yes, I know the algorithm probably just kept showing me more because I kept clicking on them — reminded me of something I’ve wanted to experiment with for ages: making something wearable using the granny stitch. The idea that appealed to me most was a top made from two simple rectangles, joined at the front and back, creating a V-neckline on both sides.
So I dove into my stash of cotton yarn — because no, I wasn’t going to fall into the trap of buying new yarn again! — and picked out four colours that I thought went nicely together. I then sketched out a pattern for how I wanted to combine them. But first, I made a few swatches using different hook sizes to see which look I liked best. I also washed the swatches, since cotton has a tendency to either shrink or stretch after washing.
After that, it was basically just a matter of getting started and crocheting! Well, okay — I did do a bit of math first to figure out how big my rectangles needed to be, based on what I learned from the swatches. They showed quite a bit of growth after washing, so I kept that in mind when measuring.
Before long, I had crocheted both rectangles. The granny stitch is such a lovely, mindless stitch — one of those projects where your hands just take over and your brain can relax. Working on it really made me crave more simple, meditative crochet projects.
And how fun is that colour combo and the striping? I was totally in love with it! But I definitely underestimated how much yarn I would need. I only had one ball of each colour and thought that would be more than enough. Not quite. I hadn’t even finished the first rectangle before I realised I was never going to have enough of the green yarn.
No problem, I thought — it’s Catania, a very popular cotton yarn, and that shade of green looked trendy enough that I figured I could easily find another skein somewhere. But alas, it turned out to be part of a discontinued Catania variant. Darn.
I briefly considered adding a fifth colour, but since I had originally planned to use the green for the finishing edge as well, I quickly abandoned that idea. So off I went, searching local stores for a similar shade. Eventually, I found one at Zeeman — the composition and texture were different, but the colour was nearly identical. I gave it a shot. It actually worked quite well alongside the Catania, but I wasn’t thrilled about the texture difference. So I decided not to use it for the edging after all, meaning I had to let go of my original plan for the green completely.
At this point, I was also seriously starting to doubt my math. I wasn’t convinced the top would reach the right length after washing.
As you can see in the photos, I ended up using the rosy pink yarn for the edging — and I actually really like how that turned out! But that skein was also nearly finished, which meant I couldn’t make the border as long as I had originally intended. I briefly considered adding some yellow or white, but in the end, I didn’t.
Despite my doubts, I was still secretly hoping the top would stretch quite a bit after washing. Sadly, it only grew about two centimetres — not the 1.5 times I had been counting on. As a result, the top ended up at least 10 centimetres shorter than I had hoped, which makes it not quite wearable for me.
Still, I look back at this experiment with joy. Even though it didn’t become something I’ll wear myself, I’m really happy with the shape — super simple in construction, but still very cute! So I’ll definitely revisit this idea, but next time I’ll make sure I have more yarn and trust my instincts more than my calculations to get the right size.
And yes, I still absolutely love the colour combo and how the stripes came out — so fingers crossed that one of my nieces might be happy to give this top a home!
Cheers,
Charlotte
