The Giving Square - Crochet For Creativity, Compassion & Connection

1. The Giving Square Crochet for Creativity , Compassion and Connection: A lot of us are searching these days for ways to get more creative and to find a calming and relaxing activity that helps us step away from the busyness of life. We're finding our way back to the joy of the simple things. Hi. I'm Jane. I'm an author, teacher, and pattern designer. I have a passion for sharing colorful and creative crochet ideas. I love to express myself with color and texture using my own two hands, and crochet is how I do this. It's not just a great way to spend your downtime. It's also a great way to connect with others. The inspiration for this class comes from the joy that you receive by giving from your heart and how we create connection through sharing, either through the activity of crocheting with like-minded peeps or through gifting loved ones with handmade items and giving back to your community in meaningful ways that re-energize you and provides for others. I always like to think my crotchet items all come with a great big hug. In this class, I'm going to show you how to make this fun and simple little square from beginning to end and we're going to finish it off as a cute little coaster. Then we'll take it to the next level and I'll show you how I sew these squares together to make bigger projects such as trivets, place mats, and if you're up for the challenge, a blanket. All done with this same square pattern. As a bonus, I'll show you how I add an alternative decorative border. The project for this class, of course, is to make the square itself. But then I'm going to challenge you to give it away to someone you care about or to a cause that speaks to your heart. Self-care is legit. If you want to keep this first item that you make so that you can look at it everyday and be proud that you made that with your own two hands, then go for it. We'll finish off with some inspiration of a variety of beautiful designs you can make from this square and ideas of where you may want to share your work with others. If you're ready to share a little heartfelt creativity, let's get crocheting. I'll see you in class. 2. Before we Begin: Welcome to class. I'm so glad you joined us. Before we get started, I wanted to share a little bit how this class is going to roll. I'll be referring to the written pattern for the square throughout the class. You'll be able to find the printable download of the PDF for this square under the Project and Resources tab. I'll be using a worsted weight yarn for this class which is also referred to as a number 4 medium weight on a yarn label. You can play around with trying different yarn weight and hook sizes as there's no need for gauge when making coasters or blankets. It's just a guide to get similar results to mine. In this class, my square comes out to 4.5 inches. Thicker yarns will give you a heavy fabric and larger square and thinner yarn weights will give you a looser lighter fabric and smaller squares. Play around with it and see what you like to work with. Yarn care is a consideration when making items to give away. Simple is always better. The easier it is to look after, that's what you're looking for. You'll want to pay attention to the care instructions on the yarn label, making blankets to give to a charity they often have guidelines as to fiber content due to possible sensitivities and they want to be able to watch the items easily. Have fun with color. You can make these squares in as many or as few colors as you'd like. There is no hard and fast rules, just a lots of room to play. We're going to tap into our creativity and create a handmade item infused with love and care and we're going to use it to brighten someone's day. Now let's talk about the supplies I'll be using. I'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Supplies and Tools: In this class, we're going to work on the four-color square. The four colors I'm going to be using are going to be my beige, my neutral is going to be my off-white, then I'm going to use this nice teal green, and a medium gray, because I can use scraps, I love making this project out of scraps. I usually look for colors that I've used in other projects and I can use up. It doesn't take very much at all. If you want to make a set, it doesn't take much. I like to wrap my balls in these center-pole balls. They are so much easier to use and I do have a tutorial on that in a blog post if you're interested in learning how I do that just using my hands. In addition to our yarn, we're going to need our crochet hook and because I'm using a medium weight number 4 yarn, which is a worsted weight, I'm using a five-millimeter hook, and it's the hook that I'm most comfortable with. Whatever your hook size you're comfortable with, with a yarn that you're using, that's the hook to use. I'm also going to need a pair of scissors and a darning needle and my darning needle, I like to use a metal one with a large eye so that I can get the yarn through it. Once you have your supplies, we can get working on our project. 4. Foundation Magic Ring: Starting with our magic ring and color A, we're going to put the cut end of the yarn over our palm with the cut end facing towards us. Then you're going to hold it in place with your thumb, and you're going to wrap the yarn over your first two fingers. Then you're going to bring the yarn back underneath. Make sure you give yourself enough yarn to work with. You're going to bring it back underneath, crossing over the yarn that's already there. Holding that in place with your thumb as well, and then wrapping it over your three fingers this time. Then we're going to take our hook, and we're going to go under the first strand, and over the second strand and hooking it, pulling it through. Then you're going to twist away from you and then back towards you, so that the loop gets twisted onto the hook. Then we're going to lock it in place with a chain 1, so we're going to go under our yarn from the far side. We're going to pull it through and create a chain 1. Then we can slip our fingers out and we have our magic loop with a chain 1 locking it in place, and we're ready for our first round. 5. Round One: So Round 1 assets work a total of 12 half double crochet into our magic ring. And we're going to work a Chain 2 which will count as our first one. So we already have a Chain 1 there. So we're just going to chain one more. That creates a Chain 2 which also counts as our first half double crochet. So now we have to work 11 more half double crochet into the magic ring. So our half double crochet is going to be wrapping the yarn around the hook first. So you go take the hook under the yarn, then you're going to go into the ring. So putting your hook into the magic ring under both of the strands there and then again, we're going to grab the yarn from underneath, wrapping the yarn over the hook, pulling it through and now we have three loops on the hook. So the magic ring can be floppy, so you got to keep it in place with your finger and your thumb. So I move those up to underneath these three loops and then I pull up on the hook and down on my thumb to create the space to pull the yarn through. So you're going to wrap the yarn over the hook again, and you're going to pull it through all of three loops on the hook, that's a half double crochet. So that takes a little bit of practice, so don't worry about that. So we're going to go ahead and now we have two, again, we need 12 total, so let's work another one. Yarn over, insert into the magic ring. Yarn over, pull the yarn up. Three loops on hook. Make sure I secure it with my thumb. Pulling up on the hook. Not too much, so I pull it out. Yarn over and pull through all three loops on the hook. So now I have three, so I can go ahead and I'm going to make sure that I get 12. So we'll just keep pottering along, make sure you have enough yarns so you're not pulling too tightly on your piece of work. It's going to look wonky to begin with because it's a very loose ring at the moment. You're going to think that this doesn't look right, but it does, because we're going to cinch up that ring at the end. I'm almost there. I'm going to count my stitches to see where I am. So these little v's are my stitches. So I can use them to count. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and then this little chain to hear it counts as 11. So then I need one more. So this will be 12. I'm going to leave my hook on the loop or leave the loop on the hook, I should say. And then I'm going to find that cut end right here. Holding at the base of my last stitch with my finger and my thumb, I'm going to pull that strand. So pull it slowly, so it works its way in and it cinches up the hole in the center. So now I can place my thumb and finger on that hole and just give it an extra little tug to pull it tight, and it gives you a nice little look there. Now we want to finish off, so we want to cut this yarn 3-4 inches, I usually go, pull the yarn through. We're going to finish off with an invisible join this round. So an invisible join is we're going to take the yarn we just cut and we're going to put that on our darning needle, and we're going to make like a mock stitch so that you can't tell where I joined. Let's move in close here so I can show you what I'm doing. We're going to take our needle and we're going to go into the second stitch, which is really the first half double crochet because our first stitch is the Chain 2. So we're going to miss that Chain 2 and we're going to go under the two loops of our first half double crochet stitch and we're going to pull the yarn through, just gently, not too tight. Then we're going to go back and go back through where we came out of to begin with. To see how the yarn came out of this stitch, well, we're going back into that stitch and you're going to just nice and gently again pull it so it looks like the rest of the stitches and that's an invisible join. 6. Round Two: Moving on to Round number 2, we're going to need our neutral color, which is color B. In this case, it's my off white. Join color B with a slip stitch in any stitch from Round 1. I will join anywhere and I like to move a little bit from where I finished off so that when I go to Darren in all my ends, they're not all in the same spot and they make my square bulky. Anywhere else on here, I'm just going to go under the two loops created by stitch and we're going to pull up the yarn to join. This is joining with a slip stitch. Then we're going to chain one, and then we're going to single crochet in same stitch as joined. Go back into that same stitch and wrap the yarn around, pull it up, two loops on the hook. Wrap the yarn around, pull through both loops. That's our single crochet. Then we want to chain one. Now we have a star, which means that we're going to be doing some repeating here. Single crochet in next stitch. The next stitch over we're going to work another single crochet. Then chain one. Then it says to repeat from start 10 more times. You can pause the video. Meet me back at the end of the repeat, and we'll finish up the round. Here we are at the end of our repeat. We have done it 10 more times. We want to slip stitch in the first stitch of the round, which is right here. We want to put our hook under the two loops. Yarn over, a slip stitch, pulls it through that loop and through the loop on the hook. Then we want to fasten off and we do that by cutting our yarn 3-4 inches and then pulling it through. That finishes the round. That's a fast and off. Now we should always count our stitches. You can do this before you fasten off, just make sure you do count them at the end of every round, we should have 12 single crochet and 12 chain ones bases. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Then we have a chain one space beside each one. We have 12 chain one's bases as well. 7. Round Three: Now we're onto Round number 3. Round 3, we want our nice teal color. Round 3 starts with during colors C, which is RTO with a slip stitch in any Chain 1 space from previous rounds. These Chain 1 spaces are the ones in between. We can join anywhere. I like to join somewhere other than where I finished off, and we will pull up a loop and that's joining with a slip stitch. Then we want to Chain 1. Then single crochet in same Chain 1 space as we joined. You just want to work a single crochet in that same space. You always want to make sure that your end isn't getting too loose on you. Then we go Chain 2, 1, 2 this time, and then we have a star, which means we're going to have some repeating coming up. Single crochet in next Chain 1 space. The next Chain 1 space is here. Single crochet in there, and then Chain 2. Then it's as you repeat from star ten more times. Go ahead and pause your video and finish your repeat, which is a single crochet Chain 2, and I'll meet you back here at the end of the repeat. Here we are back at the end of our repeat. We did it ten more times, and now we want to slip stitch in the first stitch of the round. We want to go into that first stitch right here. Pull up the yarn, pull it through, and through the loop on the hook. Then we want to fasten off. We cut the yarn 3-4 inches, and then just pull that yarn right through. You've completed Round number 3. Let's just check again that we have the right number. We need 12 single crochet and 12 Chain 2 spaces. This is our first single crochet here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and then there is a Chain 2 space beside each one, so there'll be 12 of those as well. Now we can move on to Round number 4. 8. Round Four: We're ready now for round number 4. If we look at our square, we've done this part here, and now we're working on squaring off our circle. There'll be a little more involved in Round 4. We're going to use our color D, which is our soft gray and we start off with join color D with a slip stitch in any chain 2 space from previous round. I'm going to pick a spot that isn't where I've already been joining. We're going to go up here and I'm just going to pull the yarn through, that's our slip-stitch join. Then we're going to chain 1. Then it asks us to single crochet in same chain 2 space as joint, so there's our single crochet. Then we have chain 1. Single crochet in next chain 2 space. Right over here is our next chain 2 space and then chain 1. Next on our pattern, you'll see there is a square bracket. The square brackets, what I use those for if there's something that has to be worked into a specific area so what you want to do is look ahead to where the square bracket ends and see what it's going to ask you to be doing. I see the first square bracket, I follow through to the last square bracket and then I see all into next chain 2 space. That means all of this is going to be worked into the next chain 2 space, which is actually going to be our corner. Let's go ahead and do that, following what the bracket tells us to do, half double crochet, so all into this next chain 2 space. Half double crochet so that requires us to wrap the yarn around, pull through another one so there's three loops on our hook. Yarn over and pull through all three loops at once. Then we chain 1, then we're going to work at double crochet into the same stitch. Wrap the yarn around, hook goes into the same space, pull up a loop. Now we're going to do wrap the yarn around through two loops and again wrap it through the next two loops, that's your double crochet. Then we want to do a chain 1 and then another half double crochet, so again, you're going to wrap the yarn around, insert into the same space, we're still in the same space. Pull up a loop, wrap the yarn around, and pull through all three loops on the hook and that is our half double crochet. Then we chain 1 and we reach the end of our square brackets. All of that happened into this one chain 2 space. Then we see a star, so now we know whatever happens after the star is going to get repeated a few times, it's a section in itself. Single crochet in next chain 2 space, chain 1, single crochet and next chain 2 space chain 1 half-double crochet chain 1 double crochet chain 1 half double crochet chain 1 all into the next chain 2 space. What we did back here, we're going to go into this next chain 2 space. Half-double crochet, pull through all of the three loops. Chain 1, double crochet, now we do two loops and two loops and I'm running out of yarn. I give myself a little leeway here so I don't create problems with my tension. Chain 1, half-double crochet, pulling through all three loops, and chain 1. What you're seeing here is we're turning a corner so you're getting a gradient of height on the stitches. We have half-double crochet, then we do a longer stitch double crochet at the corner. Then we come back down to a half-double crochet, then we head back into our single crochets. We just finished this square bracket again and then it says, repeat from star two more times. We do everything. We go back to the star and we repeat all of that two more times. I will meet you at the end of the repeat and we'll finish off this ramp. Here we are at the end of our repeat, and we're also at the end of our round in this case. Once we finished the repeat two more times, it says to slip stitch in the first stitch of the round. We go here, this is the first stitch here. Insert our hook under, wrap our urine around, pull it through the stitch and the loop on the hook, then fasten off. We do that by cutting 3-4 inches and pulling the yarn through. Again, that will be left to learn in later. We have completed round number 4. 9. Round Five: We're ready now for round number 5. Round number 5 is going to be the first one who asks us where to specifically join. Because now we're working with this square and we want to set up the next set of rounds appropriately. You're going to use your color B sits my off-white and it says to join color B with a slip stitch in first Chain 1 space from previous round. Here it is. If this is the first stitch, see where we ended here. If this is the first stitch then this is the first Chain 1 stitch. We want to join right into there and we want to pull up our yarn joining with a slip stitch in that space. Then we want to Chain 1 and then we want a single crochet in the same space that we joined. Now we want to Chain 1 and single crochet in the next Chain 1 space over here. Then we want to Chain 1 and we want a single crochet in the next Chain 1 space, and then we want to Chain 1. Now we have a square bracket and that usually means it's all into a specific spots. Go to the end of the square bracket and see where it's going to be all into the next double crochet stitch which is this post right here. You're going to work into that stitch at the top. We're going to do a single crochet into that stitch Chain 2 and then another single crochet into that same stitch and that creates our corner. Then we go ahead and we have a star, which means we're headed into a large repeat section and it starts with a bracket. The bracket, again, if we go to the end of the bracket it's going to tell us to do whatever is in it five times. We're going to Chain 1 single crochet into next Chain 1 space. That's the first time, remember the brackets are five times total not five more times. That counts as our first-time Chain 1 single crochet into next Chain 1 space, which is this one, that's two times and then we do it again three times, moving across the top, four times and we have one more time five times and then we Chain 1 and we moved to a square bracket and we've been to the square bracket before. It is the single crochet Chain 2 single crochet into the next double crochet, so we're doing another corner here. Single crochet into that double crochet stitch from below Chain 2 and then single crochet into it again. Now we hit the star and it says to do everything from the star two more times. We're going to go back find our star and we're going to do it two more times and I will meet you back here at the end of that repeat. Here we are at the end of our repeat on Round 5, but we're not finished the round yet. Let's see what it has left for us. After we've finished our repeat from star two more times. It says then and we have a round bracket, Chain 1 single crochet into next Chain one space, Chain 1. We have to do it twice. Single crochet into next Chain 1 space there, we've done that twice. Now Chain 1 and then we slip stitch in the first stitch of the round. We just go in here, we slip stitch and we pull our yearn through and I've already cut it there, so we're done. We just have to cut that 3-4 inches and we have finished round number 5. 10. Round Six: Now we're ready for round Number 6 and we need a color A, which is our beige. It asks us to join color A with a slip stitch in any corner Chain 2 space. We get to pick again one of these four corners. We'll just do this one here and we'll pull up a loop and that's our join. Then Chain 1 and then single crochet in same stitch as join. Now we have a star, which means we're going to be doing a repeating section. Then it's followed by a round bracket, which means it will be doing a small repeating section within that. It asks us to Chain 1 and then work a single crochet into the next Chain 1 space, which is right here. That's once, and it wants us to do it six times. We do it again. That's twice. Moving along the top. Again, that's three times Chain 1 single crochet in x, that's four times, Chain 1 single crochet, and next Chain 1 space, that's five times Chain 1, single crochet in next chain one's base six times. Let's go back and make sure we did that. We did Chain 1 single crochet. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. We did our first round bracket. Then it asks us to Chain 1. The square bracket, we look, it's going to be single crochet Chain 2 single crochet all into the next Chain 2 space. It's going to create our corner. We're going to go into this Chain 2 space and do a single crochet, Chain 2 and a single crochet. That's our square bracket. Once we complete that, we hit repeat from star. So everything we just did is our repeat. You're going to repeat from the star two more times, and I will meet you back here and we can complete the round. Here we are back at the end of the repeat, but we're not finished the round yet. Let's go ahead and read the instructions and see what happens after the repeat. Once we've finished the repeat this two more times, then we have another round bracket that says Chain 1 single crochet, next Chain 1 space. Then we're going to do that six times. We recognize this, this is from before. So Chain 1 single crochet and we're going to do that six times the total. That's two, that's 3, 4, little more yarn here, five, and then this will be six. We did it six times, and then we want to Chain 1. Then we have square bracket, single crochet Chain 2. That's all this time. Into the next Chain 2 space. We wanted a single crochet Chain 2. Here we are back at the beginning of the round, so we want to slip stitch in first stitch of round. We slip our hook in, pull up our yarn, and fastened off. Here we have to cut our yarn 3-4 inches and pull it through. That is round Number 6. You're starting to see a nice finished coaster. Now we're going to go ahead to Round 7, so we can finish off R-square. 11. Round Seven: Round number 7 says to join colors c, which is the nice teal color, and it says, join colors c with a slip stitch in any corner chain to space from previous rounds. Again, easy to find one of these four corners and we'll pull up color c. We're going to chain 1, single crochet in same chain 2 space, and immediately we move into our star repeat and a round bracket. A round bracket is chain 1 single crochet and next chain 1 space, which we're familiar with that now, and it wants us to do it seven times this time. That's fine. We're going to chain 1, single crochet in next chain 1 space, that's 1, 2, and I'm just going to push through these and I'll meet you back here at the 7, and 7, and then chain 1 single crochet now we're into a square bracket and our square bracket contains our corner information. Single crochet chain 2, single crochet all into the next chain 2 space. Single crochet, chain 2 and single crochet into that same chain 2 space, we've created another corner. We're at the end of our star, and it wants us to repeat from the star two more times. It's going to take us down to this corner, and I will meet you there at the end of the repeat, and we'll finish this round. We've reached the end of our repeat, but not the end of our rounds. Let's go back and see after we've done the repeat two more times. It says then we have a round bracket, chain 1, single crochet and next chain 1 space seven times. Been there, done that. Let's do it again. We have chain 1, single crochet, that's one, and then we'll just work our way across doing it seven times total. This is number 7, chain 1, single crochet chain 2 in the square bracket into the next chain 2 space, which is the same one that we joined in. Single crochet chain 2 slip stitch in the first stitch of the round, and pull all the way through, and then you can fasten off. Now, before you cut, I have decided to leave four inches but if you plan on sewing these squares together, I'm going to suggest you leave a minimum of 10 inches on this last round, so you can use it to join your squares together. It just makes for lessons to dine in and everything serves a purpose. That gives you round number 7, and you have completed your coster. 12. Darning in Ends: You've finished your square, but we still have the ends to work in. You could also work your ends in as you crochet the square, but in this case, we've love them too darn in at the end, which is the easiest and most common choice for when you're learning to crochet. You'll see here, I have two ends of each color. For every color that I joined, there's two ends, and of course, I have them dispersed around the square. We're going to grab our darning needle that has the nice big hole in it for the yarn. I'm going to start with the center one to show you what I do with that hole. We'll put our yarn on our darning needle or whatever way works best for you. I like to fold the yarn over top of the darning needle and then I pinch it with my finger and thumb and then I pull it out and slip it onto that loop and pull it through. That way I find it goes on nice and easy. Now we're going to work on this center one. Often there might be a little bit of a hole there, so you just take that and you're going to go under these strands around here. Go under a few at a time, pull it through, and as you're pulling it through, give it a little up tug, use your thumb and your finger to hold that center. Give it a little tug and it closes up that center nice and tight. We'll continue around just a few stitches at a time and just giving it a nice gentle tug as we go. If your yarn falls off your needle, just put it back on again. Once you've gone around, at least once, I don't see it fell off there, you'd like to leave your ends, as I said, about four inches minimum so that you've got something to work with because you can always cut it off, but it's hard to turn in a short end. Let's go one more batch here. I've gone around once. Now with the center, It's always nice to turn back around. Where I came out, I don't want to go right back in there or it will just undo what I just did. You want to go over one strand and then work your way back around. Again, I go into quite a few here and pull the yarn through. I'm getting to a point where I don't have a lot to work with anymore and I think that's pretty good. I've gone around once and then I've gone backwards. At this point, I can cut this off and it's important to cut them off as you work them or you'll forget what you worked and what you haven't. I cut them off fairly close to the surface but not so close I'm going to cut my work because they will work their way back in. I just give it a nice little cut right there and that's your first end worked in. I can do the same with this one. But what I'm going to do now is go out closer to the edge and show you one that has chain stitches because they get worked in just a little bit differently. Let's take this one in the middle, this green, and we'll try working that one in. Again, put it on your needle. Since I have this chain stitch here, I can't really just work it straight around or it'll show through those chain stitches. What you want to do is work it up into the stitches, so just grab it in some loops that are on the back here just a loop there and a loop there. Pull it up. Give it a nice little tug, but not too tight, you don't want to pucker any of your work. Then I'm going to go under and you're basically following where your stitches are going. I'm going to go under these two gray loops and now you see I worked back into another single crochet here and then back up again. I'm going to follow that. You can go under any of these loops. You're moving in a general direction here under the loops and just again, not puckering it too much, but snug enough that it doesn't show and working back up following your work. You're going to go along there for a couple of stitches. I'm going to go one more time here under this gray. Now I've worked it from here all the way to here. I can keep going to work the end in this way and then that'll be a good four inches, or I can turn around, which I like to do. I'm not going to go back in where I just came out. I'm going to go back in here sometimes because it gets short here. I have to go ahead and put my needle in and then just zip that into the hole. That's why it's nice if the hole is big. Then I can pull that through in the opposite direction, or I can do a little bit more here again, following back the course of the stitches. I'm just going to slip that in. I have to twist my end because it's starting to fray and then I can pull that through as well. That's nice and secure. On a small square like this, you don't have to worry about long darning in because there's not a lot of movement in a small square. Here we are, the one we just worked and I'm just going to clip that close to the work. Now you've darned in the one and you see that you can't see it in these chains stitches. Now if your hands work to the front, which they very well may and I'm just going to force this one too because I ended it here and it probably will, we can see that just hanging out. They're just a little fray. Those will happen. You can either tuck those back or you can just trim them off a little bit more. Be careful with your scissors. Do not cut your work. Trim it off a little more and it'll just fall to the back. Sometimes when you cut them at the back, you've left enough that it'll work its way to the front, trim it off a little bit at the front and it will work its way back to the back. The other thing I had said is that you can leave this end. This one I didn't in particular for sewing, I should have left it a little longer and I didn't. But you can work those in just on the edge. I'll show you if you need to do that, they're a little different because you don't have a whole bunch of stitches to work those in on. What we do here, pulling this out of my way, it gets easier as you darn them in, you have less in your way. I just go back into a stitch from the top. Now, I'm going to work my way along the stitch line, but I'm going to go into these loops of the chain stitches to hide it at the back, you can see that, and then into the stitch itself and then back into the loops of the stitches, and then back into the stitch itself. You just keep going along there just working into those loops, and then back into the stitch and you work your way along the top. I do get asked if I knot my ends. I almost never do with larger weights of yarn such as the worsted weight. The knot will inevitably work its way to the front I find. There's always the exceptions, but as a general rule, I do not knot. That's just a personal preference. I find it depends on the design and the yarn you're working with. We'll go a little bit further here and then I'm just going to clip it. I don't reverse on this one because these will be worked into a seam and that'll give that extra support, so it'll be whip stitch over when you do the same. You can go ahead and finish the rest of these, and then your square will be complete. When you're done, the back will look as neat as the front for the most part. If you're working a blanket or a larger project, I like to work a small batch of squares and then darn any yarns in as I go. It's nice to save up a batch and then just put on some relaxing music or movie, or an audio book, and darn those ends in. 13. Joining Squares: To join the two squares together, what we've done here is a simple whip stitch, and we've done it in the Chain 1 stitches. You can see with this square, this Chain 1 single crochet on the last round that we did, we're going to work into the Chain 1 spaces to sew our squares together. I've gone ahead and done two squares here. But I'm going to show you how I created this. When you finish off your last round 7, it's good to have a long length of yarn. I leave at least 12 inches and then I use that to sew up my squares so I don't have extra ends to work in. I'm going to go ahead and place my squares, and I'm going to put this end onto our dining needle. My dining needle has a decently sized hole here so that it's easy to put the yarn in. Then I like the ones that don't have a super sharp end. They're dull, so I don't end up picking my finger all the time. We're going to start by working from this end up to this end to join these two squares. The yarn comes out of this square on my right. I'm going to put it into the Chain 2 corner, coming from the back to the front to join these two at the bottom. Then to anchor it, I'm going to go back into the Chain 2 on the right bottom corner. Then I'm going to come back up again on the left square. Then I'm just going to secure that. Not pulling too tightly because you don't want to pucker your seam, you just want to pull it nice and gently. That anchors your yarn in place at the bottom. Now we're going to work our way up a simple width stitch, which is just working around the seam. We're going to go into the next Chain 1 space right here. Then we're going to go across. You work from front to back, and then you work from back to front through the corresponding Chain 1s base across. Let's Zoom in and take a look at this. Now we go to the next Chain 1 space. We go from front to back. Then on the corresponding square Chain 1 space, we go from back to front and we pull. I use my thumb just to hold it so this doesn't get all knotted, and then I just gently make it so it lies nice and flat. Then we move to the next one. Up to the next Chain 1 space, and then across to the corresponding Chain 1 space on the next square. Pull up your loop nice and gently. We're going to get a slanted line across here with our yarn, and again into the next Chain one space, and we're going to keep on going like that. We're going to create this nice loose seam, but it's actually very secure seam. I'll show you when we get to the top what it looks like. Keep on going across and you're slanting upwards by the looks of it. You're actually going across to the corresponding Chain 1, but it looks like it's slanting upwards. After you've worked the last Chain 1 space, you want to go into the corner. We're going to go into our Chain 2 corner on the right side. Then we're going to match over to the Chain 2 on the left side. You go from front to back on the right and from back to front on the left, you pull it up. Then to secure it, we go back into that Chain 2 space on the right side. Then what I do to completely secure this yarn is I go to the back and I lift up this loop that I created on the last time around, and I take the yarn through and it just gives it a nice little, kind of a little bit of a slipknot there. It's not really a knot, but it secures it. Then I can use this for sewing more, or I can just turn that in. There's the seam of the first two squares we've put together. 14. Joining Rows of Squares: Now once you've sown your squares and strips, and you can sow as many squares to make these strips as you want. You can make it into a blanket or you can just stay with these four, which will make a nice trivia. We're going to sow the strips together. In this trivia, but this will probably be enough, these 12 inches but if you're sewing a blanket together, you're going to need a much longer piece of yarn to work with, and we're going to put it onto our darning needle. Now we're going to work up here. So it's the same concept. You're going to work into the chain to space across from it. Back into the chain two spaces that you started with on the right, and once more into the chain two space on your left. You could be sewing this in the reverse direction just as long as you're consistent, your slants will always go the same way. Then we go into our next chain, one space, and we start working up the first square. I'll go ahead and work up to this corner and then I'll show you how I work this corner. Now, I've reached these four corners and I do a little bit extra here just to secure the four corners to each other before I move on and keep moving up to the next set of squares. I'm going to take my needle, and I finished in this last chain one on the left, I'm going to go into the corner as if I would just in a normal sew-up, and then I go across to the corresponding corner and I pull the loop up. Then I go back into my first chain two corner on the right side. Normally, this is where I would end if I was just sewing two squares together, but I don't want to keep on going, so what I'm going to do now is go up into the chain two of the square above on the left side. So, working from back to front, I just pull that up, and then I can go back down into that corner again just to give it that extra loop and it just gives it an extra secure in there, and then I start going across and now I'm going to work my other rest of the way up here. So I go into the chain two space of the new square on the right, come back to the chain two space on the left, same when I came out of, and then I will continue on up into the chain one spaces and I will continue on with my square. What I've done here, is the loops that have always been slanted in this direction. There is one that's going to come back down in the opposite direction. For me, that secures that corner. As long as I'm working in the same color, you're not really going to see it, first of all, and it actually matches these loops right here. So you're working along this way and then to match these loops, now I'm working along this way. So you want the slants to all be the same way, so when you're lining up your strips, you want to make sure that you're slanting them all in the same way. If you're always working from your first square up to your top square, these will always be in the same direction, but you can get your strips tossed around if you've just done a whole bunch of strips and now you're putting them back together. That's what you want to look for, is that these slants all match, so that when we come up here and we do that extra little stitch to tack this corner together, it matches these slants. I don't really have enough yarn here to finish this. Normally, I would cut this even longer. If that's the case, then I can darn this one in and start a whole new piece and just finish up to the corner. I'm going to go ahead and finish up to this corner and then we'll take a look at it. Now we have sown four squares together, you can sew as many together now as you want since you know how to do it. This particular one would make a nice trivet. To finish this off, I'd like to add an edging around the entire piece. You could work another round just as you did round seven, or you could work a couple of those rounds. But another option is what I call the quartered edge, which is made using reverse single crochet. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to work this edging around one of the squares that you've made in place of around seven to give it a unique and finished look. 15. Alternative Edging: You can see that this coaster has a different edging than the one we just did. I'm going to show you an alternative to the one that's in the pattern so you can get this nice corded look. It gives a nice finishing touch if you want something different. This edging can be used around any size of project, just working it on after all your squares are joined. Or you can work at around just one single square to give your coaster a nice finished look. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to work it as an alternative to round 7 on your single square. We're going to go back to, this is round 6, it's finished and then we're going to use our teal to do a different kind of round 7. The way you're going to do this is you're going to join it in any one of the corners. You're going to just pull up a loop and chain one just like you normally would. But this time we're going to be working backwards. Reverse single crochet works backwards to what you're normally used to. Normally you would be working down this row, but you're actually going to be working in reverse to what you normally do. We have our join and our chain 1 and we're going to work a single crochet into that chain 2 spaced. We do this by going down and under. You're twisting your hook and putting it in and coming up the other side of the yarn, wrapping around, pulling the yarn through. Now you want to do this nice and loose. You want two loops on the hook, they're going to look twisted and then you're going to wrap the yarn around and pull it through the two loops. That's your first reverse single crochet. Let's zoom in and see what we're doing Here. Our second stitch, you're going to take your hook again, rotating it so the handle goes up and the hook goes in and under into the next chain 1 space. You're going to wrap the yarn around, pull it up, nice and loose. Again, two stitches on the hook, but they look crossed, yarn around and pull through both. So you want this to be nice and loose or you're going to pucker your work. If you're finding that it's too tight, you can't seem to get it loose enough, then I would suggest you either go up one hook size or two hook sizes to get it nice and loose while you're practicing the stitch. Again, we're going to go onto the next one keeping everything loose, rotating it and going under. Then you're going to grab the yarn at the back, pull it through again, nice and loose with these two loops, yarn over and pull it through the two loops. I'm going to move a little faster here and just show you under, grab, up, and through, under, grab, and through. That gives you a better idea of how the mechanics work. This will take practice if you've never done this one before. Be patient with yourself, but it does come with time. I'm going to work over to the corner and show you how the corner works. Just moving slowly again in and under, so that the hook is just going in the opposite direction to what you normally would. Instead moving forward this way, you're actually moving the opposite direction so it's a little awkward. We've reached the corner, so now I go into the corner the same way. Then I want to do two stitches in that corner so that it doesn't get a rounded look to it. I find the best way to do this is to chain one in-between them and then go in again. You want to try not to keep as much of that stitch out of the way as possible, and then you complete your second one. Then just pull it out into shape because they tend to overlap each other and sometimes that can ruin the nice corded look. Then we continue around the opposite side. Again, nice and loose. Just do a few more here. You can see here how the corner has a nice sharp corner to it; it's not all rounded. Again, once you complete all that, you'll end up with this nice quartered look to your coaster and it gives it a very different look. If you're up for a challenge, that one's a fun one to try. Again, it'll take practice. It's not something you're used to, so once you get the hang of it, it's a really nice way to finish off your coasters. Congratulations, you've finished your square. You've learned how to dorn in your ends and you've sewn some of these squares together, you've even learned a fun edging. In the next lesson, I'll share some inspiration on what you can make with the square and how you can share your creativity with others. 16. Inspiration and Your Next Challenge: Now you have all the skills you need for making your crochet square, sewing them together, and even adding a nice edging. Now for some inspiration on what else you can make. Of course, these squares make great little coasters. You can sew some together to make derivates or placemats or you can go big and sew a bunch of them together and make a throw or a blanket, all from just this one little square. You can change up the size of the square by decreasing or increasing the number of rounds, for example this trippin was made using squares with only five rounds, so they come out a little smaller. With these endless ideas, what will you do with all these wonderful projects you're going to make? If you remember, the inspiration for this class was to share your creativity by making a handmade item from your heart to brighten someone's day and give someone something that they will be able to cherish for years to come. Something that lets them know by the very act of creating it that you care. You can give your cherished item as a gift to a family, or to some friends, or even to your neighbor. Of course, sharing the love includes self-love. Maybe your item is something you want to gift to yourself and feel the love you put into it as you use it in your daily life, completely legit. If you feel pulled the share one of your projects with your community, then I suggest looking into local charities or care facilities. Many places will welcome your handmade item with grateful hearts. You can check ahead of time to find out if they have any guidelines or if their specific items they're asking for. Some of the places you may want to contact would be hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters, cancer centers, animal shelters, hospice care centers, churches, or veteran centers, or there could be others you think of. Once you start asking people, they will guide you in the right direction. The world of handmade giving is a very welcoming and friendly place. I end with a reminder to post your square in the project section. You can post your progress as you go and then you can update us when you've completed your square. Then if you'd like to, and only if you want to share this part as I know, giving handmade and can be a very personal act. If you feel comfortable sharing your journey of how you gifted your finished cherished item. Thanks so much for joining me in this class and I'm really looking forward to hearing how your crochet creative process stood out and how you shared a little piece of your heart along the way. Thanks again, and enjoy crocheting.