The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square
The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square book cover

The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square

Spiral-bound – November 1, 2011

Price
$26.50
Publisher
Quarry Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1589236387
Dimensions
9 x 0.75 x 9.38 inches
Weight
1.79 pounds

Description

"Longtime crocheter and designer Hubert explores granny squares--those classic square crocheted motifs--in this collection of patterns. A full-color photo of each square is included, as well as written and charted instructions for crocheting the square. Crocheters can mix and match their favorite granny squares or follow one of the variety of included patterns. It's not easy to make garments and accessories featuring granny squares look fresh and contemporary, but several of Hubert's creations are quite fashionable. Crocheters looking to move beyond basic granny squares, as well as new crocheters drawn to these traditional motifs, will enjoy this collection." - Library Journal "This is a great 2011 crochet book to add to your granny square library. It includes crochet patterns for seventy five different crochet squares including the classic granny square and many of its variations." - Kathryn Vercillo, About.com Crochet Margaret Hubert is the author of more than 20 crochet and knitting books, including Plus Size Crochet, Knits for Men, Knit or Crochet--Have It Your Way, The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet, The Complete Photo Guide to Knitting, The Granny Square Book, Lacework for Adventurous Crocheters, Runway Crochet, and Customize Your Knitting . She has enjoyed a lifelong career designing both crochet and knit patterns for yarn companies and book and magazine publishers. Hubert also teaches at yarn shops, retreats, and national gatherings, and rarely misses a national conference in the needle-arts field. A world traveler, Hubert pays close attention to the fashions in Europe and spots trends as they hit New York. In 2012, in fitting tribute to Hubert's lifelong work as a knitting and crochet designer, the Crochet Guild of America inducted her into their Jean Leinhauser Crochet Hall of Fame. Her work and information about the events she attends can be found on her blog: margaretshooksandneedles.blogspot.com. She lives in Pawling, New York.

Features & Highlights

  • Granny squares are to crochet what pieced squares are to quilting. They originated with pioneer women using up precious scraps of yarn to make blankets for their families, and over the years, many recognized, named patterns have been handed down from one generation to the next. Beyond this treasury of 75 different granny square motifs, Margaret Hubert shows the evolution of the granny square, how it can be used and interpreted in different ways with different yarns, and how today's crocheter can design her own projects using the granny squares of her choice with the yarn choices of today. Just as Margaret learned from her grandmother and mother and then passed the skill down to her daughter and granddaughter, each generation finds new uses and artistic ways to interpret granny squares.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(408)
★★★★
25%
(170)
★★★
15%
(102)
★★
7%
(48)
-7%
(-48)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Very nice and enjoyable.

[[VIDEOID:7869db62e86f0f12f12971511d3abdc9]] I am very happy and proud of my Granny squares. Hope you like my video.
69 people found this helpful
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Alna S.

I LOVE this book! The illustrations and photos are beautiful and inspiring. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. I am planning to crochet one block a day untill I have finished every block in the book. For an almost beginner like me who have not crocheted for many years, it is a fantastic book.
46 people found this helpful
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pretty good book

There are a few nice squares in here. I love two of them and there are others that I might use at some point but for the most part I wasn't terribly impressed. She gives some pretty good tips on making and joining squares but she could have been much more thorough with that. There are so many different ways to join squares and each type or style of join will change the look of the finished project so she could have done a whole chapter on that and it would have made the book a much better value. The projects in the back of the book are pretty good and if I had a young daughter then I would definitely make the backpack (the best pattern in here IMO) and the lacey shawl is quite nice, too. If you are a beginner crocheter then you will find lots of useful information in this book. Squares are very easy to use in projects so there is no limit to the designs that an imaginative person can come up with once they find a square or two that they like. She does do a very good job in giving schematics for different types of sweaters (and suggestions for other items) that you can use squares for so that you can get a start in designing with grannies. I'm not sorry that I bought this book, but I have most of the information elsewhere in my large book collection. There are a few squares in the book that I had not seen done elsewhere, so I am happy to have it.
38 people found this helpful
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The Granny Square Bible!!!!!

I bought this book from a crochet site and it is phenomenal. It has 75 granny square patterns, many of which I have never seen and they are gorgeous. Each granny square is shown with a finished image of the pieces, a color coded diagram that shows which stitches are in which round and clearly written directions. And if you want to create clothing and other projects beyond a blanket they give projects and helpful directions to design your own in the last section of the book.

The only reason this book did not get a 5 star is because they don't go into creating your own granny square design, only designs for projects with them.

If you love to crochet, and like a new update on the Granny Square you cannot pass up this book!
31 people found this helpful
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Inaccurate

I ordered this book for my daughter and myself, to make a new project together. Between the two of us we tried 7or 8 of the Garden flower series. I found a major typo in a page heading as well as multiple differences between the charts and written instructions. Some of these errors were not apparent until well into the square! My daughter became so frustrated that I have tucked away the book and materials for a while.

Other difficulties include poorly written instrucions that are more confusing than helpful! The designs are beautiful but require more editing.
27 people found this helpful
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Great All-Around Crochet Book!

I love the different squares that you can make and I also loved the fact that this book is spiral bound. It is often difficult to hold books on a specific page because the book wants to flop one way or another. This book has all the basic stitches to assist those who are new to crochet as well as a section on reading instructions, to include basic diagram symbols for graph patterns.There is also a section on various joining techniques.What is Truly unique about this book is that it goes beyond the basic squares and how to put them together, and also includes other items that you can make with your granny squares. Everything from edgings, to purses, to jewelry, to clothing! I am totally impressed by the overall layout of this book, as well as the patterns included. Whether you are a beginner to the world of crochet, or you are advanced, this book has a little of Everything to hold your interest!
12 people found this helpful
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Repetitive

There are some really cute designs in here, but a lot of them are really repetitive. I don't think it counts as multiple different patterns to show you how to do half a granny square and then how to do a whole one. All the squares are simple enough for a relative beginner.
12 people found this helpful
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Good, but a few flaws...

This book has great photo examples and gives both written and charted pattern instructions. The patterns are beautiful.

The only reason I don't give this book a five star is because some of the patterns, aren't accurate to the photo examples. I didn't realize this until doing some of the patterns. Some are exact, some are not. If you recognize this immediately when you get to a certain row and notice the pattern instructions for that row doesn't match the example, its easy enough to ignore the pattern to match the example. But this isn't necessarily going to be easy for beginners to notice and work around. The result will still be pretty and will be *similar* to the photo example, but it won't be exact.

The only other flaw was that the author couldn't seem to decide what sort of experience rating system they wanted to go with. Pattern experience levels include: Easy, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Beginner, Experienced. My guess is that perhaps some patterns are from previous publications with different experience terminology and its an editorial over-sight.
11 people found this helpful
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Excellent timeless book

This book shows many differant ways to crochet a granny square, the building block of many fine projects. This is adds to my fun with crochet. I find this book inspiring and highly recomend it.
5 people found this helpful
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Having a ball!!

I'm having such a great time with this book. I'm making granny squares like crazy!! It's fun, relaxing, easy and creative. I can't wait to start putting them together into a blanket. That's probably going to be the hardest part. How do I get all the different colors matched up so I'm happy with the finished product. I'm totally anal about not having any same colors touching, or too close together so I'll be spending too much time trying to lay it all out, but in the end I'll have a great blanket for our couch! My wife thinks it's funny to see her husband crocheting.. but whatever, I don't think it's bad to have a side hobby that's creative.. HEY! At least I'm not in some bar drinking or at some friends house till all hours of the night.. I'm at home, with her, while she has on horrible shows on the tv.. but the crocheting makes them bearable.. mostly bearable, I mean nothing will ever make Big Brother watchable, but if I can do a hard granny square or two while the show is on I find I am concentrating more on the granny square and the show isn't rotting my brain away...
3 people found this helpful