A Bluestocking Knits

Since I don't have to wait a week for the next square for the Granny Square Sampler afghan to come out, it may come as no surprise that my turnout is starting to blend together.  Sometimes a new-to-me square takes a while to work, then by the third one it just zips along and I might start the next one right away.  I think week 3's square is one of my favorites — something about the simplicity of it, perhaps.  It's fun to have the colors changing on each round, but I really like the nearly-solid ones.

Week 4's squares are a subtle variation on the traditional granny square, with a little "V" shape in the second-color rounds.  I realized that it didn't show up very well with the dark green, so on the second one I used a brighter color.

There are two squares for Week 5, and to revel in that, they are nearly circles!  My Circles in a Square are at upper right and lower left in the photo above, and the other two are "Squircles" — the first has only sort of embryonic corners, and uses the wonderful blocking properties of wool to mold it into a square shape, but the second, while very similar in the middle, uses further rounds of short single crochets in the middles of the edges, then slightly taller half-doubles on either side, with taller-yet double crochets to fill out the corners.  Simple, yet clever.

As for the oval, well, our bathroom mats are getting a bit ratty after, goodness I don't even know how long, possibly twenty years!  I discovered that I could order some truly gigantic balls of Lily Sugar N Cream yarn, and so I bought three, thinking of their Oval Bath Mat free pattern.  But it isn't really oval, is it, with the increases stacked directly on top of one another — though I suppose "Elongated-Octagon Bath Mat" doesn't sound as appealing — so I just sort of improvised for a while, moving the increases here or there, then when it started getting big, I put safety pins around the curved ends in the spots I wanted the increases to go, so that I could see them.  I'm pretty happy with the shape, not so much with the jog where the rounds end, so if I do another one in an oval, I will try a spiral.  Still, it's much more pleasant to look at the floor in the bathroom now!  And the balls of yarn were so huge that I'm pretty sure I have enough for at least one more mat!