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Granny squares and garments in the same sentence brings forth visions of 70s vintage fashions featuring grouped treble stitches, but as you know I have a totally different perspective to offer for crochet garments, as does Shelley Husband for granny squares!
With our upcoming shared crochet workshop “A Day With Shelley & Susannah”, we have each been doing our homework (following each other’s instructions) so we are ready to be helper if we aren’t the one teaching. We each have our own pattern writing style and little tricks with a crochet hook and I want to share with you a glimpse into Shelley’s creations.
Shelley’s modern take on granny squares with textured monochromatic approach is a blank canvas for your imagination (as she usually designs in monochromatic “Parchment” colour of 8ply Cotton from Bendigo Woollen Mills, but you can make them as colourful as you like)! Shelley has built a sizable library of G-square patterns over 8 books with her latest offering being Granny Square Academy 2.
Granny Square Academy 2 builds upon her previously published Granny Square Academy 1. Both books can be purchased together at a low price, and in my opinion this set would be a comprehensive asset to any beginner crocheter library.
Two awesome squares that Shelley will be teaching during our workshop are from GSA2. Here are Tall Tailor and Invisible Jessie I made for my homework with fingering weight cotton and a 3mm hook. Such balanced designs and each so striking! And both the Rowan Summerlite and Morris & Sons Avalon cottons were a treat to work with as they have such soft handle to them.
I really enjoyed seeing how Shelley’s mind works by reading her patterns. Each round is carefully considered so everything looks “just so” in the finished square. In her Granny Square Academy books, she covers the essentials for professional stitch making and finishing techniques. Everything you need to know to master her interpretation of G-squares, AND …her offered advice and expertise also happens to be a perfect platform to build upon with garment making skills.
Yes, things are a little different working in rows back and forth compared to making granny squares, but the stitch techniques with neat joins and finishing tricks applies equally to both niches.
Shelley’s Granny Square Academy books each offer a series of granny square patterns that can be joined together as a blanket or just made as an exercise. There are 10 squares in GSA1 and 12 in GSA2! Each square design is a lesson in itself, highlighting a certain stitch technique, structure, or special join method.
Full pattern instructions are succinctly provided in both UK and US terms, followed by a breakdown of things to watch for or avoid and tips for a professional finish as you make each one. Even though Shelley likes to work in the colour Parchment for her projects, she uses 2 colours for photos for the guided pattern breakdowns so you can see more clearly to follow along. This is customer-centric content and publishing, with heaps of detail!
For all those who have taught themselves to crochet by watching free amigurumi videos on YouTube, Shelley’s books offer greater context and much of the nuance of stitch construction you are probably missing.
Highly recommended!
For transparency, this blog post is my sincere opinion. Nobody asked or encouraged me to publish it. I purchased Granny Square Academy 2 without Shelley realising and there are no affiliate links. We simply met, found a kindred crochet nerd in each other, I decided to learn more about her work and found her books so beneficial for beginner to intermediate crocheters that I wanted to tell you about them.
Our workshop is coming up in just over a week! I am super excited because I see our crochet sets as complementary …and we both enjoy a good laugh! It will be really interesting having 2 designers from slightly different niches teaching together to support all our fabulous students. We are sold out too, which is amazing! If you want to join the waitlist (in case there are cancellations), then link is here.
A fun day of crochet finessing and garment making guidance awaits!
Susannah (Peppergoose).
Thank you to Morris & Sons for the yarn support to make the squares you see in this post.