Ready for some summer fun with yarn and hook? I’m happy to announce the new Summertime Granny Squares Collection with 24 square patterns inspired by summer!
Explore the Summertime Collection on Ravelry, LoveCrafts, or Etsy!
The Summertime Granny Squares are all about summer.
Think anything from Under the Sea, to sailing, or more in general, vitamin Sea kind of crochet squares and appliques!
Here’s the complete list of what’s included in the Summertime Granny Squares Collection
- Part 1 – Intro, Yarn Colors, How to…, Simple Circle Granny Square
- Part 2 – Sun granny square, Sunglasses applique, and Beach Umbrella applique
- Part 1 – Intro, Yarn Colors, How to…, Simple Circle Granny Square
- Part 2 – Sun granny square, Sunglasses applique, and Beach Umbrella applique
- Part 3 – Boat applique and Lifebuoy granny square
- Part 4 – Anchor applique
- Part 5 – Flounder Fish and Golden Fish granny squares
- Part 6 – Blowfish granny square and Manta applique
- Part 7 – Octopus and Jellyfish granny squares
- Part 8 – Sea Star applique
- Part 9 – Sea Turtle granny square
- Part 10 – Crab and Whale granny squares
- Part 11 – Seahorse applique
- Part 12 – Palm Tree appliques and Coconut co*cktail granny square
- Part 13 – Flamingo and Pineapple granny squares
- Part 14 – Watermelon, Kiwi, and Citrus Fruits granny squares
Get your Summertime granny squares patterns on Ravelry, LoveCrafts, or Etsy!
Explore the other granny square collections…
- Spring Farm Granny Squares
- Halloween Granny Squares
- Christmas Granny Squares
Alright, let’s take a look at what you’ll need for crocheting these squares…
Materials
- 3.5-mm (E/4 USA, 9 UK) Crochet Hook
- 3.0-mm (C/2 USA, 11 UK) Crochet Hook
- DK (3, Light) Cotton Yarn
- Tapestry Needle
Size
The basic granny square pattern used for the Summertime Collection is the Simple Circle Granny Square.
Find below a summary of the square size with different yarn and hook combinations!
| Yarn | Hooks* | Finished Square Size | Yardage per square |
| Cotton DK (3, Light) | 3.5 mm (E/4 US, 9 UK) 3.0 mm(C/2 US, 11 UK) | 4.75″ (12 cm) | 33 yds (30 m) |
| Acrylic DK (3, Light) | 4.0 mm (G/6 US, 8 UK) 3.5 mm (E/4 US, 9 UK) | 5.5″ (14 cm) | 43 yds (40 m) |
| Cotton Worsted (4, Medium) | 4.5 mm (G/7 US, 7 UK) 4.0 mm (G/6 US) | 5.9″ (15 cm) | Did not measure, sorry! |
| Acrylic Worsted (4, Medium) | 5.5 mm (I/9 US, 5 UK) 5.0 mm (H/8 US, 6 UK) | 7″ (18 cm) | Did not measure, sorry! |
You can check the free pattern and step-by-step tutorial on how to crochet the Simple Circle Granny Square on the blog HERE, or watch the video tutorial on YouTube HERE.
Yarn
For my squares, I usedPaintbox Yarns Cotton DK.
However, feel free to crochet these squares with any yarn and the appropriate hook.
Get your patterns now! The Summertime granny squares patterns are on Ravelry, LoveCrafts, or Etsy.
Yardage
Depending onwhat project you want to make with your grannies, you will have to calculate how much yarn you’ll need.
If you use Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK and a 3.5-mm hook:
- Each square will be about 4.75″ (12 cm);
- For each square, you’ll need 33 yds (30 m) in total, of which 9 yds (8.5 m) for the center of the simple circle granny square (rounds 1-4), and 21.5 yds (19,5 m) for squaring.
So, for a blanket:
- Baby Blanket of ~ 30″ by 35″ (76 cm by 90 cm) with 6 by 7 squares = 42 total squares: 7 or 8 skeins of your background color, and 1 skein each for the other colors.
- Receiving Blanket of ~ 40″ by 40″ (100 cm by 100 cm) with 8 by 8 squares = 64 total squares: 10 skeins of background color, and 1 skein each for the other colors.
- and so on.
However, keep in mind that Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK is a 100% cotton yarn, and in combination with these specific patterns, it’s not the best option for a blanket, especially a baby blanket.
Yarn Alternatives for Blankets
If you want to crochet a blanket, I would go for some softer cotton yarn.
I have never tried it but I saw that many people used Rico Baby Cotton Soft DK for making baby items, so that might be a yarn to try.
Otherwise, just switch to acrylic. Here are some acrylic yarn options:
- Paintbox Yarn Baby DK – I used this for my Bumble Bee Baby Blanket and it is very soft! So, I would totally use it again for a baby blanket.
- Paintbox Yarns Simply DK – I used this yarn for all the other granny square CAL’s and it’s very good for being acrylic.
- Stylecraft Special DK Acrylic Yarn–I really like this yarn. I tried it, and sometimes, I mix it with Paintbox Yarns Simply DK if I miss a color or something.
- Deramores Studio DK Acrylic – Never used it, so I cannot say much about it. The same goes for the next one.
- King Cole Pricewise DKon LoveCrafts
HOW MANY COLORS SHOULD YOU GET?
These are the Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK colors I used:
- Champagne White (403) – This is the color I used as background, so it’s the one that I used the most. But you can also make your background in light blue or another color, your choice!
- For the blues: Marine Blue (434), Dolphin Blue (437), and Washed Teal (433) – Even though I used 3 shades of blue, you can feel free to only pick 2, one light and a dark one.
- Pink: Blush Pink (454) & Bubblegum Pink (451)
- Green: Lime Green (429) & Grass Green (430)
- Buttercup Yellow (423)
- Blood Orange (420)
- Rose Red (414) or Red Wine (416) – Pick your favorite red shade!
- Misty Grey (404) or Slate Grey (406) – You don’t necessarily need two greys…
- Pure Black (402)
- Brown: Coffee Bean (411)
- Soft Fudge (410) – but really a tiny, tiny bit, so I wouldn’t buy an entire skein. Any lighter brown from your stash will do!
Keep in mind that you do not need an entire skein of each color. In most cases, you’ll probably be able to use yarn from your stash!
Summertime Granny Squares CAL
I first shared the pattern of the Summertime Granny Squares as part of a crochet along (CAL), which ran from April 11th, 2022 to May 27th, 2022.
It had been almost a year since the last granny square CAL, which was the Spring Farm one, and I was totally itching to get back at it.
So, after a quick survey over the Facebook group, I decided on the new dates of the CAL, and yarn and hook in hand, got to work!
Now, even though the CAL is over, you can still get all the patterns by purchasing the Summertime Granny Squares Collection.
Get your Summertime granny squares patterns on Ravelry, LoveCrafts, or Etsy!
WHAT TO CROCHET WITH YOUR Summertime GRANNY SQUARES?
Here are a few ideas…
- Blankets
- Granny Square Pillowcases
- Bucket Hats!
- Baskets
- Small zipper pouches
- Small bags, beach bags, and totes
- Garlands
- …and so much more!
Get a few more ideas for some fun projects with granny squares inthis blog post HERE.
Make sure to take a look and get some inspiration for your nextgranny square project! This way, you can also estimate how much yarn you’ll want to buy.
Alright, don’t forget to check the patterns on Ravelry HERE!
Looking forward to seeing your squares 🙂
I HOPE YOU’LL ENJOY CROCHETING THESE Summertime GRANNY SQUARES!
Don’t forget to show me your squares onFacebookandInstagramusing the hashtag#raffamusadesigns
Looking for moresummer crochet ideas?
- Whale Applique
- Little Heart Square
In case you’re curious about the decision-making process while organizing the Summertime CAL, here are some of my considerations.
Why was the CAL hosted on Ravelry?
If you participated in the previous CALs, you know that they were entirely hosted via e-mail and for free. So, every week, twice a week, you would get an e-mail with the PDF patterns attached.
Hosting the CAL entirely via e-mail was really great fun for me, but also a huuuge amount of work!
For every single e-mail, there were problems with e-mail deliverability, so even though I did send the e-mail, people did not get it in their inboxes (these e-mails were probably lost in the metaverse!).
Let’s say that I spent hours and hours working on my inbox and resending e-mails.
So, with Ravelry, I will simply upload the new patterns twice a week and I will send you a notification when the new file is up.
Alright, the second biggest change.
This was a cheap but paid CAL
As I said, the previous CALs were free, and for as much as I love “free”, I also need to justify the long hours I work on crocheting these squares, the even longer hours I spend writing up the patterns, taking photos, preparing all the files, etc.
So, I won’t charge an enormous amount of money, but I do appreciate your mall contribution!
And since I still don’t have the tech to collect payments on my website, I thought that Ravelry was the easiest option.
