I was having a granny square thing for a while and churned out a bunch of scrapghans. But what about a granny crochet diamond?
I can’t remember what got me on the idea of a diamond shape, which is sad, because usually the long-winded story of the whole course of the inspiration and development is half the fun! (At least for me. On other people’s sites I’m usually like, “Come on, I don’t care how you came up with it, just get to the recipe.”)
But yeah. Granny diamond.
I thought it would be simple, but it wasn’t. I put a bunch of small balls of scrap yarn in the vehicle so I could struggle with this idea on long road trips, but every attempt ended up going wrong. Either the end points got too elongated or the sides puffed up and became rounded.
The internet had some cute patterns, but not exactly what I had in mind. I wanted it to be a REAL granny with groups of 3dc, and to only use double crochet, not throw in treble or half double for shaping. It also has to be super easy to remember, since I’m usually crocheting for yarn therapy.
Then two things clicked. It’s simple math. Square means there’s the same angle at all four corners, in total. A granny square increases by three dc at each corner, so, to make a diamond, some of the increases should be moved from the sides to the points. Instead of three on each corner, it should be two, four, two, four.
Also, if I want the shape to have straight sides, then I should start with the straight sides, so I made the second and third rows on a magic ring. It’s easy to go back later and fill in the foundation.
Also, if you’re curious, here is what happens if you make a regular granny square with the only difference being two chain, four chain, two chain, four chain at the corners. It does come out slightly diamondy.
Then suddenly one of my attempts looked right, and I found myself staring at a diamond shape.
BUT– funny thing is, it came together with a TWO dc group pattern. I don’t know why I compromised so far as to try two, when I had been so determined on three. I guess any “granny” was better than failure and the math was easier with groups of two.
Also, that’s more than double the increases at the points, but I really like the sharp pointed, extremely diamond shape.
But I wasn’t all that happy with the large holes. I contemplated such level of compromise as to knuckle under and fill them in with a triple crochet– but no! There must be another way!
Filling in and tying that point together using a dc. Perfect.
Here’s the chart written out.
After that WIN I was getting better, and produced a “real granny” with three dc groups.
There’s the diagram if you’d like.
Funny thing is, I actually like the one with 2dc groups better. It’s more elongated, more sharp and diamondy. If it was to be contrasting colors and tiled, I think it’d make a cool dramatic harlequin pattern.
Here’s the design tool I’m using. I looked at a lot of editing apps for my android tablet and eventually settled on this. It runs on a tablet, hehe. There’s a pencil that works just like the usual pencil tool. I haven’t used one of these for a long time but it’s surprisingly intuitive. The eraser add-on is very handy!
