Today’s weather was (to my mind) miserably cold, so while I had originally planned to felt the Merri Purdy make-up bag I had crocheted earlier in the week, I was of no mind to set up my felting apparatus outside where the light was good for making a video.

So I went to my crochet empire/guest room where I surveyed my bookshelf. I was looking for my copy of Jean Leinhauser’s 101 Crochet Squares when I came across this copy of Maggy Ramsay’s Magic Motif Crochet:

I bought this book when I first learned to crochet. I had already purchased a used copy of Crocheting for the Home written with Sondra Miller, and I was delighted to be able to add this book to my then burgeoning collection of craft books.

The book contained any number of projects I wished to make, but the Textured Squares Afghan (see photo below) was definitely on my list of things I wanted to do one day:

This afternoon that elusive “one day” finally arrived.

I had tried to crochet the basic motif once before shortly after I had purchased the book. My effort was hampered by the fact that I was not yet adept at reading written directions, and I did not understand the basics of how the square was made.

Today, however, armed with a 4.5 mm hook, a skein of Red Heart Super Saver aran, and the vast stores of crochet knowledge I have accumulated in the intervening decade since I made that first effort, I was able to make this first motif in just under 15 minutes:

I continued my work and made three more squares; the third square took about twice as long as any of the others as I made all of my mistakes on this square and had to frog it repeatedly before I got it right.

But eventually, I did get it right, and I had all four squares ready and waiting to be assembled:

I put the right sides together, and then (from the back) worked a single crochet stitch both loops of both squares:

I then took the two strips I had made, put them face-to-face, and worked a single crochet as I had for the previous joins and ended up with this square:

I don’t know how long I can realistically expect to work in one color. I did it today because intellectually I know that it is easier to see the stitches and that working in one color highlights the texture work and patterns that are part of this design.

So far, I like the way the motifs look, but I am also curious to know how this design would look with a variety of colors or a variegated yarn. The one thing I know for certain is that it will have to wait for tomorrow.

Video Tutorial: How to make the crochet textured square/magic motif