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Do you knit or crochet? Have some spare yarn lying around the house… or know someone who does? Then read on – because I need your help!

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On Friday night, before we left Melbourne, we stayed with my Aunt Josette and Uncle Peter. They have a gorgeous house in the hills to the east of the city. Now, I was pretty excited to spend a bit of time with Jo, because she is a professional dressmaker and all around crafty lady. In fact, I’ve actually commissioned a dress off her… but I’ll tell you about that in another blog post.

That evening, I told her that I’d love it if she could teach me to crochet a granny square (or afghan square as some call it). We got distracted by dinner and a few bottles of red, so it got forgotten about – or so I thought. That morning, just as we were preparing to leave for our drive to Canberra, Jo asked if I had a few minutes for her to show me how to make a granny.

I swear, I’ve never seen a crochet hook move so fast! This woman is a pro (in fact, if you live in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, you might well see her at Spotlight once in a while – she teaches evening sewing, knitting and crochet lessons there…). She showed me how to start, how to do a line, and how to do the corners – and gave me a few instruction sheets… then we had to rush out the door.

She also, very sweetly, gave me the very crochet hook she’d pulled out of her stash, along with a few scrap skeins of yarn to play with.

All day, as we drove (well, as Nick drove and I sat in the passenger seat) I kept doing a little more here, and a little more there, of my granny square. Now, I know most people do a small square, then start a new one – and then join them all together. But by the evening I had used up almost all of the yarn Jo had given me, and I had a square about 15cm across. And here it is…

I really enjoyed the relaxing repetition of the crochet – much like knitting, but a little more interesting and varied. Considering it’s my first effort, it’s not bad!

Now, you’re probably thinking “yes yes Jess, very nice… but what did you mean when you said you might need me?”

Well.

As you creative people know, we all tend to have mad ideas… and I’ve just had a doozy.

Nick and I are travelling around Australia this year, and I’ve been trying to come up with a crafty travel project. With your help, I think I may have finally cracked it!

I want to make “The Great Australian Granny Square”!

The idea is basically this: using donations of yarn from lovely crafty peeps, I want to crochet one huge granny square blanket as I travel around Australia.

I plan to take photographs of TGAGS (The Great Australian Granny Square) in all sorts of places as I travel round, and give you all a weekly update on its progress.

The most important thing is that I am not allowed to buy any yarn for this project. Every scrap of yarn I use in TGAGS must be donated by others – to make one big collaborative project! So basically: without you, it can’t happen.

So, what do you think? Am I mad, or are you in?

If you’d like to participate in TGAGS project by sending me a donation of yarn, the details are as follows:

  1. All donations must be of worsted weight yarn (8 ply) – but I don’t care what colour or material. This is just so TGAGS stays even in size as I crochet it.
  2. All yarn must be from your current stash, or the stash of someone you know. No money should be spent buying yarn for this project – it’s a perfect opportunity to clean out that stash, people!
  3. I will set up page here on Epheriell Designs dedicated to TGAGS. On it will be all the update posts and photos, as well as a thank you list of everyone who donated yarn to it (including links to one place we can find you online, if there is one. Oh, and of course if you want to remain anonymous, that’s cool too 🙂 ).
  4. I will periodically call for donations as I travel around Oz, getting people to send them to one of my destinations. So keep your eyes peeled on the blog for the call-out!
  5. The first call-out begins today – this will determine if the project gets off the ground. If you are willing to donate some yarn, please e-mail me at jessica AT epherielldesigns.com – or, leave a comment below with your e-mail stating that you’re interested – and I’ll send you the first address!
  6. Finally, if you are in (or if you can’t donate yarn but you think it’s a cool idea) I would be super-appreciative if you could spread the word! I would love to get yarn from all over the world… from all sorts of crafty people!

So that’s it. Next week I’ll update you all as to whether this project is a goer! And to finish today, a picture of me in Lake’s Entrance, Victoria, on Day 1 of TGAGS project… here’s the beginning…

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