Last year I created this great eBook full of holiday-themed squares and I called it “Ashlee’s 2020 Holiday Squares”. Very original title, as usual (honestly that’s one of the hardest parts lol). There was something for everyone: Jingle Bells, Stocking, Decorated Tree, Ashlee’s Snowflake, 2020 Block, Glowing Lanterns, Nativity, Hanukkah, Dove, Ashlee’s Snowflake of Hearts, Sleigh, Chimney, Snowflake Sparkle, Lace Snowflake, and Prancing Deer.
Each square is on a 81 x 81 chart. That means you start with 40 windows when you use the interlocking / Locked Filet Mesh technique and they finish to about 20″ square when you meet my gauge. Of course, the gauge isn’t super important as long as you make all the squares the same size. And, when you use the overlay mosaic technique you have to do something about those pesky tails (I usually do a simple envelope border, see YouTube: Lazy Version).
Originally I had one file for each pattern that included the written instructions for interlocking crochet, a single-page chart that can be used for both techniques (YouTube: How to Use a Chart for Locked Filet Mesh)(YouTube: How to Read a Mosaic Crochet Chart Without X’s), and then the written line-by line instructions for the overlay mosaic technique.
Each of the 15 squares has now been updated to include a chart marked with X’s for mosaic crochet. If you’ve purchased a single square on Ravelry then you’ll see that I simply added the X-marked chart to the list of files. If you’ve purchased the eBook you will see there are now two files: each file has ALL the squares, there’s one file for each crochet technique. Before, the eBook on Ravelry had a lot of files listed and on Etsy you had to purchase 3 listings to get all 15 patterns (they were grouped in sets of 5) but I have updated that so that all 15 are in one eBook now.
Offer expired. This eBook is included in my current Fall Sale (everything in my Etsy shop and Ravelry store is 25% off until the end of September!)
If you don’t want the eBook (which is a pretty great price, to be honest!), you can grab a square on it’s own on Ravelry. If you are en Etsy-only user your only option is the eBook. The list below is not alphabetical, it is in order of how they were originally released.
- Jingle Bells 40
- Stocking 40
- Decorated Tree 40
- Ashlee’s Snowflake 40
- Ashlee’s 2020 Block
- Glowing Lanterns 40
- Nativity 40
- Hanukkah 40
- Dove 40
- Ashlee’s Snowflake of Hearts 40
- Sleigh
- Chimney
- Snowflake Sparkle
- Lace Snowflake
- Prancing Deer
Main Color Choice
A note on the colors: please look at the charts to determine which color you want to use as your Main Color (MC). I know a lot of people get confused because some believe that “main color” refers to the most dominant color in the image, some think it means the background, and some just have absolutely no idea. I use the term Main Color (MC) in both the interlocking and mosaic techniques but I call the other color the “Accent Color (AC)” in the interlocking patterns and use the term “Contrasting Color (CC)” in the mosaic patterns.
Regardless of which technique you use, the pattern does explain how to determine which color to use. The first color used is the MC. If you look at the chart you see that the very first line is black. All the black squares on the chart will be MC. If you compare patterns such as “Dove” and “Prancing Deer” you will see that they both start with black on the bottom (the main color) but the body of the dove uses the opposite color whereas the body of the deer uses the main color.
I did this on purpose. I wanted the dark color on the edges so the squares could be joined together flawlessly. But I wanted a balance between the light and dark colors in the overall scheme of things (like, if you joined a bunch of these holiday squares together for a blanket). You can see how it looks with my small sample of the four snowflake squares below.
I’ve used the dark brown as my main color for all of these squares but when I join the squares together I will have a nice arrangement between the light and dark colors instead of having a dark front and a light back. If you use the mosaic crochet technique then your back will be alternating stripes but the front will look the same as above.
I hope this helps – you can always come ask for help in my Facebook group – we have lots of experienced crocheters!
