{Crochet} Granny Square Easter Eggs

Not everyone likes chocolate for Easter, so crochet your non chocoholic family members and friends a sweet Granny Square Easter Egg using my tutorial based on a pattern I modified to suit the supplies I could source!

I wanted to make something handmade and non-chocolatey for Easter this year, as a few of my family members don't eat Easter Eggs - I know, who doesn't like chocolate, right? ;) I usually give them home baked goods or flowers, but this year I wanted to gift them something they could keep and use every Easter.

On Pinterest, I found a crochet pattern for some pretty Granny Square Easter Eggs on the Hobby Craft UK website, and it was exactly what I wanted but when I tried it, the crochet was way too big for the Styrofoam eggs I could source from Spotlight. I also wanted to use yarn from my stash, so to make this work I had to do some pattern modifications.

I needed to modify the original pattern to suit my supplies and it took me a few tries before they fit my Styrofoam eggs perfectly.  I used the same number of rounds as the original pattern, but I shortened some of the stitches to condense the size - a DC swapped to a HDC etc.

I thought you might like to crochet some for yourself, using either Maria from A Playful Stitches original pattern or my adapted version, and seeing the pattern round by round does help new crocheter's so I took photo's along the way to help you out.

Let's talk about supplies. For Australian readers, these are the Styrofoam eggs I purchased from Spotlight, They are 10cm (4") Deco Foam Eggs, and I'm pretty sure they stock them all year round so you shouldn't have trouble sourcing them - except the people in Launceston, I brought all they had ;)

I used a scrappy mix of 8ply cotton yarn, and most of it was 4 Seasons Flinders Cotton Yarn or Patons Cotton Yarn. I don't mind mixing yarn for projects like this - one is a little thicker than the other, but a little stretch and the crochet fit the egg perfectly.

My hook size was 3.75mm and I would call myself a loose crocheter, so you could size up to get the same results.

There are seven rounds to each half of the egg, and I used between 4-6 colours depending on how they worked together and which combinations I liked. I tried not to think about it too much and threw together all my favorite colours.

Before I show you the round by round photos, here's some tutorial links to the stitches you will need to know, and these are in US terms:

Magic Circle

CH: Chain Stitch

SC: Single Crochet

HDC: Half Double Crochet

DC: Double Crochet

SP2: Spike Stitch over two rows

SS: Slip Stitch

I'll give you any other tips that are important to the round as we work through the pattern. Let's crochet some Granny Square Crochet Eggs:

The following instructions are for one half of the Granny Square Easter Egg. Make 2 per egg.

Round 1: Make a Magic Circle, CH 3 (this counts as a DC), work into the ring 11 DC. Pull the Magic Circle closed and slip stitch to the top of the CH 3. Tie off. 

Round 2: Attach a new colour and between any two stitches, CH 3 (this counts as a HDC and CH 1) , HDC and CH 1into the space between each stitch. Slip stitch into the second CH stitch at the beginning of the round and tie off.

Tip: for this round you are crocheting in the space between the stitches, not the actual stitches.

Round 3: Attach a new colour and beginning in any CH 1 space, CH 2 (this counts as a HDC) HDC and CH 1 into the first CH 1 space. 2HDC and CH 1 into each CH 1 space around. Slip stitch to the top of the beginning CH 2 and tie off.

Tip: It doesn't matter where you start in any of the rounds.

Round 4: Attach a new colour and begin in any CH 1 space, CH 3 (this counts as a DC) 2DC and Ch 1 in the first CH 1 space. 3DC and CH 1 in each CH 1 space around. Slip stitch to the top of the beginning CH 3 and tie off.

Round 5: Attach a new colour and begin in any CH 1 space, CH 3 (this counts as a DC) SP-2 between the two HDC's from Round 3 and DC and CH 1 in the first CH 1 space. DC, SP-2 (between HDC's from Round 3), DC and CH 1 in each CH 1 space around. Slip stitch to the top of the beginning CH 3 and tie off.

Tip: the SP-2 is worked between the two HDC's from Round 3. It is a long DC stitch. Work it the same as a DC, pulling the stitch longer to reach the same height as the normal DC's.

Round 6: Attach a new colour and begin in a CH 1 space, CH 3 (this counts as a DC) DC into the first CH 1 space. **DC in the space on either side of the SP-2 from Round 5, 2DC in the next CH 1 space. Repeat from ** around. Slip stitch to the top of the first CH 3 and tie off.

Tip: you should have 2DC's in the CH space and one either side of the SP-2 from Round 5, between the stitches.

Round 7: Attach a new colour and begin in the space between the stitches, CH 2 (this counts as a HDC), 22 HDC, 4 DC, 21 HDC. Slip Stitch to the top of the first CH 2 and tie off.

Tip:  the 4 DC will shape the tip of the egg. Add a marker if you need to so you can find them when attaching the halves together.

Bury your yarns securely. You can use this Working Away Your Yarns tutorial if you need any help.

To join them together, find the 4 DC stitches on each half and slip stitch them together through the front loops in matching yarn. Once you have the egg half sewn together, insert the Styrofoam egg and continue to slip stitch around, stretching the crochet over eggs evenly.

And that's it! One handmade Granny Square Easter Egg! They sure are sweet, but in the heathy kind of way! ;)

I have a whole pile of these Granny Square Easter Eggs ready to wrap up and gift this Easter. It was such a fun project to work on, and I'm so happy I finally got the pattern to work for the foam eggs I could source.

Thank you to Maria from @aplayfulstitch for the original pattern, it's a clever design and I love how colourful and fun the Easter eggs are! She has lots of wonderful patterns, so make sure you give her a follow!

I hope my tutorial helps you create some Granny Square Easter Eggs too!

PIN FOR LATER:

Happy crocheting :)