Why I’m nuts about Nuts About Squares CAL

For over a month, it has been so much craze for the Nuts About Squares crochet along (CAL) by Esther of http://www.itsallinanutshell.com.  And the first square was just released this Friday!!

http://www.scheepjes.com

I had a delightful pleasure of being one of the lucky testers for this fabulous CAL and wanted to share my top 3 reasons why I’m nuts about Nuts About Squares CAL.

Reason 1 – Square Designs

The CAL gives us a great opportunity to work on beautiful squares designed by 11 talented and very adored designers.  Some squares are normally sold for a fee but for the CAL participants, all designs will be made available for free!

And what I particularly love about the designs is that all the squares in the afghan have beautiful textures.  Many have overlays and some work up in magical, unique ways.  But on the other side, these are squares that may otherwise intimate me a little at a first glance.

Reason 2 – Esther’s Videos and CAL Community Support

And that brings me up to my second reason why I’m nuts about this CAL.  Even though many of the squares are a little beyond my comfort zone, I know that Esther’s videos are going to walk me through every step, if needed (find Week 1 video here).  I’m prone to vertigo so I am usually not a huge fan of video tutorials.  But Esther’s videos do not give me motion sickness like some do; her videos are steady, her voice is soothing, and her tutorials give super useful tips.

And there is a lot of support in the CAL community, especially on Facebook.  The CAL is sponsored by the Facebook group, Official CCC Social Group and there is also a lot of support at CAL – Crochet A Long group.  Both groups have super positive attitudes and there are always people around the clock, from around the world, helping each other.

Reason 3 – Esther’s Color Guide

What is super unique about this CAL is each week Esther would make a video of 1 pattern and gives us 3 different color variations.  The recommended number of colors for the CAL is 6.  And each week, Esther gives you different and unique ways of arranging these 6 colors of your choice (or you can choose one of Esther’s color packs).

I am pretty okay about finding colors that I like together but I am not too creative in changing up the color orders using the same colors.  So I really appreciate having a guide to try out the same pattern in 3 different color placement options.

For my testing (pictured above in blue and gray tones), I chose Scheepjes Colour Crafter in the following colors: Weert (1001), Heerenveen (1203), Dokkum (1302), Texel (1019), Wolvega (1099), and Rotterdam (1063).

The color play is so much fun that I am thinking of trying out another with different colors like the one below with Stylecraft Special DK in Canary, Aster, Cloud Blue, Empire, White, and Meadow.

I hope you enjoy Nuts About Squares CAL as much as I do!