Crochet Swaps

The squares I made for my friend

At the end of last year my friend joined me up to a crochet granny square swap group on facebook. I thought it sounded like an interesting idea and so decided to roll with it. The basic idea is that every month you get a different swap partner and you make each other four 6 x 6 inch granny squares which you swap by post. Over time you will build up a collection of squares to do with as you will, I'm planning to go all out and make a blanket.

The squares my friend made for me

As luck would have it my friend ended up being my swap partner and so we decided it was a good excuse to meet up to swap our squares, which tied in nicely with my New Year's resolution which is to spend more time having tea and cake with my friends. I'm really pleased with the squares made for me, if all my swaps are this lovely my blanket will be very beautiful indeed.

Owl square detail

Circle square detail

Circle square detail

Talking to people about this group has been interesting; one person asked why do it and what do you get out of it which got me thinking about the value we place on certain goods and skills and the way we feel about sharing, both goods and knowledge. When I signed up for the swap it never really occurred to me to think of it in terms of how I would benefit, I just liked the idea of sharing something using a craft I love and I also saw it as a good way of getting me to do a bit of crochet each month. I think that there is something very powerful in sharing something hand made; it takes time, thought and skill to create something by hand and sharing that with someone else creates a very personal connection. I'd be very interested to hear what other people think, do you agree or not?