C2C Heart Mug Rug

I was late to the Corner to Corner or C2C crochet party, but I'm so glad I finally tried it out! If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a technique where you build your piece from one corner to the opposite corner, working in little blocks of double crochets. This allows you to follow graphed patterns, which is my favorite part! Like filet crochet, you can create a design on graph paper and then complete it in crochet. Cool.

I've mostly seen afghans and potholders done with this technique, so I thought I'd try something on a smaller scale, and did this mug rug in size 10 crochet thread with a 1.65mm hook. I drew out my pattern on graph paper, transcribed it into written directions (ex. Row 11- 2 white, 7 yellow, 2 white), and got crocheting! Its finished size is about 5.75 inches square, hence "mug rug" as I thought it was a bit large to call a "coaster."

There are a TON of great tutorials on blogs to read and on youtube to watch, which is what I did to learn what it was all about. There seem to be a few different ways to do things, so my suggestion is just trying the ways that sound good to you and jump right in! For example, I read about two different ways to change colors. One way involved changing colors in the slip stitch before the next block of double crochets, and the other involved changing colors in the last block of double crochets before the slip stitch and next block of double crochets. (Sounds confusing, but it's really not!) I shuddered at the idea of changing in the slip stitch, so I changed colors like I normally would in any other piece- changing it in the last double crochet stitch before the next double crochet in the new color. It seems to be working for me, however I should give the other method a try!

Anyways, I have some other larger C2C crochet projects in the works. I have to say, it's quite an addictive method, and I really like the resulting texture. What about you? Have you done any corner to corner crochet?! I'd love to hear about it!