Crochet

I was having a terrible time holding the yarn with the correct tension while trying to make a stitch.

I watched this video: How to Hand Crochet (Finger Crochet) a Blanket in 1 Hour and figured this would help me learn the stitches at least.

I had found some yarn at a thrift store, which was bulky red and bulky purple acrylic. I had bought a skein of #4 purple and #4 blue to practice with, so I decided to combine them all and crochet with my fingers instead of a hook.

At the beginning, I could not tell whether I was looking at a single crochet or a double crochet. Well, I couldn't tell at the end either, with all those yarns. My initial chain was a little tight, I suppose, because it curves.

Oh well, it looks pretty good and I learned a lot.

I cut two pairs of sweat pants and one jacket into strips, and used them to single crochet in a spiral. I think this video inspired it: How to Hand Crochet a Circular Rug

This method makes the rug fairly thick, so I ran out before getting it very large.

This was advertised as a single skein hat. I don't think my head is that much bigger than usual, but I really had to struggle to get it as long as it is. I'm still not sure what I did wrong.

It looks great on the model.

I had to figure out how to do this on my own. I had looked at several patterns for slippers, and even started one that started in a circle around the toes, but I have a wide foot and it was not looking like it would work out for me.

I decided to make the soles out of the sturdier yarn. I thought I could go across the top and turn back the opposite way, but I decided I wanted the color to go in a circle. So I made it a bit more difficult to attach the circle to the sole.

The boucle yarn was left over from an art project. I found it impossible to see the stitches by itself. I put a plain black yarn with it and it was easier, but I had to do the circle several times because I would lose track of the increase and not be able to count the stitches.

The two slippers are slightly different sizes. I made notes of how many rounds I did for the main circle, but not for all the other parts.

I followed the pattern at Painted Wool Vest, but I used cream colored acrylic yarn.

I had to work really hard to understand the pattern since it has a lot of repeats and is not very clear about where you start.

I had one skein of Lion Brand Homespun, and I took it to the store to find another yarn that would look good with it. But alas, it was blues and browns and there was nothing that felt like it would enhance it.

I followed the pattern at Easy Top Down V Neck Crochet Top, using a yarn with a metallic thread in it, that I had found at the overstock store.

I think this particular shirt should be made with a smaller yarn, but I thought I'd try it with a standard #4 yarn.

I had several issues with how this came out. I don't like the back having a V. I don't like all the holes in the shoulder area. I think my two sides didn't match. Since it is stitched in a spiral, I apparently kept adding stitches to the row as you can see it flaring wider as it goes.
Some of this might have been fixed with a smaller yarn and some stitch markers.

It looks much better on the pattern.

Shopping on a yarn sale, I bought a skein of Caron Jumbo, Peacock Variegate.
I tried to do pooling with it, but the colors are very short.

I decided to start a throw, and it went well, but the multi-color yarns have a lot less on the skein than the solid colors. When I went back for more yarn, I saw that the dye lot didn't match, but they didn't have any others. I bought two more.

When I got through with three skeins, I could definitely see a difference in the color. The first skein was darker, which I prefer. I could also see that my stitching was fairly uniform because the colors were landing in the same places for each stitch grouping. I didn't really want pooling on this, so I varied a few stitch lengths.

The stitch was a combination of Loopy Love Scarf and CROCHET C2C in ROWS but I do only two double crochets each.

I added a border using Caron One Pound, Ocean.

There were too many problems with the shirt, so I pulled all the stitches out and started a design I saw at The Which-Way Filet Blanket Crochet Tutorial!

I think I didn't like having the back look different from the front, so I turned at each round, unlike the video. That meant that I had to count different every other round, so there were a few that I forgot and had to rip out to do it right.

This is three skeins of yarn.

Since I started with an ombre yarn (Red Heart Anthracite, I think), it wasn't necessarily symmetrical once that ran out. I ended up adding on to both ends instead of getting another skein and repeating what I had already done. I think that's because changing yarn on every stitch for some of the rows was very tedious and I didn't want to do that any more.

Somehow my stitch count got out of whack, so the center is skinnier than the two ends and I tried to fill it in a bit with the border.
What I learned is that I should plan ahead, instead of just starting.

I'm following this video for a bomber jacket. I have finished the two front panels and about half of the back panel.

The yarn is Lion Brand Pound of Love, Claret.

I completed the front and back panels, and have stitched them together.

I got one cuff done and pulled it out because it didn't cinch the sleeve in enough. I had missed the change of hooks for the main color single crochet around the edge.

When I did the cuff again, it looked great. But I found that my choice of 8 chains instead of 10 leaves me with the sleeve feeling just a bit short. If I simply add on, there will be a visible break in the pattern.

I also changed the turning chain from 3 chains to 2 so it didn't have big gaps. But the first few times I put my hand through, it was a little tight. I might just take the cuff off and start over...again.

Although I bought the yarn in early January, the jacket took up January and then the design I had chosen for a gift afghan wasn't all I thought it was, so I spent February trying stitches and researching what else I could do with the yarn I bought for that. (4 different Big Twist Value skeins, one Red Heart Thyme, 2 Lion Brand Pound of Love, and the Caron One Pound Ocean I already had)

My original thought was to use two strands together, but it didn't work well with the stitches I preferred. I still wanted to mix the blue and green more than normal. I finally settled on the Modified Granny Spike Chevron design, which I first saw on Pinterest and found a better photo reference for on Ravelry.

I used this stitch reference, but I added another spike stitch in the valley to close the big hole there.

I was able to churn out 3 sections of the 8 colors in different orders pretty fast, and decided to duplicate that sequence so that I could have symmetry with the spikes going in both directions from the middle.

However, that meant that the peaks would meet and I needed to fill in the valleys somehow.

I went through a lot of ideas and ended up simply slip-stitching over the peaks while putting the same pattern in the valley. Then I had to figure the best way to join the pieces without it looking weird. I learned about the tight join as you go method which was exactly what I needed.

Another thing that took me awhile was deciding on a border. Because this pattern has a big hole (and chain) at the peak, both edges were fairly fragile and likely to get caught on things if left this way. I tried using the light color(it's what I had the most of) to close the holes, but that looked bad, so I finally slip-stitched all the holes tight with the Thyme yarn and went around the whole thing with half-double crochet stitch in dark blue. I didn't use any of the six or eight borders I found that might suit this piece.

I think I used about 350 yards of each color, plus more for the border. Since none of the colors were carried up the edge, each stripe has two ends to weave in. That means 2 ends times 8 colors times 3 sections times 2 halves equals 96 ends, plus a few more for the middle and border stuff.

I asked my grandnephew if he liked any of the designs I had been gathering, and in late March he chose the design on the left, but using the colors on the right.

I had to decide on yarn for those colors, and where to put each color before I could know how much yarn to buy.

I found the yarn on sale. Most of it is Big Twist (Varsity Navy Blue, Ivory, Toffee, Titanium Gray), but two are Caron One Pound: Ocean and Deep Grey Mix. I used some small Crafter's Square black yarn I found at Dollar Tree to accent the navy blue, and two shades of #4 brown and a different navy. A few other small light grays that accent the medium gray are Yarn Bee, discontinued.

I didn't have a pattern to follow, so I thought I would start with the middle black stripe that would establish the angle and the width, and I could use as a base from two sides. Now that I'm done, I can say this was probably not the best decision. I had seen a blanket pattern for big blocks of color that involved switching yarns mid-row, switching back on the return pass. I started this way, but since I wanted a different stitch for each color, I soon realized that the stitch height difference ruled that out.

I had the idea of starting the gray triangle at the afghan edge, but by the third row, I was having trouble since it was 2 inches too long, using the Nesting Shell stitch that came out too splotchy.

I then tried doing organic-looking stripes. It was taking entirely too much time, the angle wasn't right, and it appeared so different from the rest that I pulled it all out.

Then I found that the triangle's two sides were not equal, so a 45 degree angle wouldn't work correctly.

I ended up working along two edges with the Grit stitch, turning when I hit a piece of yarn I stretched between the two corners.

The white triangle was started in the inner corner with a C2C Granny spike stitch.

I had to rip a few rows out occasionally when I skipped a stitch or put too many stitches in a row. I tried to put some contrast white with the ivory, but I couldn't see it. I think the edge is a bit rippley.

The stitch pattern is back loop only yarn-over slip stitch in multiples of 8, reversing direction several times in short rows, so I used markers for where to turn all the way across. It took me awhile to get used to the pattern and make about 10 inches with one big skein.

I took photos and overlaid them on the original and found my rows were at funny angles and too small.

I was able to adjust the image somewhat to match what I had crocheted, but it didn't solve the fact that it wasn't looking like something I wanted to give as a gift.

I bailed on the project as a gift with a deadline since I didn't want to pull any of it out.

This is the point where I should have fixed the problem that the dark blue had too few stitches and was curling a little. I tried to add on the section on the bottom right at least 4 times before it looked decent. I didn't really want to pull it all out again, so there is a bulge in the center.

Getting the dark blue Y section straight took several tries. Then working on inside curves makes it difficult to keep the outer edge square. I had to pull a bunch of this out because I didn't reduce it enough. I thought clipping a pillow case to the corner would help to maintain a 90 degree angle.

But you can see how the lower right corner here is out of whack, and the light blue has excess. I pulled out that light blue and two rows of the dark blue. When I started again, I decreased the stitch count a lot to pull in the outer edge. It made the dark blue curve.

The majority of it is the Suzette stitch (sc, dc, sk1). Each of the stripes has two rows of a different stitch pattern in the center, just to add interest. The border is medium blue (Crafter's Square yarn from Dollar Tree), going from two rounds of Rice stitch to three of Trinity stitch to single crochet, slip stitch.

On the last corner, I decided to try a curtain panel to help keep it square. By itself, that didn't quite work, but clipping it to a cutting mat in the corner worked a lot better.

I used the two blues to go around the edge and straighten it. It looked much better, but left a lot of ends to weave in.

Here's a view from above.

After considering a lot of options for the border, the recipient chose a light tan and navy blue wave pattern.

Here is a little bit closer look for the texture.

The next project has a goal photo, but slightly different colors requested:

I could tell that this was "mosaic" crochet, in which each row is one color, stitched from right to left, leaving holes for the other color. The result is a fringe on the edges, (so you don't have to weave in all the ends), a dense fabric, and the design only on one side.

I was determined to make the design show on both sides. I found a Colorwork Techniques video explaining several techniques. I first tried the tapestry technique, in which you carry the unused color along, but the bright yellow was too visible.

Then I tried the intarsia technique, with 12 different bobbins of yellow yarn. This was easy, but looked very messy for this square design.

I decided to do one color per row, leaving holes for the other color, which get filled from above using a spike stitch. It's still a little messy, but it shows the design on both sides.

This section is Big Twist Value Cinnamon and Premier Just Yarn Goldenrod.
I chose to use a 5mm hook. Most of the afghan is single and double crochets.

I wanted to match the squareness of the black and white separator sections. I found just what I needed in the Staircase Blanket video, where he shows how to make two stitches vertically. This allowed me to do the rest of the mosaic designs much easier, but it's different from all the videos I watched about mosaic crochet. (black and white is Caron One Pound Dark Grey mix and Dove)

The second section is a blue and gray spiral, which I made with single crochet stitches. The spiral made it confusing, even with a diagram I made, because I was turning the work but not the diagram. Also, you have to leave a hole for the other color in the next row, so it's easy to get off by one row. (Big Twist Value Dark Teal and Crafters Square gray)

Other yarn used: Big Twist Value Toffee, Mustard , and Titanium Gray


along with Premier Just Yarn Meadow and Greige Tweed

Some of the patterns on the goal photo were kind of busy and I didn't want to make them. I looked at some videos and took inspiration from them to replace those. The third section came from this video, but I also used the Seashell Stitch for the gray and mustard section, a three color Seed stitch (2 grays and toffee), and a variation of the Interlocking Cluster stitch (gray, toffee, mustard).

Apparently, it wasn't that great of an idea to start each section from where I left off, because I really couldn't determine if I had the right number of stitches. Since mosaic crochet always goes right to left, each stitch is directly on top of the previous row. I was turning the work every row (like normal crochet), so the stitch alternates to one side or the other of the previous row.
This made a curvy edge when I didn't pay close enough attention. I couldn't see a way to fix it with a border, either, so I didn't put one.

As the recipient is tall, I made it at least 6 feet long.

I tried to not repeat color combinations, and hesitated on making a blue, green section since it has low contrast. I like how it came out though. (Big Twist Value Dark Teal and Red Heart Medium Thyme)


Here's the leftover yarns and diagram I made.