When I was little, my mother showed me how to crochet. I don't remember making anything though. I had trouble holding the hook and yarn at the same time.
Decades later (2021), I decided to try again. I would try to do a consistent chain and have trouble. I found a video about making a rug using your fingers instead of a hook, and proceeded to learn the stitches that way.
I somehow managed to get enough practice with the tension on the yarn so I could do multiple stitches in a row, and now I don't have a problem.
Here is the majority of what I've made (new ones added after publishing this).
rug on 2021-04-19
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.
rug on 2021-04-30
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.
blue hat 2021-07-17 1525
I spent more than a week in a hotel while I looked for a place to live. While there, I made this hat following the pattern at Hurry Up Holiday Hat.
I used the same yarn as in the pattern: Lion Brand Hometown, Key Largo Tweed.
blue hat 2021-07-17 1527
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.
headband on 2021-08-11
This fuzzy yarn from 2013 is very soft, but so very hard to see where to put the hook. I chose to add both blue and purple to it, crocheting with 3 strands at a time with a big hook, so the stitch didn't disappear in the fuzz.
Even with the extra yarn, it's hard to see. I tried to stitch the ends together with a twist and messed it up, but can't find the end to try to fix it.
slippers on 2021-08-31 2115
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.
slippers on 2021-10-11 1801
slippers on 2021-10-11 1803
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.
slippers on 2021-10-11 1804
hat on 2021-11-23 1317
hat on 2021-11-23 1319
hat on 2021-11-23 1321
I followed this tutorial: Cloister Shell Slouchy Hat
using the last of the boucle yarn left from the slippers.
The pattern starts at the top center and I could not tell where the stitches were, so I used plain black yarn with it. Once the fancy yarn ran out, I finished the hat with the solitary black yarn.
I don't know if I made it slouchy enough.
hat on 2021-11-23 1328
vest on 2021-12-06
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.
vest on 2021-12-07
vest on 2021-12-14 2108
I can see the advantage of a solid color and of the multi-color yarn.
I think the model makes it look better...
vest on 2021-12-14 2113
scarf on 2022-01-17 1428
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.
scarf on 2022-01-17 2033
shirt on 2022-02-22
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.
throw on 2022-02-27 2010
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.
shirt on 2022-02-27
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.
throw on 2022-02-28 1120
I added a border using Caron One Pound, Ocean.
throw on 2022-03-04 0729
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.
throw on 2022-03-06 1827
This is three skeins of yarn.
scarf 2022-03-15
afghan 2022-04-13 1540
afghan 2022-04-13 1542
afghan 2022-05-05 0908
afghan 2022-05-15 1422
afghan 2022-05-29 1325
afghan 2022-05-29 1327
scarf on 2022-12-03
I read about planned pooling after I saw Argyle with a Twist Infinity Scarf.
The video that really helped was EASIEST WAY on how to do planned pooling (with ANY simple stitch) because it says you can use any stitch and talks about plannedpooling.com. So I looked for some yarn to try it with (the ones I had were very short repeats). I was in an overstock store and they had some small skeins of wool yarn, so I bought two and got busy following the steps.
Using the pooling web site, I decided on the number of stitches to get this pattern. Here's what I followed: 1 gold,6 purple,3 gold,6 brown,10 red - 28 stitches
The first few rows I tried to make sure it matched, but gave up after that. Que será, será.
scarf on 2022-12-05
The yarn really is red, purple, gold, and brown.
Two skeins resulted in 2.5 feet, so I bought two more and made the scarf a respectable 5 feet long.
It's Patons DK superwash classic wool, autumn spice. It's a #3 yarn and each skein has 125 yards.
I used half-double crochet stitches.
My original idea for this was to do back loop half-double crochet, so it would come out with ridges. But it was throwing everything off by one, which messes up the pattern.
jacket on 2022-12-28
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.
jacket on 2022-12-29
I completed the front and back panels, and have stitched them together.
jacket on 2023-01-10
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.
Joy in jacket 2023-01-26
This came out pretty warm. I tried to put it on while wearing a corduroy shirt and there was too much friction to get a sleeve on.
Although the majority of the jacket is from a tutorial video with a hoodie, I didn't want that and used the collar from her other video tutorial.
Neither of those has a zipper, so I watched several videos to figure out the best way to add it. I ended up using needle and thread to sew it on.
I made my pockets as in the video, but they seem a bit small, so I might go back and fix them. The photo doesn't show that there is a line of dark stitches along the pocket edge.
What took me the longest was the sleeves! (well, the collar too)
I had to redo most of the first sleeve because
- I could not tell where I had stitched in to the front or back panel, so I sometimes used the same stitch which meant that there were too many rows on the sleeve.
- Redoing because of too many rows, I thought maybe I could do better by following exactly the video, so I redid it with the free yarn on the outside instead of inside. (I liked the look of it before, more.)
- Somehow I dropped a stitch as I came over the shoulder, making the rows in front shorter than the rows in back.
Then I ran out of yarn on the first sleeve, so I had to wait for the store to open back up after the holidays. Since the second sleeve is opposite the first, everything was backward and I made similar mistakes.
The collar took me 4 or 5 tries for the left side. The video simply says "repeat for the other side". But since it's backwards, I tried several times to make it mirror the left side. I gave up and did it exactly the same (so inside is outside) and it came out okay.
The maroon yarn is Lion Brand Pound of Love, Claret.
The gray yarn is Caron One Pound, Dark Grey Mix.
I used a 22 inch separating zipper.