3 posts tagged “crochet”
The designs, in general, are fairly basic - Chan set out to provide garments that could become wardrobe staples, and I think she succeeded. (There are a couple that you'd need a certain style to pull off, though). Most of the garments are available in a huge range of sizes - the basic tank goes from 30" to 52" finished bust - and there are also hints given for adding shaping to garments. I think there's something in here for everyone from the Hip Young Crocheter to the Soccer Mom to the Traditionalist Grandma.
Also included are a handful of crocheted belts and instructions for turning two shank buttons into the link-style closures the cardigans call for.
They were definitely aiming for the Hip Young end of the crocheter spectrum, and pretty much hit it; no surprise, if you're familiar with the original incarnation of crochetme.com, since most of the designers were regular contributors there. There's a wide variety of patterns - wearables, two bags (both were, I have to admit, cool - a felted messenger bag with a nifty gimmick to it, and one of the more artistic mesh market bags I've seen), and home decor (neither towel toppers nor TP cozies, of course!). There's technical instructions for a few of the more unusual techniques (Tunisian and tapestry - making a point of the one seemingly-trivial-but-actually-important detail that makes a difference between your tapestry crochet looking hot and your tapestry crochet looking crappy) and a quick reference to some other things you can do with yarn and a crochet hook that didn't come up in the context of the book.
To summarize: I would recommend Everyday Crochet to almost anyone, and it's going on my Amazon.com wishlist; Crochet Me is not for me, but it may be for you.
I went to Amy Singer's "No Sheep For You" presentation at the Ann Arbor District Library yesterday, and of course I brought yarn and...well...I think I was the only person there crocheting. Both my yarn-related WIP's right now are crochet projects, and since one of them was on a deadline...I brought the deadline project, a blanket for my impending niece or nephew. I am leaving behind the realm of pattern, and kind of free-handing something inspired by the "Log Cabin Moderne" blanket in Mason-Dixon Knitting. And the ladies sitting near me, knitters all, really admired the colors (bright orange, yellow, and green - the only pastel thing in my brother-and-sister-in-law's entire house is the blanket I made for their first baby), and the stitch pattern - I'm using granite stitch.
Granite Stitch has become my favorite "space filler" - it's very basic (just chains and sc - anyone can do it!), very fast since you only actually do half the stitches on any given row, and that also makes it drapier, lighter, and less yarn-hungry than plain ol' single crochet, and to top all that off you get a nice texture to the fabric. If what I need is a "rectangle, crocheted, no further specification", granite stitch is where I'll go. The nearby knitters asked for directions, and I wrote it out for one of them - but I didn't manage to get it to all of them. I think I heard some of them mention that they were on Ravelry, so I'm posting it here in hopes that they stumble across it.
First of all: a picture is worth a thousand words, but my data cable
for my camera has gone walkabout. So we'll settle for ASCII art, which
is maybe worth 350:
If you can read a crochet stitch diagram, with the hint that O is a chain and X is a single crochet, you're good to go here. (As a general rule, crochet diagrams are read from the bottom up, with each row worked in the direction indicated by the arrows on the row number. This is important in round diagrams, to distinguish whether the work is turned at the end of the round or whether it keeps going the same way.)
XOXOXOXOXOXO <-2
1-> OXXOXOXOXOXX XOXOXOXOXOXO <-2 1-> OXXOXOXOXOXX XOXOXOXOXOXO <- Setup OOOOOOOOOOO
Here are the 350 or so words that the diagram is worth:
Foundation: Chain an even number.
Setup row: SC in the second chain from hook. (Chain 1, skip one chain, SC in next chain) across. Chain 1 to turn work.
The "second chain" is why there's an O hanging off the right edge of that row on my diagram - it's the turning chain, used to make sure the first stitch in the row is the right height instead of squished. Since we're working in SC, this does not count as the first stitch of the row, which is why the symbol sticks off the edge of the diagram. The "Chain 1 to turn work" is why there's an O hanging off the edge of Row 1, and all the other rows.
At this point you should have a row of tiny mesh, although you may have to poke at it a bit to see the holes.
Row 1: SC in the first SC and in the first chain-1 space. (Chain 1, sc in next chain-1 space) across to the last stitch. SC in the last SC. Chain 1 to turn.
This is why granite stitch is so fast: after the foundation row, you're mostly not working into the chain stitches proper; you stick the hook under the chain from the previous row and work around it. SC into the first and last SC of the previous row gives us a nice selvedge. You should have another row of little mesh, offset one "box" from the row beneath it.
Row 2: SC in the first SC. (Chain 1, sc in next chain-1 space) across to the last stitch. SC in the last SC. Chain 1 to turn.
This should be offset 1 stitch from row 1, and match up with the Setup Row.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 for the pattern.
For non-crocheters: Lion Brand's learn-to-crochet instructions have fairly clear diagrams. Art of Crochet has videos. The ball band of your yarn may give a recommended hook size; they will very often simply list the crochet hook that matches the knitting needle size, but you may get better results from using a size or two larger. For learning, try a smooth, light-colored yarn in worsted weight with a size H hook.
On the other hand, I've had the leaflet for this afghan sitting around waiting for the right yarn - which this was, more or less. Three coordinating colors - the light blue isn't quite as lurid in real life as it is in my photos. Baaaaaasically the right amount - I had to try to match the "aran" color from twenty years ago when that's one of the ones they're putting dye lots on right now (ended up with a "Pound of Love" instead of RH - the present RH Aran color has a green tone to it, mine has a yellow tone), and I'm praying I don't run out of the light blue because they discontinued that color. It's been an on-and-off project for a while, but now that the Anastasia socks are done, it's my main WIP.
Completed and photographed so far: The bottom row of the afghan. From top to bottom, please allow me to introduce:
Square #49: "Lacy Wave Stitch"
Square #33: "Silt Stitch" - and yes, it really is biased as badly as the picture makes it look, maybe even worse. Crazy stuff there.
Square #16: "Granny Square"
Square #40: "Fan Stitch"
Square #54: "Aligned Puff Stitch"
Square #36: "Little Crowns"
Square #30: "Eyelet Lace"
I'm finding that the directions for the patterns are very pedantic, sometimes to the point that they're confusing. In many cases a stitch diagram would be much simpler, but a) I think this leaflet was published before stitch diagrams really caught on, and b) then they'd've had to take five pages to explain how to read the diagrams.
I had to alter the directions for Square #30 - after a few rows, the square, well, wasn't. The first row was 7 inches wide, all nice and proper, but the following rows were more like 6 1/2. So in all the loops where it said to work 1 sc, I worked 2 sc. Voila. The picture in the booklet clearly shows only 1 sc there - I wonder if it's all related to my dc's not being quite tall enough. This square holds the record for "Most Times Ripped Back To The Slipknot" so far, at three.
I haven't assembled the row yet because I'm Pondering. The "match" yarn I got wasn't perfect - I'd call it more like 95%. My gut tells me that what I should do is edge all the RH Aran squares in the RH Aran yarn so they match perfectly, then pick random squares to be edged with the RH until I run out, and then edge the rest and the whole blanket with the other yarn. But inside, I'm whimpering at the thought of saving the assembly on 63 squares until the very end; the only way I've ever completed a blanket made out of squares before was to assemble them as I went.
I'm really kind of surprised by the yarn - the dark blue and aran everything you've always heard Red Heart is, but the light blue is...soft. Flexible. A pleasure to work with. I wonder if that's why they discontinued it - but then I've heard that about Red Heart, too, that some colors are less similar to recycled tires than others. All the same, it's not one I'd purchase on purpose; even in the realm of Super Cheap Acrylic, there are nicer yarns.
The ultimate fate of the afghan? I'll probably give it back to Nana. The yarn matches her decor much better than mine, which is why she picked it out in the first place...
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