Top Tip - Joining yarn part way through a row

Yes we all know that you should join new yarn at the beginning of a row but sometimes joining part way through can't be helped. It's either a big long row and you just can't face ripping it all back or you are running out of yarn and need to squeeze every stitch you can out of it.

The best way I have found for joining part way through a row is to simply start crocheting with the new yarn! Don't knot it, or slip stitch it in or anything like that, just yarn over, put your hook in the next stitch and carry on with no interruption.

(I've used two colours in this example so you can see where the join is)

And the back...

When you get to the end of the row you can then take care of sewing the ends in. I also like to make a little knot first with the tail ends before I sew them in. Doing it this way ensures that you have any joins on the back of your work rather than the front, leaving the front looking seamless!

This also works if your yarn is knotted when you buy it. I heard (can't remember where from) that manufacturers are allowed to sell yarn with up to three joins per ball. Quite often these knots are at inconvenient places so I do the same with those - cut the old knot out of the yarn and join using the method above.

Hope that helps!

XXX

All change

What a week! At last I have got myself a new job and I started on Friday. It is bitter sweet as I have really grown to love being at home all the time, pottering around, crocheting probably a lot more than is strictly necessary and enjoying lots and lots of me time. But work I must, at least until that big lottery win. My new job has also meant that I need my own transport so we went and got a little blue car in the week and it is so much fun! We have had lots of debates over who will drive which car, one is big and comfortable, the other is small and nippy. I was resistant at first and insisted that we share equally but the more I drive around in the little blue one the more I love it. Also, if I claim it as mine I can perhaps give it a teensy tiny bit of wooly treatment. I'm not talking a full on yarn-bombing here (although it is tempting) but maybe a blanket to pop on the back seat in case of getting stranded, and perhaps a seat cover or two!

So that's my big news for the week, trying to get in the work mindset and yet keep hold of the things that I have enjoyed so much about being at home. The biggest part of that is this blog which I am so grateful to you all for reading. For the last six months or so it has been a very important part of my days, writing a few patterns for you and sharing what I've been making. 

That's just some of it!

 

And today my little corner of blog-land has reached a bit of a milestone, 15,000 hits! I am so pleased I can't tell you, it really means a lot that so many people have popped by to see what I've been creating and read my ramblings. I would like to say thank you in a more meaningful way so later on this weekend (maybe today, depends how the housework goes) I shall write up a new pattern for you for my new chunky slouchy hat! 

Please excuse these pictures but it is raining and my husband is still in his pj's (!!!)  and wouldn't come out into the garden for a better backdrop and light. So instead of greenery you get my battered little greenhouse and a pile of bricks!

I really wanted to make this all in one 100g ball of yarn and it took a couple of attempts and adjustments but I managed it. I could write the pattern up now taking it from this hat but it is made to measure and fits me, I have an unfeasibly large head so I would like to have the pattern done in a few other sizes or it may well drown anyone else :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

XXXX

Struggling

I do hope you are all having a good week so far full of lots of colour and creativity.

A bit of a pity post from me today - I have a poorly yarn finger. I thought it was getting better but is now all swollen up like a sausage and very painful. This hasn't stopped me crocheting, just slowed me down a bit. I know I would do better to leave off the hooky for a few days to let it mend properly but I am really struggling to do that. What do people do with their hands when they are just sat doing nothing, or watching TV or listening to music? I can't seem to remember how to sit and do nothing, it feels all wrong not to be making something.

I treated myself to one solitary 100g ball of baby chunky the other day so I could have a little experiment and see what it would look like to do some broomstick lace and cabling in chunky.  I haven't managed to do any of that with this sausage-finger but just couldn't resist using this wonderfully soft yarn. I decided to make a very simple slouchy hat with it. I've decided on quite a gappy mesh effect, perhaps not the best for keeping out the cold but I wanted to see if I could make the entire hat in one ball.

So it's been a matter of a making a row, then putting it down to rest my hand, then making another row and then more rest. Considering I am taking it very slowly it is growing nice and quickly. It's an extremely simple pattern too and if it all works out OK then I will of course share it with you.

XXX

 

Messing around with cabling

Wow my Christmas tree bunting pattern seems to be very popular! Thank you so much for having a look at it (and for that matter, having a look at my blog ramblings in general), I've had some lovely feedback from fellow hookers on Ravelry and Facebook. It's fantastic to see your pictures if you have tried out one of my patterns so please keep sending them to me. 

I'm very fond of these Christmas trees, they are so quick and simple to do and I love simplicity in a design. For one, it makes remembering the pattern very easy so you can pick it up whenever you get a spare moment and secondly, I find it very satisfying to have all the numbers work out, no fear of having missed a stitch or missed a row - it all just makes sense and works with no bother.

That said, I have perhaps gone the other way with what I am playing around with today, cabling! I wouldn't know where to start with cabling in knitting. Strictly speaking I suppose what I am calling cabling in crochet should be called 'cabling effect' as it uses Front and Back Post trebles to get a kind of ridge effect.

My first go at doing anything like this was at about this time last year when I found a pattern on line for a tote bag. I really struggled to get to grips with the pattern and must have had three or four attempts at the first few rows before I really got the hang of it. The stitches themselves are fairly straightforward but knowing where to put my hook for the next stitch baffled me at first.

For those of you who don't know how to do front and back post crochet I will try to explain it as best I can. It is simply a normal stitch (usually a treble crochet stitch - double crochet if you are in the US) but instead of making it in the top of the stitch where you normally would you make it around the post of the stitch instead, so you put your hook around the little bar - or post, that the stitch has made. 

I had made a baby's ruffle blanket before using front and back post trebles but that was a very simple pattern, no wiggly lines or bobbles to fit in:

So this bag pattern was probably the most challenging pattern I had tried up to that point and I got more than a little frustrated with myself that I couldn't work it out. I now know why I struggled so much at first, it was that first row! It is so hard to see where you have made your 'special' stitches on that first row and I hadn't learnt to just count and trust the pattern - I wanted to see where I was making the next stitch, not just go by the numbers.

But crochet really is all about the numbers. I remember asking the age old question when I was at school 'when am I ever going to need to know algebra?' Turns out, that when is now :) 

I got there in the end with that pattern and it just took a few rows for it all to click into place. The reason for that being that the numbers all worked beautifully, nice repeats, no bodging but everything fitting just as it should.

I've wanted to do something similar to the bag for some time now and with nothing much else on the go, I printed off some graph paper this morning and drew out a couple of cable designs. It seemed like the easiest way to get the numbers to work and made it easy to visualise what the pattern would look like.

As you can see I am starting with quite basic patterns, small steps. I have distant visions of maybe a blanket made out of all different coloured squares of cable design or maybe a fleece backed babies blanket with some nice bobbles and cables on front. All things in my head which may well stay there but I am having great fun messing around :)

XXX

Rainbow Christmas Tree Bunting !

Had a bit of a panic yesterday, I woke up with a very swollen and very painful left index finger, my yarn finger! No idea why it was like that but I was very worried I wouldn't be able to crochet.
I thought I would try it out with something very simple and I've had this idea for a while, it's all in DC so nice and gentle on my poorly finger. Big relief, it didn't hurt!

So I started making these, little Christmas trees!

I know, I know, it's still August (just) but like I've said before, you have to start early or you run out of time!

It is a very simple pattern and I have already written it up should anyone else like a try - so efficient of me! I have taken some pictures as I went so that it should be nice and easy to follow for beginners.

Of course these Christmas trees don't have to be in rainbow colours, they could all be done in whatever your Christmas colour scheme is, or with sparkly yarn. You could sew beads or buttons or ribbons on to jazz them up a bit too. Personally I love all the bright colours I've used here, my decorations get brighter and more colourful every year. It's great to have the house filled with a riot of colour at Christmas! They might not be the most traditional of colours but they are so cheerful, juicy and bright that they never fail to make me smile :)

XXX

Top Tip - Joining Trebles

A quick Top Tip for you today on joining trebles. The example here shows joining trebles when making a flat circle but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work with squares too.

I'm sure every crocheter has at some point made a flat circle. The very basic pattern being Chain four, join to form a ring, Chain three (counts as one treble) crochet five trebles into the ring, join with a slip stitch to the top of the chain three. The next row would be two trebles in each stitch, the row after would be two trebles in the first stitch, one treble in the next stitch... you get the idea. 

The problem with this is that at the end of each round you join with a slip stitch into the chains at the beginning of the round. You then chain three and make another treble into that same chain, it can end up looking gappy and the bigger the circle gets the more obvious this line of gaps is.

To help avoid this, instead of starting your next round out of the top of the chain three from the previous round, slip stitch to the next stitch and start from there! That is what I have done on the circle below, and Ok you can still see where the join is if you look closely, but it is much less obvious and much neater.

You then do your last stitch of the round out of the slip stitch at the beginning of the round.

Hope that has helped!

XXX

Pretty but not quite right

I am very undecided about what I have been making over the last few days, sometimes I love it, other times I look at it and I'm disappointed. It was going to be a present for a friend but as I am so unsure about it I think I will call it a trial run and make her another one, with a few changes.

So what were these African Flower hexagons going to be? A bag of course! This bag to be precise.

I have loved this bag for years and it has been on my list to make for a very long time. A friend of mine has recently made herself one and it looked so good that I wanted to give it a bash.

So I hooked up all those lovely hexagons over the weekend and started on the rest of the bag this week. There are parts of it that I love; the top and bottom of the bag and the fabric with little strawberries on that I got to line it with. 

 What I am most unsure of is the stitching around the hexagons. 

The pattern clearly said to do this stitching in a contrasting colour so that it is visible. I spent ages sewing them all together and wasn't sure I was entirely happy with the result at that point. On the original pattern the colours are grey and lilac, much more muted and very effective, I think mine being in such strong contrasting colours just looks a bit odd.

I persevered and hoped that it might look OK when I had added all the other bits to it but I am still not sure I like that stitching, it just looks untidy and I was so careful as I did it, I don't think I could have done any better.

I am going to finish it, line it and sew the strap on, it is still a pretty bag just not perhaps exactly as I would like it.

Time for Plan B, I will let you know when I work out what that is :)

XXX