I Like to Hook

Dr. Strangeknot, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Post Stitch

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 20:32:00 +0000

Back when I was a tap dancer, Jimmy Slyde shared with me the best way to learn a new language: “Get yourself a lover who speaks it,” he said with a wink. “You’ll figure it out pretty quick.” In other words, put yourself in an immersion situation and add intrinsic motivation, et voila! You find yourself increasingly comfortable and speaking the language becomes second nature.

Let me back up a little bit. I am mostly self-taught as a crocheter. I think that’s fairly common, and even those who originally learned from a class or family member have probably expanded their skills using books or online tutorials. The internet is an amazing resource, but with so many lessons and patterns, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Conversely, when you are looking for something very specific, you may find yourself sifting through masses of content before you find the information you need.

So I was making satisfying progress working through granny square patterns when I came upon an intriguing raised stitch: FPdc, or Front Post Double Crochet. Intriguing, beautiful, and...absolutely impossible for me to figure out. I could make double crochets just fine, but I had never really looked at the components of the stitch - front and back loops, spaces, and of course, the post. Also, “insert hook front to back around the post” was confusing - you come at it from the front, but you are going toward the back, and then around to the front again...assuming you can find the post at all.

What did this intrepid crochet learner do?

I avoided patterns with post stitches, of course! Maybe not so intrepid after all :(

But then came the love story. It’s my wife’s, really. She fell hard for a skein of yarn on the Yarnover Truck - Indigodragonfly Merino Silk DK - and Maridee recommended a pattern to show it off. The Muirlands Cowl is cozy and beautiful, and made up almost entirely of post stitches. I love my wife very much, so I took the plunge. I swear to you, by the end of the second round those stitches were no problem, and I ended up with this gorgeous thing:

So don’t be afraid of Dr. Strange Knot, whatever stitch that may be for you. Hang out with it, figure it out like you love it and can’t live without understanding it. Or, you know, just find a fun way to practice it ;)

I miss you, Jimmy, and thank you for your wisdom - I bet you never thought it would apply to crochet as well as tap dancing and foreign lovers :)

Chain 20: What I Learned

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 03:27:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

July (and August) came and went, didn’t they? And what ever happened to that Chain 20 challenge?

I found out that the one-a-day format was too much for my current circumstances (toddler, puppy) and the nature of the challenge (exploratory, open-ended). I found myself squeezing in the exercise at the end of the day and feeling like there wasn’t enough time to properly photograph and write about the experience. Although I had given myself permission to take a quick photo and write a single sentence, I felt driven to write so much more, and to take photos from different angles to show how stitches behaved.

I came up with Chain 20 based on music/dance improv exercises. The basic idea is that you just GO; no thinking or planning, just a simple framework and an open mind. You can start with something familiar just to get your fingers moving and then try something unplanned - a double crochet where you would normally do a single. What happens to the fabric? It gets taller, it pulls a bit...and what happens when you keep up with the dcs, or make progressively taller stitches? It might not be pretty or functional, but you will have learned something about your yarn and stitches, even if it’s what not to do next time ;)

Needless to say, I did not complete the challenge as planned. But I did discover a practice that excites me and I’ve already started using what I learned to create larger designs. I will continue to Chain 20 and, with the luxury of time and space, write about what I learn.

Chain 20 Crochet Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 23:34:00 +0000

Hey there hookers!

I’ve been experimenting with different shapes and stitches, but now I have a jumble of swatches and partial balls of yarn and no record of what I’ve done or how. I wanted to start being more systematic about my explorations, so I decided to create the Chain 20 Challenge.

I want to set myself up for success, so I’m keeping it simple. For me, the challenge needs to be short and both well-defined and flexible. So here it is:

Everyday for the next 20 days I will make 20 chains and use them as a foundation to crochet something.
I will take a picture of what I come up with and write at least one sentence about what I did.

There’s the well-defined part; now for the flexibility.

I will allow myself to create more than one piece on a day if I know that, say, my wife’s birthday falls in the middle of the challenge, and I might want to focus on her instead of noodling around with a hook. I will still post one picture a day, though.
I will allow extra chains if necessary for turning or pattern repeats. I just want to use 20 to give myself enough room to work but not so much that the swatch takes forever.

I’m not sure what I will do about blocking...I think I’ll see how the time works out and whether the toddler and puppy will allow for finishing, blocking, and photography on the same day.

Stay tuned for my first...thingie!

T-shirt sweater design Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:33:00 +0000

I was eager to start crocheting, so I decided to start with one half of the back, starting from the bottom. Here is what I have so far:

It is sloping up on one side just the way I was hoping it would! I struggled for a while about how to do the increases, but settled on doing sc2tog a few stitches from the edge to keep things neater. I tried to find a good way to increase by a single stitch, but the stitch pattern makes that very awkward, since it is made up of two stitches that alternate with the rows above and below. In other words, the pattern requires that the row you are working into consists of alternating sc and ch stitches. If you decrease by a single stitch, you end up with two scs or two chs in a row, which throws you off until you decrease again. I was concerned that decreasing by two would look choppy, but keeping the increase away from the edge seems to have taken care of that.

In addition to crocheting, I have been working on a schematic using Autodesk Graphic for iPad. It's a vector graphics program that you can use if Illustrator is a bit too rich for your blood ;) Here is what I have so far:

The picture is not coming out very clearly, I will try to fix it. But I'm having fun with the program, and the schematic is much easier to work with than my messy paper and pencil version.

I'll be back soon with more progress!

Designing a sweater from a favorite t-shirt

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 22:12:00 +0000

I've "discovered" a new crochet stitch (in other words, I learned a stitch that has probably been around forever). Tamara Kelly of mooglyblog.com has a great tutorial for the Moss Stitch, which produces a flat fabric with good drape, perfect for a light sweater. I decided to use a t-shirt to determine measurements and try to create a pattern.

I have never done this before, so I am very much making it up as I go along. I am documenting the process on my blog so that I can do it more efficiently next time.

Step 1: Create a gauge swatch

Moss stitch creates slightly shorter stitches than regular sc, resulting in essentially even row and stitch counts. In my case, using an I hook and fingering weight yarn, 20 stitches measured 4.5", and 20 rows measured 4.25"
I am impatient to start crocheting, so for now I am going to call it 4.5 st/inch and 4.5 rows/inch. It is possible that I will regret being imprecise.

Step 2: Measure the T-shirt

I pinned the shirt to blocking mats without stretching. I decided to leave the sleeves for the time being because they did not want to lie flat.

Then I started measuring. Here's what I came up with:

Try to ignore the chicken scratch around the edges :)

I'm going to stop here so this post doesn't get too long, but I will be back with more progress. Thanks for reading!

Pattern preferences?

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 03:14:00 +0000

I don't know if anyone is reading this, but if you are, I would love your opinion on how to write out repeated stitches. The one I'm struggling with could be written like this:

Dc in each of next 4 dc

Or this:

Dc in next 4 dc

Or this:

(Dc in dc)x4

The first one is probably the clearest, but seems very wordy, and is definitely cumbersome to write.

The second one is a little more efficient, but could potentially be confusing - it's possible that the pattern could be directing you to do one dc in all four stitches at once.

The third one seems both accurate and concise, but it looks odd if it comes at the end of a larger repeat. For example:

[V-st in ch sp, sk dc, (dc in dc)x4]x2

I guess you could also say

*V-st in ch sp, sk dc, (dc in dc)x4*, rep * to * x2

But I find that asterisks can be confusing...
Anyway, I would love people's thoughts on this. Also feel free to tell me that I am insane for thinking this much about it :)

Hello again!

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 21:40:00 +0000

It's time to wake up the blog!

I've been crocheting more, designing more, and generally getting inspired about yarn. I'm super excited to finish the shawl I'm designing, as well as the diagram and written pattern. My goal is to have three patterns on Ravelry by November 1. That might be overly ambitious, but the designs are all done, I just need to write them up...you know, in a coherent way that other crocheters can understand :)

I'll be back soon to talk about my process.

Week 3 Challenge: Flowers!

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:44:00 +0000

There are so many beautiful flower patterns out there - I spent a ridiculous amount of time browsing on Ravelry. (I know, so what else is new?) But I finally chose this pattern by Lucy at Attic24, for Japanese Quince Flowers.

I ended up making two versions of the flower itself, as I didn't love the first one. I wanted to use some pretty scrap yarn I had lying around...

...but I found that it was too fuzzy, and the flower lost its delicate beauty.

So I started over with thinner cotton yarn...

and was happier with the outcome.

Here is my final notebook page for this project. I had to translate into US crochet terms.

And here are my two lovely quince flowers, complete with little green leaves:

New Poll!

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:58:00 +0000

Hey there hookers!

I've posted a new poll on the top left of this page, and I'd love it if you'd take a moment to vote. I have struggled with crocheting into the foundation chain, and now I use foundation single crochet whenever I can. But for some patterns you do have to use that (tight, twisted, uneven) chain, and I recently learned that there are different approaches. I think the most common way is to insert the hook under the top two strands, but you can also do back-loop only, back and bump, bump only, and probably a million other variations. I'm curious as to who does which, and when, and why.

Regarding the other poll, I can only apologize.
I used to research test construction, and yet I provided you with that horribly crafted question. How could I have asked about "most often," and then encouraged you to choose as many answers as you wanted? There is also the matter of being a self-selected sample: are any of us really surprised that there are more crocheters and no knitters reading this blog?
*sigh*

Hopefully I've done a better job this time ;)

I hope this installs Bloglovin...

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:37:00 +0000

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11952699/?claim=zdbg3hjn9wj">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Running With Scissors

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:16:00 +0000

Scissors are terrifying. Useful, sure, but when you've worked hard on something, it's difficult to take an honest look at it and acknowledge that there is a problem, and it has to go.

One of the great things about crochet is that it is relatively painless to go back and fix mistakes, as long as you're willing to pull out a few stitches. From what I hear, this is much more difficult with knitting. But once you've crocheted pieces together, and cut and woven in your yarn, things get trickier.

Fellow hookers, I am here to tell you that there is hope! Here is my story.

I am in the middle of making a blanket. It is large. I am really excited about it, because I love colors, and this blanket is full of them. Here is the color scheme for the top right corner:

These are the colors I wanted to use. But the selection of yarns at Joann's was uncooperative - there was no light yellow or bright green in worsted weight. I consider myself to be a flexible person, so I chose a darker green, and a bright yellow with a lot of green in it. So much green, in fact, that it was awfully close to my light green yarn.

Despite my reservations, I forged ahead and finished the first seven columns. They included a light yellow (actually greenish) hexagon three rows down in the sixth column. It looked terrible, but I couldn't handle the thought of undoing hours of work to fix it. I tried to convince myself that it would blend in when I added the other greens and blues. But it stuck out like a sore thumb, and I finally acknowledged that it would have to go. So I got out my scalpel...er, scissors, and prepped my baby for a hexagon transplant.

Here is a picture mid-surgery:

I was extremely careful not to cut the yarn from other hexagons! And here it is, post-hexagonectomy:

Then it was time to place the new hexagon. I ordered a bright yellow yarn online, crocheted a new piece, and hoped for the best:

Successful surgery! The yarn is thinner than the rest - stay tuned for my rant about dirty, lying belly bands - but I think it will do. And now, back to work on the rest of the blanket!

By the way, here is the link to the pattern I'm using. It's $3.75 on Ravelry, by BabyLove Brand.

Playing Dress-Up

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 02:21:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

I'm having a good old time with this blog. You may or may not have noticed, but I have changed the background image many times. I wanted something crochet-related, and preferably a photo I had taken myself, but it took me until today to figure out how to make my photos small enough to upload. Anyway, the current picture is a blanket I made for my aunt - by far my largest project to date :)

So we're all creative, crafty, visual people, right? I, for one, cannot keep my sticky fingers off the "Design" link at the top of this blog. I could mess with the layout and colors all day!

Aside from the obvious procrastination problem this presents, what do you think about changing the appearance of your blog? Does it make it more or less interesting to readers? I'm not worrying too much about this, I just wanted to start a conversation. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Celebrate!

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:26:00 +0000

I'm going to elaborate on my celebration of National Crochet Month. Starting this blog is definitely the main event, but I have some other plans up my sleeve as well.

1. I plan to spend more time engaging with the craft/crochet community (i.e. probably anyone reading this)

2. I would like to contribute a little something to this community. My goal is to create a free pattern to post on Ravelry, but I'm not sure that's realistic before the end of March. For now, I'll just put out something silly - on the top right corner of this blog, you'll see a poll with a craft-related question. Submit your votes and I'll write about the responses!

I imagine I will find even more ways to celebrate as the month unfolds :)

Keep hookin'!

Thank you RedBerryCrochet!

noreply@blogger.com (lizzzie) — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 22:33:00 +0000

I have been thinking about starting a blog, and now I have the perfect excuse: RedBerryCrochet has set up a 52 week Crochet Challenge, and the second week's challenge is...setting up a crochet blog! The first challenge is in the form of a question: How do you celebrate National Crochet Month?

This year I am celebrating by starting a crochet blog :)

So, umm, I don't know if anyone noticed, but I just completed the first two challenges in one post. BOOM! (mic dropped)

Seriously though, thank you for this motivation and your thoughtfully laid out challenges. I look forward to improving my skill and watching other crocheters do the same!

Here is the link for the challenge, and here is one for RedBerryCrochet's blog.