As I am not the kind of crocheter who suffers from flights of fancy, and always, always finishes a project before moving on to the next, I never have this problem. (Hey, reader: you’re supposed to be quietly surfing the Internet right now, not snickering at your monitor! :P) But I like to help out where I can, so… crochet from the outside-in!

I’ve shown this technique before (remember that granny square?), but this is the first time I’ve tried it on a larger scale.

This blanket measures approximately 4′ square, and is composed entirely of dc stitches, with dc5tog on the corners:

Look!

The trick to doing a square this way, is to start exactly in the centre of a side, and to make sure that the stitches on a side (not including the corner) are evenly divisible by 4.

So, for this blanket, I started by doing 80 fdc stitches (that’s foundation double crochet), doing a fdc5tog (foundation double crochet 5 together decrease), then 160 fdc, fdc5tog, 160 fdc, fdc5tog, 160 fdc, fdc5tog, 80 fdc, and join. From there on, it was just a case of working one dc into each stitch, and working a dc5tog at the corners (into the dc5tog of the previous round and two dc stitches on either side of it).

You have to be very, very careful when joining the first round. Make extra sure that you haven’t twisted it! I laid mine out on a table to double check.

Once it was joined, though, it was super easy, and to my surprise, the blanket remained portable for longer than it would have had I started in the middle. Working the first 20 or so rounds felt a lot like making a really, really long scarf.

The best part, though, was that each subsequent round was shorter than the previous round, so it felt like I was speeding towards the finish, which you may recognise as being the opposite feeling to what you normally get when making a blanket in the round. :)

Here’s a closer look at the middle:

For the last round, the middle round, I had planned to do 4 dc5tog’s, but by the time I got there I decided to try something different – I did 10 dc2tog’s instead. After you do the join, you use the tail to weave in and out of the tops of the stitches, and pull the hole closed like a drawstring.

You should try it! And if you do, let me know!

Perhaps, despite the terrible quality of this picture, you can see the problem I ran into:

Hint: the bottom is supposed to be straight.

Experienced crocheters would look at this swatch and say: the base chain is too tight! Go up a hook size and try to stay loose.

Alas, that isn’t the problem at all. How do I know this? Because I didn’t use a base chain, I used chainless foundation single crochet stitches.

Given my experience with other patterns that I have failed at, I have come to the conclusion that my problem is, in fact, that my single crochet stitches are too small when compared to my other stitches.

At least I’m innovative with my gauge problems!

Anyhow, I really wanted to start working on this sweater, though, so I’ve decided to go down in yarn thickness (the swatch was Bernat Satin, the yarn I settled on is Bernat Satin Sport). I used a 5mm hook for the round of sc foundation stitches, and then a 4.25mm hook for the rest.

(The bottom looks curved in this picture, but that’s only because it’s a tube and I didn’t want the front and back to overlap in the picture)

I’m going to need to figure out a way around this single crochet problem, though. There are lots of patterns out there that have sc mixed in with other stitches in a single row, and I can’t keep switching hooks.

In other news… I finished the boring, just-a-bunch-of-dc-stitches baby blanket I was working on as a counterpoint to the flower blanket:

(That’s just a plain old hexagon pattern worked until I ran out of yarn; 2 balls of Mary Maxim Sugar Baby Stripes in Tutti Fruitti with a 3.75mm hook)

And I’ve made two more Spiral Hex blankets:

(Shot artfully in a fruitless attempt to make them look like some other pattern)

As for what I’m working on now, well, that pink sweater is at the “need-to-consult-the-pattern-often” stage now, and so is now on the “work-on-it-at-home” WIP pile. My current “avoid-smacking-people-on-the-subway” project is…

… well, never mind what it is…

And then:

(Bernat Satin, 4ish balls, 5mm hook)

Then I tried it with a new yarn:

(Lion Brand Homespun, 2 balls, 6.5mm hook)

And again:

(Lion Brand Homespun, 2 balls, 6.5mm hook)
The colours in this one remind me of macaroni and cheese with ketchup.

And again:

(Lion Brand Homespun, 2 balls, 6.5mm hook)
This one reminds me of Saint Patrick’s Day!

I feel like I should go knit on the Doctor Who scarf for a little while, but I just want to make more of these spiral blankets!

I know there aren’t any “crochet police” so you can do whatever you want, but honestly, please feel free to actually *finish* a blanket. Any blanket.

I only bring this up because, despite the fact that you have more in-progress blankets than you can *find*, you still started two more in the last 3 days.

You know I still love you, regardless of what you do,
mio

See the last post for a close-up of the stitches. This pattern is being tested right now (and that’s terribly exciting!). More information to come!

My question to you: is this new to you, or have I reinvented the wheel?

The last time I did something like this, I filled a “bin”, meaning, one of the plastic bins I was using to store my yarn. I figured if I could take the yarn out and put it back in in the shape of a hat or scarf, then I could cart the whole thing off to my parents’ house and I’d have stash-busted not just the yarn, but the bin!

Brilliant plan, except Mom doesn’t seem to want the bins. I got that original bin back and it is now holding Christmas decorations. Mom traded the plastic bin for a cardboard box (left over from our move); I think it’s so that she can just take the stuff over to the charity in the box and leave the whole thing there.

So, this time around I’m going to skip the middle-m… er… middle-container, and put the warm goodies into a cardboard box. The one I got in the mail recently seemed like the best bet, so here it is!

And this is what’s inside so far:

I’m still stash busting, and I’m concentrating on the black yarn. I’ve got two bins full of black! I’m using the odds and ends left over from the last batch of hats for stripes and the like. Also, the hats are bigger this time; they’ve asked me to make bigger hats for older kids, so I’ve gone up a loom size and I’m making the scarves slightly longer. I might throw in some Crochet-On-the-Double sets, too…

The hexagon scrap baby blanket is coming along nicely:

And that green basket weave blanket is now at 8.5″. Exciting stuff!

It’s working out marvelously! (The colours are a bit off in that picture… it’s been quite dreary in Toronto lately). I basically just did the first three rounds of the hexagon, and on the last round, did the joining method. I absolutely love the results… it’ll be hard parting with this blanket when it’s finished.

On the up side, I have a feeling I know where my Bernat Satin odds and ends are going to end up. ^_-

I like projects I can take with me places, mostly to work. The baby blankets I’ve been making have been difficult to bring along in my bag because I was always using two strands at a time, which meant carrying two large balls of yarn for each colour. As the blanket grows, it gets harder to take it places.

So, I went on a search to find a good, brainless pattern to use with this yarn, one-stranded, that wouldn’t be too boring.

Success!

Introducing the crocheted basket weave!

This stitch pattern is created by doing alternating groups of front post double crochet (fpdc) and back post double crochet (fpdc).

To do these stitches, you work a dc as you normally would, but instead of inserting your hook through the top of the previous row stitch, you work the stitch around the post of the stitch below. For fpdc you insert the hook from front to back on the right side of the post, and poke it out on the left side of the stitch and grab the yarn there. For bpdc, you insert from back to front on the right side of the post, then back out on the left side. I’ll do a picture tutorial of it some day. ^_^

I like the texture this pattern gives:

I started with a chainless foundation of dc stitches. A multiple of 3 plus 2. The first and last stitches of each row after that are just regular dc stitches. The stitches in between go *3 fpdc, 3 bpdc* repeat as needed. Now, when you turn at the end of your row, the fpdc stitches will now look like bpdc, and vice versa. Work the stitch opposite to what it looks like you did before.

I think what I like most about this stitch pattern is that it’s the same on both sides:

The blanket is about 6″ long right now, so I still have a ways to go, but it should fit in my work bag quite nicely until it’s nearly finished. And that’s fantastic. ^_^