November 11th, 2011 
mio I’ve been working on Christmas presents over the last few months, and just can’t wait to share them!
Below the cut, you will see the items I have made so far, but with no names attached. If you are on my gift-giving list and want to be surprised, I recommend that you do not continue with this post!
For the rest of you, I’ll include the pattern source when possible. ^_^
Posted in Afghans 
Tags: baby, Bernat Satin, blanket, Christmas, crayon, crochet, spiderman, star 
1 Comment » November 9th, 2011 mio A common complaint when making amigurumi is that decreases are far too noticeable. The usual sc2tog tends to leave a hole, and adds unwanted texture to the item. A good workaround is the invisible decrease.
Here we have a sc tube and are ready to do a decrease:
(I’m using a different colour for the decrease; you would normally just keep going with the same yarn. ^_^)
Start by inserting your hook into the front loop of the next stitch:
Do not yarn over! Instead, insert your hook into the front loop of the next stitch:
Technically, you’ll have three loops on your hook at this point: the loop you started with, and the front loops of the next two stitches.
Now yarn over:
And pull through two loops:
Then finish the sc as you normally would by yarning over:
And pulling through two loops:
Now we’re at the part of the tutorial where I show you what the finished technique looks like… which is a bit of a problem with something with the word “invisible” in its name. So, here is the invisible decrease along with the regular decrease.
The hook is pointing at the invisible decrease:
Now it’s pointing at the regular one:
Hmm… ok, here’s the back, then.
The invisible decrease leaves the “back loops” visible on the back, so look for those when trying to spot it:
The regular decrease doesn’t have such obvious markers (figures…)
Perhaps it’ll be easier to spot the differences if I stack them over several rows…
Ah, yes. There we go. The invisible decreases are on the right (the hook is pointing at where I think they are), and the regular decreases are on the left (roughly on a line with the tail sticking out of the bottom). What the picture doesn’t truly convey, is that the regular decreases form a bit of a ridge, whereas the invisible decreases don’t. Which, I suppose makes them invisible to the blind, as well. :P
November 4th, 2011 mio This may be my favourite crochet tutorial I’ve made yet!
The Crochet Cast-On is a knitting technique that we’re totally going to steal and use for our own purposes! Specifically, for use in Tunisian crochet and Crochet-on-the-Double. If you are a knitter, you may find this tutorial useful, too! Just substitute in your mind – replace “afghan hook” with “knitting needle” and you’re good to go.
In Tunisian and CotD, you typically start with a base chain, and then go and lift up a loop in each chain. As with regular crochet, though, starting with a base chain can cause problems – sometimes they’re too tight, they aren’t very stretchy, it’s a pain in the butt to work into them – and sometimes you just really want to extend a row out to the left of your work. For regular crochet, you can use Foundation Stitches to address all of these issues.
For Tunisian and CotD, you can use the crochet cast-on!
You need: an afghan hook (or double-ended hook… or knitting needle… depending on what craft you’re doing), a regular crochet hook in the same size (or a bit bigger), and your yarn.
In these pictures, my afghan hook is metal and 9mm, and my regular hook is bamboo and 10mm.
Start with a loose slip knot on the afghan hook. You would benefit by making the slip knot in the opposite way you might usually, and have the short tail be the one that makes the loop smaller when you pull on it.
Hold the afghan hook in your left hand, and the regular hook in your right hand. Insert the regular hook into the slip knot behind the afghan hook:
Working behind the afghan hook, chain 1:
Now move your regular hook to the front of the afghan hook with the yarn still behind it:
Yarn over:
Pull through the loop on the regular hook:
Now move the yarn back behind the afghan hook:
Put your regular hook in front of the afghan hook again, and repeat the process (yo, pull through, move yarn to back and hook to front) as many times as needed:
Stop one loop shy of what you need. Here is what the row of chains will look like:
Take the working loop and put it over the end of the afghan hook to form your last loop:
Go ahead and work the loops off as you normally would and now you’re good to go for your next row. One warning: the vertical bars don’t line up *quite* the same way as they do when lifting them up from a base chain (this becomes particularly apparent when doing Tunisian Knit Stitches), however, you can still do any stitch you want to do, you just need to be a little careful with it.
Some extra benefits I’ve discovered so far with this technique are:
- In crochet-on-the-double, it helps make a nearly-invisible seam when making a tube (such as with mio’s hat)
- When working with a fuzzy yarn, one that makes it difficult to see your stitches (such as a boucle), using this technique makes it a LOT easier to be sure you’re starting with the right number of stitches.
11 Blankets in 2011
