And yet, there are a lot of ways one can make their crocheting life easier. And what better way to celebrate NatCroMo, than with some helpful tips? (And tutorials… lots and lots of tutorials. :D)

Today’s helpful tip has to do with a tool you might not associate with crocheting, but one that I have found invaluable!

A kitchen scale:

This scale made my Jacob’s Snakes And Ladders blanket possible. I weighed any questionably small scraps of yarn before using them – if they weighed at least 15g (a number I came to by weighing the project after the first and second rows), I used them to make a row on the blanket. In the past, I have used it to determine an approximate yardage for my finished projects.

For its next trick, I’m going to use it to weigh a ball of yarn while I work with it – I’m going to chain 1/3 of it, and then sc the rest. (This will make more sense should I be successful and can show it off to you all!)

Enjoy NatCroMo (National Crochet Month), everyone! Crochet in public, join a crochet-along, learn a new technique, teach, shout it from the mountain tops! And stay tuned – there are more tips, tricks, and tutorials to come!

Now, I quite enjoy the Mass Effect games. It’s a neat story line, and Charles plays the games so thoroughly that we never miss a single plot point or line of enquiry. As a crocheter, though, I would be remiss if I didn’t use the time he was wrapped up in his game to make something cool.

Those of you who are mildly familiar with Mass Effect 3 are probably saying, “but ME3 hasn’t been released yet!”. To which those of you are are quite familiar with it would reply, “ah, but they released a demo of the game as a free download ahead of time.”

In the spirit of this “demo” version of the game, I decided to try playing with Jacob’s Ladders to see what they could do.

After a few swatches…

I was ready to go!

This bears repeating: Charles plays these games quite thoroughly, exploring what is possible with every type of character, so, after the first day:

Then the second:

The four days later:

He shot enemies, I crocheted:

Five days:

Only to finish eight days after I started:

Here are some close-ups (click to enlarge!) :

Here’s the front compared to the back:

Only one question remains: what the heck am I going to make during the actual game now?

I’m celebrating by trying to be as helpful to crocheters as I can! I’m going to start by making you all feel better about your stashes.

Today I sorted out my novelty yarn stash, and here it is all out on the bed:

There’s well over a hundred balls of yarn in this picture (approximately 87% of which seems to be black-and-red variegated. Yeesh).

What am I going to do with all of this crazy yarn? Well, I have a few plans. I’m hoping to make a few monster bags (like this one), and maybe some Rapunzel scarves (like these), and maybe trim some amigurumi (like, well, all of these), and… and… I don’t know what else. Any ideas?

Well, I’ve done one better… I found the actualy blanket itself! As I was laying it out I took note of various lessons we can learn from it.

1. Don’t ch3 between EVERY cluster of 3 dc stitches, unless you want a really holey and ruffly shawl of some sort.

2. Don’t use yarn you’re allergic to. (I’m itchy just from laying it out on the bed to take the pic!)

3. Some kind of border wouldn’t kill you.

Like I said, I made this “blanket” back when I first learned how to crochet. It brought back some fun memories, too.

For example, my vision for this blanket was simple. “I like rainbows!” and “rainbows are seen in the sky!”. I had odds and ends of this yarn – enough to make the rainbow part – but I didn’t have any blue. So, Mom and I headed out to Michaels.

Michaels was having a sale! If memory serves, this yarn was on for 50 cents a ball. We bought a few balls. Enough to make this blanket shawl, anyway!

So, when I finished this thing (?), obviously I had a TON of the light blue yarn left over.

My next Big Plan was a ripple blanket for my brother and his at-the-time-girlfriend. I asked my brother what his favourite colour was which, apparently, is the wrong question to ask a Monte Python fan. Since I had all of this sky-blue yarn, I decided to make them a blue blanket. Makes sense, no?

The plan was to gradually shift from navy blue, through blue, to a medium blue, to the sky blue. It was to be glorious!

I was new to crochet, and so decided to aim my sights low. I’d make a twin-sized blanket.

Off I went to buy a small handful of the other three colours of blue yarn, and I started with the navy blue. Did a bunch of rows. A row of blue, then a bunch more of navy. Then a couple of blue, and a few less of the navy. And on it went.

Of course, the blanket wasn’t just growing in length, it somehow managed to expand sideways into a blanke that was too big for my double bed. I also managed to mis-judge how many rows I’d need, and managed to not use ANY of the sky blue yarn that was the inspiration for the blanket in the first place.

Also, it wasn’t until I was almost finished the blanket that I discovered that I was really allergic to the yarn I was using. (Geez, why do my hands keep turning bright pink when I work on this thing? Scratch scratch scratch scratch….)

Oh, and it took me 3 years to finish the damned thing. In that time my brother and his girlfriend had gotten married. It was a while ago, but I think I ended up giving them this blanket for their first anniversary.

I did luck out in one department, though: their main wedding colour was blue. Success!

For an idea of why I was going through so much trouble to make a mitten, well, here’s the one I made next to the one I try to cram my hand into every day in the winter:

Of course, the warmer weather will be here any day now (right? Right???), so this might be of limited use this year. But I’m happy with it all the same.

…

What do you mean, I’m supposed to make two of them?

And yet, I’m still not clear on what a Granny Square is.

Some would say it’s a very specific pattern made up of groups of 3 double crochet stitches worked into the spaces of a previous round, in the shape of a square, like this:

Some would say that it’s the pattern of 3dc stitches that matters, and that any shape still counts as a Granny Square:

Some would say that what defines a Granny Square is that it is a square crocheted in the round, like this:

Some would say that all that matters is that it be a crocheted square…

or that it be a motif, of any description, that is repeated… (I can’t find the giant granny square blanket I made when I first learned to crochet, so here’s what I found doing a Google Image Search)

And so I ask you, what IS a Granny Square?

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. ^_-

Start with a motif:

Make a second motif, and prepare to join on the last round:

On the corners, do a cluster of 3dc, and ch1. Remove the hook, insert it in the hole in the corner of the first motif, and then back through the working loop:

Ch1:

Finish the corner with a cluster of 3dc:

Remove the hook, insert it in the next hole in the first motif, then back in the working loop:

Pull the loop through the hole (but don’t pull the loop too much out of shape!) :

And continue as normal, doing this join in each hole along the common side.

Here’s what it looks like finished:

It’s not perfectly flat, but not as huge of a ridge as the last joining method I used.

Here’s what it looks like when you use the same colour:

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. ^_^