Or just click here: Tutorials

What I need from you now is: what tutorials haven’t I done yet that you’d like to see? Please leave your answers as a reply below!

In the mean time… I still can’t stop making spiral hex blankets:

Both are made using Loops & Threads Necessities and working until each ball ran out (the variegated yarn runs out before the solid does). The blankets measure between 33″ and 40″ depending on how you measure.

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…

Of course, my first instinct in a situation like this (or, to be fair, in ANY situation) is to crochet.

There’s a common expression that states that the fastest way to get rid of an illness is to give it to someone else, and so this is what I made:

It might be hard to see that the pattern is a sprial in that picture, so here’s a close-up of the middle:

How’s your head?

Honestly, I don’t believe that expression for a minute. I mean, it’s pretty ridiculous, right?

Back to the blanket! I used the pattern here: Pamapaloza: Spiral Hex, with 3 full balls of Bernat Satin “Florals” (variegated), and in the solid Bernat Satin in “Sultana”, I used 2 full balls, and the yarn barf from the third (maybe 1/3 of the ball? or 1/4?), and a 5mm hook. It’s 3′ across from side to side.

I did the ending differently from the original. Several stitches away from a corner, with the variegated, I switched to hdc stitches, did a bunch of those, then switched to sc and worked almost to the corner. On the last stitch before the corner, I did a slip stitch, then another into the corner space. With the solid, I did double crochets over the hdc’s, then hdc into the sc’s, then sc up to and into the corner, then finished off.

This was a really neat pattern to do, and there was no cutting the yarn invovled (well, I lie, I did cut the yarn once when the solid got tangled up in a secondary yarn barf and I was too sick to deal with it), and the end weaving was really just at the beginning and ends of the balls.

I’m definitely going to have to make another one of these!

Where did I come across this pattern? In the 11 Blankets for 2011 thread in the Crochet Liberation Front’s Ravelry group (you need to be logged in to see it).

How’s your head now?

But like I said, I don’t really believe there’s any truth to that expression… but it is suspicious that I saw that blanket for the first time only a couple of days before my migraine hit.

Very suspicious indeed…

How’s your head? I’ll ask you again in a couple of days…

Step 2: Change the stitches to sc-blo.

Step 3: Add a bend.

And this is the important one…
Step 4: keep crocheting even though the thing you’re making never once looks like a hat.

Step 5: seam it up

Step 6: be amazed!

Not bad for only working on them on the subway and on my lunch breaks at work!

I’m still debating how I want to join them together. Whip-stitch will probably look best, but sc might give it a bit more stability… I’ll have to experiment!

It was full of happiness:

See that yellow-ish yarn peeking through on the left side of the box? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that yarn… it was cheap, and I like self-striping yarn, and I got 10 balls of it, just in case. (I also got 10 balls of a pink-and-white striping yarn of the same type).

Then it hit me, when I was almost finished that green-and-cream dishcloth from the last post: this yarn would look fantastic in the swirly-hexagon motif!

So, I started the dishcloth pattern again, but with 30ch to begin (instead of 15 for the dishcloths). I did try 15 sts originally, but I found that each wedge was *almost* a single colour, and that wouldn’t really look nice, in my opinion, so I decided to go big.

Here is the result, pinned out (colours a bit off) :

Here’s a close-up, it’s a bit fuzzy, but the colour is more accurate:

And it’s quite drapey!

(Yarn is Bella DK Tapestry, using a 6mm hook)

This might end up being a Christmas present, too… we’ll see!

I’ve talked about gauge before. I hope we all know now that even if you get gauge with one dye lot, you might not with the next. Different colours of yarn sometimes have different gauges, even if they are otherwise the same yarns… even in variegated and self-striping yarns (I’m looking at you, Bernat Baby Coordinates White)

The other day I made this:

It’s for my cousin; she likes handmade dishcloths and her kitchen colours are blue, green, and yellow.

I also made this for her:

(it’s actually more blue than grey in person… it’s supposed to look like denim)

And then this green-and-cream one:

I finished that last one on the commute home and it wasn’t until I stacked it on top of the other two that I noticed this:

All three dishcloths were made using Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, each with a 6mm hook, each exactly the same pattern.

Luckily, gauge doesn’t always matter. ^_^

(P.S. this post documents the first finished Christmas gifts for 2010. That’s right, you heard me!)

Haley’s Comet – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 61:

Mediterranean Circle – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 209:

Dream Weaver:

Flower Petal Dishcloth and Potholder:

Four round standard granny square (with Boa!) :

Tunisian Short Row Dishcloth:

Star To Star – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 214:

What I wanted to do was this:

What IS “this”?

Well, it’s my attempt at the short row tunisian dishcloth pattern in a blanket size. There’s six wedges, and I love rainbows, so it seemed natural to do six colours in rainbow order.

So I started the orange wedge:

Now, I started with a full ball of the red and had lots left over. I started with a full ball of the orange and ran out about three and a half rows short. No big deal! Just another excuse to go stash diving.

No more orange? $@#&!

I could probably get away with one less row, but three? And a half?

Luckily I found some in the scrap stash, but is it enough?

It was! And I’d love to show you a picture of it. But the batteries in my camera died after taking this shot:

I think it’s the finished Lollipop blanket. Do you think it needs a border?

So, tonight I started sewing together all of the finished green hexagons I had so far, using the winning layout (despite the winner being the opposite of the way I was leaning).

Here are the first two joined:

Looking good! Looking good!

What?

Oh! You went and looked at the various places I did the poll, eh? Well, aren’t you the thorough little blog reader!

Ok, I confess. I *meant* to join them the other way. I’m not sure what happened here. Don’t worry, though; I ripped out the stitching and did it right the second time:

I’m getting annoying little gaps in the corners, so I’m going to have to do something about that at some point. I’ll decide exactly what that something is once I get the whole blanket together.

Today at work I made some progress on the yellow star blanket:

I think one more work day and it’ll be done.

I’ll leave you for today with this final thought:

You know you’re a yarnaholic when you come home to find your stuffed bear reading one of your knitting books: