Tuesday 27 November 2012

New Skills

We have aquired quite a lot of new skills on this trip, some more fun to learn than others (Stephen is now quite proficient at sorting out problems with the on-board loo's, for example. Essential & useful, but not much fun), and having spent most of yesterday killing my fingers mending the boat's canvas cover, I thought I'd blog about something much more fun that I have finally mastered - crochet.

Crochet seems to be having a bit of a "moment", lots of fun and interesting patterns on ravelry and some really excellent blogs too. My current favourites are Attic24, which is UK based and LeMondeDuSucrette, which is Lebanese.

I had wanted to learn this for ages and had taken a one-day class about a year ago, back in the UK. But, I didn't practice enough and forgot a lot of what I had learnt. So, when packing for the trip I added some yarn, crochet hooks and a "how-to" book to the pile of stuff to go on the boat.

I ignored it all for a long time, as I was worried I'd never grasp it, but a combination of remembering enough from my course, my "how-to" book and some YouTube video's, I have finally cracked it and am now totally addicted.

So addicted infact, that I have even been brave enough to go to a charity knit/crochet along in Roanne, where I was the only English speaker and also to write my own pattern for a hat for Emma. If you'd like to try out the pattern, it's at the bottom of this blog post and I will also post it on ravelry shortly.

If you are interested, here are some of the things I have managed to make so far:


A Granny Square cushion cover - the first thing I made. Unfortunatly, Stephen hates the colours, so not sure when it will be on display!

 
 A poncho & hat set for Emma. I got Stephen to choose the colours for these, so no repeat of Granny Square cushion colours problem
 
 
A dress and hat for Emma's doll Annabell. Sadly, Annabell is a pretty ugly doll with a weird shaped head, so a large hat was very important, as she spooks me when she's hatless


A hat for Emma. The first thing I've made to my own pattern.
 
 
If you would like to try my hat pattern, here it is:
 
Child’s Flower-Topped Crochet Hat
I made this is three colours, red (main), yellow (turn-up brim) and white (two rows, to highlight). It used about 2/3 ball of red (colour A), ¼ ball of yellow (colour B) and a few metres of white (colour C). I also used a button for the centre of the flower on the top of the hat.
It was made using charity shop wool which didn’t have a label, but I would guess it was DK wool. I used a 3.5mm hook
I made it for Emma, who is just 4. It fits her, but is fairly loose and will stretch enough to fit me too (although not very well!). It’s easy to keep trying it on as you add rows and, if you need to, either add more or drop some to make it fit properly.
Hat
  1. COLOUR A: Ch4, sl st to form a ring
  2. Row 1: Ch2, htr 9, sl st to join
  3. Row 2: Ch2, htr in same st, then 2htr in each st, sl st to join
  4. Row 3: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
  5. Row 4: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
  6. Row 5: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 2 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
  7. Row 6: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 3 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
  8. Row 7: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 4 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
  9. Rows 8 – 16: 9 rows with 1htr in each st (or until the hat is the correct length). Fasten off
  10. COLOUR C: Row 17: Turn hat inside out and work on the wrong side from now on. 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off
  11. COLOUR B: Rows 18 – 22: 4 rows with 1htr in each st (may need more rows, if you made the hat with more rows than in this pattern). Fasten off.
  12. COLOUR C: Row 23: 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off & weave in all ends
Three-Layered Flower Decoration
  1. COLOUR C: ch3 and sl st to form a ring (or made a magic loop, if you are more clever than me)
  2. Row 1: Ch3 then 11 tr. Sl st to top of ch to join. Fasten off
  3. COLOUR A: Row 2: Join into top of any tr of row 1. *(ch2, tr) into tr st, then (tr, ch2, sl st) into next tr st*. Repeat from * to * 6 times. This forms 6 small petals. Fasten off.
  4. COLOUR C: Row 3: Working behind row 2 make a sl st into one of the loops between two of the small petals. *Ch4, then sl st into a loop between the next two small petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the small petals
  5. Row 4: Sl st into 1st ch space. *ch2, 3tr, ch2* over the loop to make a medium petal. Repeat from * to * 5 times to make 6 medium sized petals. Fasten off
  6. COLOUR B: Row 5: Working behind rows 3 & 4 make a sl st between two of the medium petals. *ch5 then sl st into a loop between the next 2 medium petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the medium petals
  7. Row 6: sl st into 1st ch space. *ch2, 4tr, ch2* over the loop to make a large petal. Repeat from * to * 5 more times to make 6 large petals. Fasten off.
  8. Add a button to the centre of the flower for added decoration, weave in ends and sew the flower onto the hat.


3 comments:

  1. I love that you've cracked crochet in the spare moments you have, I'm still struggling to understand it. Do you have any tips, or favourite YT tutorials you could share? I'd love to make something fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, I like the Planet Purl videos on YouTube, but bare in mind they use American terms, not UK ones (so they'll say single crochet where we say double crochet, they'll say double crochet where we say treble crochet). I used a learn crochet book in conjunction with these videos.

    I've used the "idiotsguide.com" website too. Let me know how you get on

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, I like the Planet Purl videos on YouTube, but bare in mind they use American terms, not UK ones (so they'll say single crochet where we say double crochet, they'll say double crochet where we say treble crochet). I used a learn crochet book in conjunction with these videos.

    I've used the "idiotsguide.com" website too. Let me know how you get on

    ReplyDelete