The Sunday Yarn - 27 Jan 2013
You can see above the back of the peachy-pink baby jumper (or 'sweater' if you prefer, which I think is a horrible word! It makes it sound like a garment that makes you need to wash!!). The pattern is intriguing. It's worked over 12 rows: 3 lots of pattern A, then 3 lots of B, both of which have pattern row-pearl row as a working method. What's intriguing about it is that, although the holes in the pattern seem to move to the left then the right, the pattern is the same for all the moves - i.e. the hole creation isn't one stitch to the left or right each time. I can't help but think that knitting is a very clever business!!
The thing that really bothers me about this pattern is that the writers have clearly underestimated the amount of yarn needed. It says 0-3 months and 3-6 months sizes need only 1 50g ball and the 6-12 months size (which I'm doing) needs 2. Well, what you see above represents the entire of the first ball and a little bit of the second and, no, no sleeves have been worked yet, so I'm rather doubtful that there'll be enough left. I can't get any more as this yarn was picked up for 99p a ball (only two of them left) in a yarn sale. I can only think that the white thread in this fancy yarn makes it heavier and that one needs more per pattern than with a simpler yarn. Make sense to anyone? Anyway, once the front and plackets are done, then I'll try the sleeves, but I think I'll have to do only the cuffs in this yarn and the main part of the sleeve in plain white. Sigh! It'll look OK, but it wasn't what I was planning.
This is how far I've got with the front. The left front is worked all the way up and cast off, and I've just started building up the right front, but it's rather complex, what with two lots of stitches being held on safety pins and all! I'm interested to see how this all works out and, indeed, if I've even got it right!
And I thought knitting was a fairly basic sort of thing. How wrong was that?? I've got a book on cabling out of the library and the same author has written one on lacy knitting, so I want to see if that's available for free as well.=) So much to learn... That's the trouble with me, I want to know everything!! (OK, just one of my troubles, I know!)
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
5 comments:
If you were nearer, I'd happily teach you. Do persevere, because once you 'get it' it's such fun and so versatile.
Youtube is great for crochet. I have tried and tried with books and got so frustrated that I couldn't 'get' it. I've watched a few videos this past week and it's really helped everything click ^^ (as far as double crochet goes anyway!)
I've never quite "got" crochet, either, but once you have the muscle memory, you won't lose it, so it is worth persevering.
Once you have mastered crochet, you'll wonder why you ever found it difficult! In the picture, you are making the first stitch into a chain, so the yarn you are using will have been hanging down from the original stitch on your hook (far right) and brought behind the two loops you have picked up from the chain in order to form the loop you will pull through. I tend to only pick up one loop from each stitch in a chain, otherwise it is very fiddly. Hope that helps and doesn;t confuse you further!
I would imagine it is indeed the texture of that yarn which has made it shorter per ball despite the weight being the same. It's very annoying then that happens and it is always with a yarn you can't find anymore - white sleeves should be fine, just make sure the yarn is the same thickness as the pink or you will have a variation in size....wow, I am such a yarn nerd.....
When you make your chain stitch, if you look closely, you're doing a series of teardrops that have a spare bit across the back of the stitch. It's very much like ending a piece of knitting, you may have noticed. Each of the 'tears' or loops is a 'stitch' for all purposes as you work forward. (And as someone who's crochet for more years than I care to admit, that picture can be very well confusing, without an explanation.) Anyhow, you put your hook through the center of the teardrop choosing to stab over or under that spare piece on the back, wrap and hook the loose working yarn (normally held in the other hand for ease and tension), and then twist the hook, in order to have the teardrop shaped hook fit the tear drop shaped hole, and slide it back to the front. Normally that means you'll turn the open portion of the hook 'down'. It's the Back of the hook that's smooth and round. If you look at the illustration, the top of the teardrop, the back of the chain's extra piece, and they're about to draw the 'Yarn-over' through them both, and end up with two (2) loops on the crochet hook. Next would be to wrap the yarn around the hook again and draw the yarn back through those two loops, completing the stitch - USA, single stitch or European double stitch (for double loops).
Gosh, but I hope that helps. If it did, and you need more explained, I'm on hotmail, with this name. ::grin::
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