Bavarian Crochet - WIP

I am so sick today folks.  Just really unwell, I feel horrible and have been sitting in my comfy pj's all day long.

I'm extremely thankful that my husband is on leave and able to take care of the children, and me, while I'm down with this awful cold.

Here I was hoping and praying that I would be skipped this time around, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.  I am choosing to look at this in a good light, in the sense that at least it's happening now and not during Christmas.  Praise the Lord.

I am taking this downtime to relax on the couch with my crochet basket. And to try a new pattern which I've had bookmarked for a few years. Completely forgot about it until I was cleaning my bookmarks yesterday morning, so last night as hubby was at class I picked up some leftover dishcloth yarn and began the process of learning the stitches.

I would be lying if I said this pattern was easy at first.  It wasn't.  I read and re-read and read again the instructions and it just wouldn't sink in.  I was not understanding Sarah London's instructions, it just made no sense whatsoever.

But I persevered and then it suddenly clicked and wow is it easy.

I have no doubt that you all could make this as well, but I decided to take a few pictures to show some of the steps that were driving me insane at first.

Tried the square pattern first but then decided to go with theoblong as I'm not yet sure whether I'll be turning it into a pillow or a blanket.  We'll see.

In the picture above, I've done the first two rows and am now joining with a new color.Where it says to join between the 4th and 5th stitch.....that's where you will be starting the new color.

After chaining 5 then you'll be working in the posts of the treble stitches. I know, I know, it confused the heck out of me at first, but let me show you.....yarn over two times, then insert your hook from the back to the front.

Wrap the hook around the post of the stitch and stick it into the back, below you can see how it looks, you are now looking at the back of the crochet row.

you're going to wrap the yarn around the hook and pull it through

Pull through two loops, yarn over and pull through two more loops, then leave the remaining stitches on the hook.

Yarn over two times again and

repeat by once again bringing the hook from the back to the front, wrapping it around the post of the next stitch and then to the back again.

just like this

again yarn over, pull through two loops and yarn over, pull through two more and leave the remaining stitches on.  It may look like a lot of stitches but that's ok.

continue until you've worked all 4 posts as directed in the pattern, then yarn over and pull through all the loops left on the hook. You've now completed a Cluny Group.

chain 5 and slip stitch.

There you have it. I hope that made a little sense, I'm not very good at explaining crochet steps LOL

The rest of the pattern is just the same thing over and over.

Now, one of the things that most confused me at first, aside from these cluny groups using the back posts of the stitches......was the part where it tells you to work the dtr stitches into the top of the cluny groups.

Drove me insane at first until I realized exactly where they were supposed to go. Let me show you where you'll be inserting your hook.

There's a little spot above the cluster that is where you will be working the DTR's, I tried to exaggerate the hole a bit more so you could see better

Sorry for the blurry pic, just really not feeling well today.

Here's where I'm at so far :)

I do hope these helped you a little. If there's something else in the pattern you need help with and I can help, feel free to ask :)

You can check out the original pattern for the Oblong Wool-eater blanket at Sarah London's blog, here.

{ Let's crochet! }

I can't tell you how much I missed my craft basket. These past two weeks of being sick and having everyone else in the household sick too, meant that my crochet and knitting had to be set aside for more pressing matters, things like cleaning runny noses and cooking up big batches of chicken noodle soup.

But now....oh now....we're back in business. Everyone is finally over the cold and things are back to normal which means, I get to dive back into those things I absolutely love doing. Like crochet.

If you've been one of my readers for a while, you will know that I couldn't crochet to save my life, I mean honestly if my life depended on me making a crochet chain to swing across an abyss...well let's just say I wouldn't be here *snicker*
But seeing that crochet has always been one of those crafts that I adore and wanted to learn, I set about teaching myself the art. I'm by no means an expert, I'm a baby at most, slowly trotting along and learning new tricks as I go.

A couple of you have shown interests in learning to crochet too and I said I would do a tutorial. I wish I hadn't because I'm more of a *show you* kinda gal, than a *write it down and explain in detail* kinda gal. I tend to confuse myself and others....but I did say I would help you all get started and that's what I'm doing today.

So go on, grab that ball of yarn you've been wanting to use and some crochet hooks, let's not worry about size and all that stuff, that's something for future use, right now we're just wanting to cast one, make a chain and join it in a little circle. *don't you just love my descriptions? I feel for you all trying to understand what I'm about to do* LOL

Casting on....there are so many different ways to do this, but this is how I do it and it's easy for me. Start by making a little loop

Pull the thread through the hole

Tighten and insert the crochet hook

How easy was that? Now you're ready to start making your chain

Making the chain: Yarn over the hook

Pull it through

Repeat until you have 4 chains

Joining the chains into a circle:

Insert the hook into the first chain, yarn over and pull through BOTH loops.

Now chain 2 just like I showed you above

Then you're going to make 9 single crochets into the hole in the middle. If you find it hard to locate it just insert your finger and wiggle it a bit so you can see it.

Insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through both loops on hook.

Repeat 9 times.

When you're done, join with a slip stitch (insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch, then through the loop on your hook.)...which means....insert the hook into the second chain of the first chain 2 you did, yarn over and pull through both. You'll end up with just one loop on the hook.

Fasten off. (Cut the yarn about 6" from the last stitch. Yarn over and use your hook to pull it through the loop on the hook.) Cinch the strand to secure it. Weave the loose end into the fabric with a tapestry needle.

Now go on and try it and then come back and show me how you did. Next time we'll start the actual petals of the flower and just you wait and see how easy they are.

And once we've made one or two flowers, we'll make some leaves too.

There are tons of crochet flower patterns out there, so easy to make.

Flower Power
Crochet Flower
Four Leaf Clover
Carnation (I'm making this one right now, can't wait to see how it looks)

EDIT: Pat aka Posh, thank you so much for letting me know about the typo. I fixed it and it now says SINGLE CROCHET instead of double. :)

My Crafty Corner - Crochet Votive Candle Holder

I haven't had much time for crochet lately, matter of fact I'm missing my African Flower Blanket and need to find some time to get working on it.

But last night, the family and I sat and watched Everybody Loves Raymond and as we did, I pulled out my crochet hook and a small ball of yarn I had laying around and whipped up this quick jar jacket, which turned into a votive candle holder.

I didn't really use a pattern but I did use inspiration from Lucy's Jar Jacket tutorial.

I ended up making two, one is a candle holder, the other is holding our pens and pencils on the homeschooling desk.

I'm planning on making a bunch more in different size jars, all in white yarn and making a collection for one of my shelves, I think it will look really pretty.

I didn't stick with a double crochet stitch.  I did the first row in DC but then switched to a series of 4 DC in one stitch, skipped 3 stitches, then another 4 DC in the next stitch etc.  Just repeated until the size I wanted, then ended with a single stitch all the way around.

Took me about 30 minutes to complete.

Love the candle glow.  I'm using little votive candles which burn out pretty fast.  I didn't want the jar to get too hot either.

I'm also thinking of buying the little LED candles and using those too.

So there you go, that's what was on my crochet hook yesterday and what will be on there for another day or two.  I'll come back and show you a picture of the finished jars when it's all complete.

It's time!

You know, 3 months ago I put my crochet hook and yarn down, and I said "I'll get back to you very soon".....then the move got in the way and the drive and setting up a new house, and family moving in and before I knew it, the very soon turned into months.

Crochet, as you know, has always been my way of relaxing and de-stressing, it's always been that one go to when I'm sick or feeling a little down.  No matter what was going on, it relaxed me, and I've missed it so very much.

I know I said the other day that I was getting back to it, but guess what???  Homeschooling started and that got in the way and so here I am, back at square one, and ready to just get to it.

These baskets and bags have been sitting here waiting, patiently...sometimes not so patiently as I've found some yarn on the ground having fallen off.  Now of course I know it was one of the kids or the dogs as they walked by, but I choose to pretend that it was the yarn jumping out, begging to be made into something cute.

I have so many projects saved that I want to make, quite a few actually.  They're all saved in my Crochet Folder, and sometimes I open it up and look and go through the list, but then I get a bit overwhelmed so I close it again.

I decided that the best way to tackle this is to open it up, and start right at the top, go one by one and make my way to the bottom.  Right???

Or at least that's what I envision happening, though to be completely truthful, I have a feeling that I'll get halfway through and get distracted with something else. HA!

For me the best part of the whole process, from start to finish, is picking the color.

Sometimes it just comes to me, but then other times it is frustrating because I just can't seem to decide.  That is when I turn either to the web and look through color wheels or my favorite.....I just look around and get inspiration from items in my home. 

One of my most used color schemes?  Inspired by my Cath Kidston items.  But then I don't have to tell you that, I'm sure you already know.

And one of my most enjoyable yarns to work with???  Crochet thread.  Oh I was terrified the first time I tried, I felt like I had huge fingers and couldn't hold the delicate thread, but once I got the hang of it, it was just pure joy.

Matter of fact, I am making some dishcloths using double crochet thread, it works really well.

So yes, I am ready to get back into it.  I am smiling so big this morning, if only you could see me.

I do have to finish this blanket though, it's been sitting around waiting.  I can't just crochet this one, I am kinda weird when it comes to blankets because they're so big and take so much time, I always have to make sure I have a small quick project on hand to break the monotony. 

Am I the only one who does this???

Alright, now I'm curious.  How do you crochet, do you stay on one project until it's finished, do you have a few going at the same time, do you prefer yarn or crochet thread and the question I am most curious about......what is the ONE crochet or knitting item you have sitting in your basket unfinished???

And I'm talking about the one item that has been sitting there for years LOL 

I'll tell you about mine.  It's my African Flowers Blanket!  I know, it's a shame because it's so gorgeous, but I ran out of the yarn I was using and now I don't know what to do, not sure whether to buy more and continue to make it into an afghan or if I should use the individual flowers to make an owl which I'm leaning heavily to.   Decisions, Decisions!

Your turn!!!

{ Blog 365 #14 - A little crochet }

 

 

I haven't been in the mood to crochet.  Bummer!!!

If you've followed me for a few years, you know that I love crocheting, and always had a project on the go.  Then we moved to Texas and life changed so much, that I found myself not having the time to crochet as much as I wanted.

Then last year, I started developing arthritis in my hands, and that made it a bit painful to do anything.  Holding the hook and the repeated movement just made my hands cramp.  I tried to start a few projects, but it didn't last long.

However, as I've been looking through my blog and older posts, I couldn't help but notice how much crochet was a part of my life.  It made me miss it.

Then I came across this bag I made back in 2009.  It is was the first crochet bag that Lucy at Attic 24, put out.  I fell in love with it immediately, and had so much fun making it, but it was the only one I ever made....even though in my mind I always planned to make another or two, or three.

Having come across these older posts made me want to make another, so I gathered my yarn this morning and got started.

 

I popped on a documentary on the TV, and just allowed myself to crochet without thinking about it.  I just kept changing the colors, moving the hook back and forth, and before I knew it, the bottom of my bag was complete.

 

I had forgotten just how quickly this bag works up.  

 

While I was working on the bag, I was also browsing through Lucy's blog.  Lucy has been blogging for many, many years.  I consider her one of the original bloggers, and if you look through her blog it has stayed the same all these years.  How I love that!  

Lucy first started sharing her love for crochet, on her Attic 24 blog.  She grew a pretty big following, started teaching us how to make the beautiful blankets, bags and pillows she was making, and pretty soon was a big name in the crochet community.  You couldn't talk about crochet without mentioning Lucy, or Attic 24.

But unlike others who grew big and changed the way they blogged, she stayed the same.  I can go into her website and feel like I've been transported back in time.  I love that feeling, it's exactly what I strive to do on my own little corner of the web.  To never change the way I share my life, to continue in exactly the same way I have done since 2006.  Some things are better left untouched.

But anyway, I am really enjoying working on this bag.  As soon as it's done, I will be making another, this time Lucy's Jolly Chunky Bag, which is actually the same bag, but an updated version, a smaller chunkier version to be exact.  Just perfect for me to use my worsted weight yarn scraps.

Let me know if you've ever been over to Lucy's, if you've made any of her projects, or what you're working on at the moment.  Would love to know!