Crochet Journey

Being it's a new year, and a new decade, and because I've seen many posts regarding "de-stashing" and reorganizing one's yarn and projects, I decided to tackle mine.  The things I found!  That purple tam in the upper right corner I knitted 10 years ago and had never worn it (until today)!  I moved, donated, trashed, reorganized for several hours last Saturday, and also finished a few unfinished objects (UFOs in the yarn world).  What a satisfying feeling when it was done.  And I can now find everything easily! In other news, I recently completed my course work and received my Craft Yarn Council knitting instructor certification!  I am currently offering one-on-one knitting instruction in Portland.  Join our crochet class on Mondays at 10 a.m.!

I have always been fond of small items -- little boxes, little baskets, little stuffed animals and amigurumi, little trinkets, even little notepads and kitchen utensils.  So it was fun for me to design this simple tapestry pattern for a little basket; but why stop at one?  I had to make another, and Stella and Stanley were so taken with them that they had to jump right in!  This was our second class on tapestry crochet; last week we made a small flat design, and today we did tapestry crochet in the round.  The continuous rounds and single direction crochet make for a sharper, clearer design than back-and-forth flat tapestry crochet.  The stitches have a rightward lean, but in most cases this is unimportant.  There are a couple of ways to correct the lean so the stitches stack more evenly; one is to crochet in the back loop only, but that causes a ridged effect.  The other is to wind the yarn around the crochet hook in the opposite direction, but th...

Today's lesson was an introduction to tapestry crochet, a colorwork technique that involves carrying strands of yarn along with single crochet to produce graphic designs in crocheted fabric.  It looks complicated, but it's not difficult, though carrying the yarn can be a bit awkward at first.  We started with this simple design today to train our fine motor coordination to crochet smoothly while carrying the yarn.  Tapestry crochet can be done flat (as in the photo here) or in the round (as we will be doing next week).  Yarn is Lion Brand Pound of Love in Lavender and Pastel Green. Tapestry crochet has been a favorite technique of mine for many years; I first learned of it from Carol Ventura , who popularized the current wave of tapestry technique.  I especially enjoy making bags, belts, hats and baskets, and it's easy to map out a design on graph paper.  Any design can be crocheted into fabric! Something new again to learn in our Crochet Journey...

New year, new month, new square, new stitch!  Actually, it's a very old stitch, the Wattle Stitch. Many, many years ago crochet consisted of one stitch only, the slip stitch.  First called "Shepherd's Knitting," the early crochet patterns were for bags made of nothing but slip stitches.  In the mid-1800s single crochet had been added to the craft, and shortly thereafter the Wattle Stitch was brought into being, using a 1 sc-1 ch-1 dc repeated pattern.  It's considered a solid stitch, but it's rather stretchy, has some bounce to it and, if soft yarn is used, makes crochet fabric with a very nice drape.  And so it makes a beautiful addition to our growing collection of squares for our eventual sampler afghan, to be completed next September.  The Wattle Stitch square is number five in the series.  Yarn is KnitPicks Brava Worsted, this time in Tidepool.  There's always something new to learn in our Crochet Journey classes!  We meet Monday m...