crochet stitches Archives - Page 2 of 2

Foundation sc cylinders

Suppose you want to crochet an egg cup, or a vuvuzela — because who doesn’t? You need a tube that is open at each end, and ideally each end would have that lovely ring of interlocked yarn teardrops. It’s tough, though; one of the limitations of crochet is that if you begin crochet in the round with a chain ring, you have the choice between stitching into one of the teardrop strands (with or without the back bump), stitching around the chain (still no teardrop), or creating something that wants to be a mobius strip.

The solution involves starting in the middle, preferably the narrowest point or a natural break, and crocheting out to each end. In many cases you can do that with a chain ring, but when the point at which you begin is tight (say, four stitches around), the remaining loops of the chain are very hard to find when you go back for the second half. Not to say you can’t still go that route – put stitch markers in them at the beginning. I have what I think is an easier way to go about it, though it requires the starting round have no increases or decreases: foundation single crochet (fsc). [More on fsc after the cut, below, if you need lessons or a refresher.]

Here’s the idea:

	A. Make the number of fsc required for your starting round. B. Bring the first fsc you made around to the hook again so the strip forms a ring that is on the far side of the hook from you, and so you can insert the hook into the first fsc from the outside of the ring to the inside (pictures from two slightly different angles below). Be sure your working yarn is coming out the top of the ring so it’s in the right place to continue stitching. C. Begin your next round, either by slip stitching to join or making the next sc directly (though the latter will produce a tight spot to stitch in).

	D. When you’ve finished the first half, put a slip knot on your hook (a new length of yarn) and slip stitch to attach in the bottom of one of the non-end fsc. Make sure to insert your hook from the outside of the ring to the inside, as before. Chain up if desired and begin the first round in the opposite direction. The fact that your first round bridges the divide between the beginning and ending of the fsc strip will hold it together without any sewing. Alternatively, if you just want an open-ended piece with two nice ends, use the starting yarn tail to sew the bottom of the fsc round together.

Above left: the side where the two ends of the fsc round meet. Right: the side where the second length of yarn was joined. In both the bottom half was stitched first.

Continue reading Foundation sc cylinders

Double crochet turning chain tweaks

My excess of crochet time has allowed me to start knocking experiments/investigations off the list. One such was the comparison of different turning chain methods for double crochet, as discussed in the Learn Crochet page for taller stitches. There’s a big gap in the standard “ch 3, counts as 1st dc” approach, and a lot of attempts to repair it.

I tried a rainbow of methods. Each was 8 stitches across (however that is counted) and 6 rows tall; I chained 1 at the end of each to knot. They were made with a G hook (4.25mm) and two kinds of worsted weight yarn, Bernat Waverly for yellow and blue and Red Heart Soft for the rest. As usual, click any photo to enlarge it. In this post I’ll use tc to abbreviate turning chain.

Red
First I took the standard approach: Ch 10, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc 7 starting in second st.

This is your friendly neighborhood gappy swatch. No reason to switch away from it if you’re using a hook that is very large for your yarn, or working a pattern that has a lot of open space. I have more thoughts on this below, however.

Orange
Ch-3 but does not count as dc: Ch 11, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 7 chs (8 dc; tc does not count). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc 8 starting in 1st st.

This one has no gaps, but it does have lumps. The ch-3 add noticeable width on alternating sides of the swatch. I can’t recommend it.

Yellow
Ch-2 and does not count as dc: Ch 10, dc in 3rd ch from hk and rem 7 chs (8 dc; tc does not count). All subsequent rows: ch 2, turn; dc 8 starting in 1st st.

This was my attempt to repair the lump by removing a chain. It is an improvement. In fact, if you want something easy that won’t slow you down, this might be the best choice.

Green
Ch-3, counts as dc; dc dec first two sts together to fill space without adding sts: Ch 10, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc dec in 1st two sts, dc in rem 6 sts (8 dc counting tc). Could also begin by chaining 11, dc dec in 4th and 5th ch from hk, dc in rem 6 chs.

I had written something in the Learn Crochet paragraph about decreasing with the chain, and this was my attempt to make that have any meaning at all – you can’t decrease with a chain in any way I know of! This looks pretty good from a distance, but of course up close you have the little triangles of decrease at alternate ends of the row.

Blue
Linked stitches (as in this post by Vashti Braha), single loop variation (her step 3): Ch 10, pull up lp in 2nd ch from hk, pull up lp in 4th ch from hk, YO, pull through 2 lps on hk, YO, pull through 2 lps on hk. Dc in rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: Ch 3, turn; pull up lp through one strand of 2nd ch from hk, pull up lp in second st of prev row; YO, pull through 2 lps on hk; YO, pull through 2 lps on hk. Dc in rem 6 sts.

This was easy to do and is nice looking, but made for a really difficult last stitch on the next row.

Purple
Faux dc with loop left on hook at end of previous row: Ch 8, make faux dc, dc in 2nd ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc). All subsequent rows: turn, make faux dc, dc in 2nd st and rem 6 sts.

Faux dc: loosen loop on hook until it is a little longer than a dc is tall. Hold center of loop against shaft of hook with index finger. Wrap both strands of loop around hook by poking hook away from you under loop (as though base of loop is working end of yarn and you are yarning over). Yarn over with actual working end; pull through doubled strand on hook (2 loops left on hook). Yarn over, pull through both loops on hook. I learned this from a short video by Sandra Roarty and a much longer one by TXCr1cket, though I didn’t actually get what was going on until I tried to do it from memory after watching them on one occasion, and then watched them again later. Note that the videos say to make the loop as tall as a dc, but making it a bit taller to account for the spiral shape it takes on helps with the tightness of the loop you have to stitch into at the end of the next row.

Using the loop left on the hook after the end of the last row makes the faux dc look more like it is attached to the previous row in the same way the actual dcs are. I made the purple swatch a few times to make sure inexperience didn’t affect my results; the first time the faux dc was tight to stitch into on the next row, but with practice it was no worse than a turning chain (maybe even easier). It also took barely more time than a standard dc.

The picture below blows up much larger than mine usually do, so you can compare the swatches more closely.

For me the two winners are yellow and purple: ch 2 and don’t count it, or make a faux dc. Which one I use will depend on how much of a perfectionist I am at that moment.

While I was working it occurred to me that the starting chain is mismatched to the rest of the turning chains in the case of the standard method – you should really be adding 3 chains to the desired number of stitches and skipping 4 to make the first dc. Adding 2 and skipping 3 essentially makes the first two stitches an increase instead of neighbors. This is especially clear in the linked stitch method of fixing the gap, where in the first row you skip 1 chain and pull up a loop in the next, skip one more chain and then pull up the second loop. In later rows you skip one chain and pull up a loop, then skip a chain and a stitch and pull up the second loop. I tried the standard turning chain approach with that one tweak.

Dark red (on left)
Modified starting chain for squareness: Ch 11, dc in 5th ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc 7 starting in second st.

It’s a little hard to tell because my starting chain is tight anyway, but it is more square. If you made a dc rectangle and then had to stitch around it, I expect this corner would be better behaved than the standard one.

Any method that doesn’t use the turning chain as a stitch automatically has a match between the starting row and the subsequent rows, including the faux dc, leaving red, green, and blue. I could have started green this way easily by chaining 11, decreasing the 4th and 5th chain from the hook together, and continuing down the last 6 chains. In fact, I don’t remember the rationale against doing it that way in the first place! Blue is fixed similarly to red, by adding an additional starting chain and additional skip, though the skip is added after the first loop is pulled up: ch 11, pull up a loop in the 2nd and 5th ch from hk, complete as for a dc, dc in remaining 6 chains.

I hope this helps someone beautify their double crochet work. Have I left any methods off the list?

Magic chain bracelet

The magic chain stitch in embroidery is structured like the standard chain stitch, but the links alternate colors. To make it, you load your needle with the full number of strands of each of two colors, and then when catching the thread for each loop you catch only one color at a time. It has a high fanciness-to-difficulty ratio.

I’m sure I’m not the first to adapt the magic chain stitch to crochet chains. Make a slip knot with two strands, and then chain alternately with each color. It will probably end up looser than your usual chain; the samples below were both made with an H hook (5 mm). It looks pretty neat:

After chaining the last link, bring the opposite color through it and tie the strands together in an overhand knot (or just tie the beginning and end together all at once).

I tried it with three colors, rotating among them, but a loose strand stretching across two links was too messy. Instead, I bounced up to a K hook (6.5 mm) and used two strands at a time, rotating which was left out. That worked better, but I think I prefer the two color version.

You’ll notice I have three different-looking tassels. The red-orange-yellow one is just the yarn ends tied together. For the green-blue one, I cut two additional strands of each color and tied them on after tying the ends together, to fatten up the tassel. The pink-purple tassel was combed out with a large pin and then trimmed.

These would make great lanyards, or a summer project to introduce kids to crochet!