Crocheted Things!
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working on knitting and crocheting. I haven’t really tried purling again since that post and have mainly been working on crocheting. It seems to be going much better now than it was when I made my last post. In that post, I showed 2 amigurumi toys I wanted to make – a lion and an elephant. The first I decided to try was the lion, since it was mostly made up of a simple single crochet stitch. I unfortunately only had the 2 balls of yarn I had been experimenting with to learn the stitches (black and a yellow/pink blending combo), so I didn’t really have exactly the colors the pattern called for, but I think it just gives him character! Here he is:
Simon the sunburned lion
Ahem, so you can see the yellow/pink combo yarn started to turn from yellow to pink once I hit the appendages…but, it’s ok! He’s just sunburned! See:
Simon laid out in the sun too long!
Anyway, for my first project, I don’t think he turned out so bad! He mostly looks like the pattern’s picture other than the colors and they eyes, which I couldn’t find anywhere. I checked Hobby Lobby and AC Moore for 9 mm safety eyes, but the smallest both stores had was 12 mm, which looked way too big. I also couldn’t find them anywhere online other than Etsy and Ebay, which I’ve never used and don’t know how to use (do I need to sign up for some sort of paypal thing? Is my credit card info safe?), so I ended up buying some beads from the jewelry section at AC Moore, which are also a tad big and bulgy since they don’t actually install through the holes in the crochet stitches. But whatever.
The second thing I decided to try (after getting some new yarn) was the tiny elephant and here he is:
Caesar the deformed elephant
I suppose he’s kinda cute in his own way, but this one looked quite a bit more different from the pattern’s picture…his head/body is tiny! I don’t know what happened! I followed the directions and it has the appropriate amount of stitches. And since the appendages look so big on him, I’m assuming they came out as they should have and would look fine on an appropriately sized head/body. So, another project with character I guess.
And finally, I decided to try a crochet hook holder, which was really simple (and yet still didn’t come out quite right). Here’s the original picture from the pattern:
Crochet hook book pattern from Lion Brand
And here’s mine (I chose different colors):
Rolled up
A couple problems here – 1) it didn’t felt at all in my washing maching/dryer. I don’t know if it is the yarn or my laundry machines, and 2) it’s too short. The hooks are supposed to fit completely within the borders of the holder and mine stick out. I believe my hooks are standard size, so again, I don’t know if it’s the yarn or if I made my stitches too tight. It has the appropriate amount of stitches per row. My guess for #2 is that it’s the yarn. I originally had planned to include 2 more colors into this project, but my yarn of the additional 2 colors was a different thickness and once I had made a few rows, I could tell the new rows were longer despite containing the same amount of stitches. Maybe I was a size off on the yarn. I don’t like the thicker yarn though! It’s harder to use. It seems to fray more easily and the stitches get too blendy and I can’t tell where the next loop is.
Anyway, though I had some problems with each of these projects, I’m kinda proud of myself! And I’m looking forward to doing some more stuff. I think I may try the purse from my last post, but I think I’ll make sure I have the correct yarn weights before I start this time. Maybe I’ll make a scarf, too.
Learning to knit and crochet
So, I’ve decided to take up a hobby to take up some of my free time. I’ve recently been into drawing and crafty things like scrapbooking (though my wedding scrapbook is still not done), so I thought I’d try knitting and crocheting. I vaguely remember learning knitting in elementary school (we made a very simple little stuffed sheep), so I hoped it might come back to me with the help of Knitting and Crocheting for Dummies!
So far, I’ve had mixed results. Here are my products so far:
Knitting
This is regular knitting. I don’t think this actually looks too bad for a first time. There’s a few holes you can see, but otherwise, I was able to do it pretty quickly and it seemed to flow pretty well. It did hurt my fingers a bit and I kind of wondered if I was making the stitches too tight. Once I tried purling, I failed miserably. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I think it’s just supposed to be opposite actions of knitting sort of, but I just couldn’t get it to work. The loops just kept falling off. So, that’s disappointing, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to do any real patterns without knowing how to purl.
Single crochet
This is my sad attempt at single crochet. It’s the smallest of the crochet stitches that my book shows and that gave me some trouble (maybe the dark thread also wasn’t a good choice?) because basically, I couldn’t keep track of where my hook needed to go for each next stitch. All the thread is so dark and close together, I can’t really see the stitches well. And obviously I missed some stitches in each row in order to make this get smaller toward the top. This was the first stitch I tried though and I think I got better with the others, so maybe I just need to go back and try it again with a lighter thread.
Double crochet
This is my double crochet. It’s a bit looser, so I think I did a much better job with it. I could see where the stitches needed to go and I actually got the process flowing pretty well here. I think my only problem may lie in “turning my work” before starting a new row because I can’t really tell the “right” side from the “wrong side”. They kind of look the same, with an alternating pattern as the rows go up, so I’m thinking I’m not turning it properly. The book is kind of confusing here though because it just tells me to turn my work toward me, which I thought I was doing. I’m not sure how else I can turn it.
Triple crochet
This is my triple crochet. I think this one actually came out quite well. I think I may still be having the “turn your work” problem, but the stitches seem to look pretty uniform to me and the process was flowing nicely, so I think I at least got the hang of the stitches.
So that’s what I’ve made so far. They’re just test swatches, but I suppose I could also say I’ve got a bookmark, a tiny doll skirt, and 2 coasters, haha! I hope I can keep making progress with learning this because there’s some really cute stuff I could make, like scarves, bags, and Amigurumi dolls.
A tiny elephant
A really cute bag
Interestingly, these are listed as “easy” and “advanced beginner,” respectively. I feel like I’m a long way from making those…but I do think I’m going to try a really simple lion:
