Craft Corner

[CheerBear]

Not sure @Catcakes. Should be given I've had not much sleep but I'm in pain and distracting from it. Had to take some lala land pain relief so probably should kick myself off the forum before I start posting/dreaming rubbish about emus and roadworkers and stuff 😛 How about you?

[Catcakes]

Yeah, I’ll be in bed soon @CheerBear.
I was going to water out the back but it is supposed to rain overnight.🤞
Easier day for me tomorrow,
(Today I had appointment, few hours driving, visit Mum and a few chores at home plus the emotional anxiety of S3’s audition )

[Former-Member]

Images to show stages of Single Crochet and a couple of handy dandy tips... basically some stuff and things for beginners. Hope this is helpful @Phoenix_Rising @Former-Member @TheVorticon @Mazarita @Catcakes @Bubbles3 and anyone else who drops by. 

This is an experiment hopefully it's useful. 

 shows valuable info that can be on a yarn label. useful to keep your labels so you 1. can get the same yarn again, & 2. know how many balls you used to make an item.

 Palm of my hand - shows how I hold the end of the yarn between my thumb and forefinger, while the yarn travels over the back of hand, around little finger and back to the ball. 

 Shows back of my hand, how yarn travels from thumb and forefinger over the back of fingers and around little finger. Fingers tighten and release as the yarn is needed. Takes practice to get your own hold on the yarn. 

 Holding the first chain loop on the hook between thumb and forefinger. The thumb nail is really handy for helping hold and stretch the loop for ease of working it. I hold the hook the way you would your eating utensil that is not a fork or spoon (disallowed word) as it's more restful on my arthritic hands. You can also hold it like a pencil.

Allow the hook to turn in your hand as you move it through the loops rather than twisting you whole hand to make the movements happen. 

 Stuff and things handy for crochet (yarn work). Here I have marked the beginning and end stitches of the starting chain with 1. a green locking stitch marker, and 2, a piece of differently coloured waste yarn. Doing this for however long you need to, will keep track of your end stitches so you don't miss, or add, stitches. The turning chain is not counted as a stitch. Mark your stitches before making the turning chain. Try to always make your turning chains in the same direction, that is, either before, or after, you turn your work. (I do the turning chain before turning my work, it's easier to remember and seems neater to my eye.)

 The yarn marker id's the end stitch for us as the first row is worked. The green locking stitch marker id's the beginning stitch.

 Shows hook through the two upper loops of the previous single crochet (sc). The loop on the hook is the turning chain made before I turned the piece to work the next row. See how the yarn is being held away from me, at the back of the work. 

 Single crochet being formed in the first stitch of the second row. Green stitch marker id's the very first stitch. 

 Stitch markers show the ends of the previous row. YOu might want to put new ones in this row, and then move the others up on the row that follows that, or you might be able to work with them staying in the first row. Whatever works for you. Make sure 1. that the marker won't accidently fall out as you work and 2. that you can actually get the market out when you've finished. 

 See how it looks like this is the last stitch on the hook, but the yarn marker tells a different story. The stitch with the yarn marker is in fact the last stitch of the row and you need to work a single crochet into it. then do a turning stitch and turn your work to do the next row. 

[Former-Member]

Argh, how could I have missed tagging @CheerBear in the above post. Waves to CheerBear. Hope to see you over here with pics of your magical girl soon. 

[Phoenix_Rising]

Here is my latest masterpiece. I am super appreciating the teachings of @CheerBear and @Former-Member. 

I deliberately made the chain really big because I had a few attempts where I made the stitches too small to get the hook through. The chain had 11 stitches in it...and my final row had 6. On the bright side, I did have a few rows with 7 stitches (not quite sure how I got from 10 to 7). At least I'm getting the hang of counting stitches well enough to know that I have the wrong number of stitches in a row. 

[CheerBear]

That looks SO much more like it @Phoenix_Rising! This is so exciting 😁

It definitely takes some practice to turn and work out where to place stitches in each row so they have the same stitch count. Last week I did a long piece for the baby cocoon thingy and accidentally added an extra stitch each row so it bowed out. On a big piece it can take a while to notice missing/extra stitches if you're not counting (which I don't tend to do with things like that) so I had to unravel it all and start again. Mentioning this as even after playing crochet for (way too many) hours, I still get this one wrong sometimes!

Being able to count stitches and work out what a stitch actually consists of, is a big step!

Woohoo ☺👍go you

[Former-Member]

@Phoenix_Rising oh, very nice work, you're coming along nicely with that. Very nicely indeed. 

I can see a few places where you missed the stitches, had it diagramed and marked on your photo, but  my computer has eaten my saved image. GRrrrr. 

I can see where there are 2 missed stitches in the chain on the right of the image, where the tail thread is, and I'm pretty sure there's been 2 missed from the hook instead of the 1 we normally miss.

Not a biggie, because you're sure getting understanding of what the stitch construction is by the looks of things. :thumbs up:

I think I can see where the other stitches were missed as the work progressed too.

Honestly, even experienced crocheters have to keep an eye on their stitch count to keep things as they want them to be. 

@CheerBear I agree, it's easy to add or subtract stitches on any project really, isn't it. I did my complicated project today while waiting, and had to undo quite a few times because I did the pattern the wrong direction, or lost focus for a minute, but I actually got to work on a tricksy bit and am pretty pleased about that. 

OH. Wondering ... hmmm. Clarity might be needed for something, I just realised. 

Y'know how we've said to do a chain, say 10 chains, then turn and work into the back bumps of the chain, but miss the first chain loop on the hook?

Well, we only miss that chain loop on the hook on the first row, not on any that come after. The turning chain we make at the end of a row takes the place of that 1st loop from the chain that we'd normally miss. Does that make things a bit clearer perhaps? 

All in all though, going very well. Like CB says, working out what the stitch consists of is a very big step. Go you! 

[CheerBear]

Random question for @Former-Member or anyone reading

I have some very granny-style cool tweed yarn and want to make some socks/sock style boot things for adults. It's an Aran or bulky weighted yarn (10 or 12 ply maybe). I'm looking for a pattern that I can adjust from big to less-big to little foot sizes and was wondering if you had any ideas (if you're up to sharing/looking etc- no pressure though).

☺

[Former-Member]

*Waves to @CheerBear and everyone else lurking in the corners as she drags herself out of a footwear rabbit hole.* 

OOH, tweedy yarn, nice. 

SunShower = grannyish = likes some tweed yarns 

Now, first I must provide a disclaimer, I do not make socks. I have made myself a pair of crocheted maryjane slippers, and I have sewn myself actual wearable shoes for both indoor and outdoor wear, and worn them. I have sewn baby sandals and shoes, but crochet two matching things ... shudders at the thought. 

I went for a search of crochet patterns for you @CheerBear, and found some that might be suitable. Not sure of a number of things, so will include a choice that might be useful for you. 

makeanddocrew crochet-boots-flip-flops-pattern Wondered if this might be suitable as you could (probably) adapt the pattern sizing to fit the sole of each person's thong. Didn't know if you wanted inside only wear or more durable. The yarn used here (Lion Brand Wool Ease) is only slightly thicker than a usual Aran weight yarn, but you can do a comparison of gauges to check. 

I don't know what these are like to wear as I cannot wear rubber. 

Yarnspirations SlipperBoots-pdf  Yarn used is Bernat Softee Chunky:
Knitting Gauge/ Tension: 11 sts and 14 rows with a 8 mm (U.S. 11) knitting needle
Crochet Gauge/ Tension: 8 sc and 9 rows with a 8 mm (U.S. L/11) crochet hook

Your Aran yarn gauge is more like Gauge/Tension: 16 stitches and 22 rows for a 10x10cm but might depend on the actual brand of the yarn. The pattern yarn is half the thickness of your Aran yarn, but, I wondered if you could adapt the sizing for yourself, so wanted to include it for ideas. 

ravelry nana-slippers You can get this free as a guest if you don't have a Rav membership. It's a useful easy method, and if you want longer length up the leg, I think it would be doable. I can help with this if you decide you want to go that way and are not sure what to do. 

megan Soccasins These are sooo very cute, and so neatly done. you could make the sock part the same colour or not. I think they might be reasonably easily adaptable to larger sizes, not sure, there is a link in the pattern page for a larger version by another crafter.. She uses Double Knitting (DK) yarn and the gauge is: 
DK  Gauge/Tension: 22 stitches, 30 rows to 10cm on 4mm needles
Aran Gauge/Tension: 18 stitches, 24 rows to 10cm on 5mm needles

allfreecrochet Cute-and-Cozy-Granny-Square-Slippers This pattern uses Aran weight yarn and has the multiple sizing. You could add more motives to go higher up the ankle. 

Of course, I may be totally way off course for design wants/ needs so feel welcome to say 'not that, but maybe something like this', or, even somthing like 'Heavens to Murgatroyd, SunShower, I don't want to leave anything to chance, find me a pattern that tells me every step of the way', and I can do some more searches for you.   

[Former-Member]

Hello @Former-Member nice to see you pop by. Do you have crafty bones? All craft welcome here.