I thought I was over the lure of crafting magazines and their freebies, but it turns out I can still be swayed.
It’s the Peanuts amigurumi, you see. I have so many people who love Peanuts so they would make excellent presents. Plus there are both crochet and knitting patterns for each character and I’m intrigued to see the difference when making the same item.
But also, there’s a wee rainbow pattern in the back, which I’ve been meaning to make for at least 5 months so that was just the push I needed.
Turns out it’s tiny.
It was done in about half an hour, and only took that long because I was so scared of snapping the hook. I mean, look at this nonsense:
But not too much. One hard stare might be the end of it.
Of course, I’d barely finished before planning the next one and how I could improve it, so I’ll probably be making rainbows for a wee while yet. It feels good to be crocheting again!
I was supposed to have an FO to show you today, but guess which muppet picked up her crochet without the hook this morning.
I’m disappointed, but on the plus side I spent my lunch break joining in with #sharethelove on Instagram. I’ve found so many new beautiful accounts to follow and it’s really interesting to see which of my posts different people like.
If you’re on Instagram you can still play – messgage me a heart (@quietwater_craft) and I’ll share my favourite post from your feed in my stories. Or set up your own and get sharing other people 🙂
Hopefully I can get these flipping baby shoes finished at the weekend. Who knew something so small could cause so much trouble?
How’s your Friday going? Got any FOs to share? Let me know in the comments!
I’m almost certainly running before I can walk here, but I’ve decided to start making some crochet goodies without patterns.
The patterns I’ve bought so far are fabulous, but they take up almost 20% of the money I’ve spent on my shop. Plus they all (so far) use really simple stitches that I know how to use; in theory I could have written any of the patterns I have bought. So I’m going to give it a go!
Obviously you don’t just dive into something super-complicated for your first go without a pattern, so I decided to start with a hat.
I know from experience (having to restart one hat project at least 5 times) that beginning with the brim and working up doesn’t really work so well for me. Those chains were determined to twist, no matter what I did! There’s also the fact that I love magic rings, so the obvious choice for me was to start from the top and work my way downward.
Here’s what I did (Yes, I’m as British as they come but still use American crochet terms. Don’t go looking for logic here – there is none):
1) Make a magic ring, 6 double crochet into the ring (6)
2) 2dc in each stitch (12)
3) *dc, 2dc into next stitch* 4 times (18)
4) *dc, dc, 2dc into next stitch* 6 times (24)
5) dc in each stitch (24)
6) *dc, dc, dc, 2dc into next stitch* 6 times (30)
At this point I wanted to do something a bit more interesting, so I decided to experiment with some front post and back post double crochet (fpdc and bpdc)
7) Ch 2 (counted as dc), fpdc, *dc, fpdc* repeat ** around and join to starting chain (30)
8) Ch 2 (counted as bpdc), dc, *bpdc, dc* repeat ** around and join to starting chain (30)
9) Repeat 7) and 8) until desired length (including a stripe of colour because I can) (30)
10) Finish it all off with a row of single crochet and a slip stitch at the end (30)
That gave me this awesome waffle-patterned hat
Ta da!
Looking at it on my desk I was super proud of myself for actually making a real thing without a pattern, but…I didn’t like it. To me it looked like an old lady hat. Given the choice, I would never wear it. But my taste in hats is not everybody’s taste in hats so I tried it on, ready to take some photos for listing in the shop, and it’s actually not that bad!
Then one of my friends modelled it for me
She really likes it, which makes me feel super duper proud! Thank goodness for individual tastes in the world – if my friend likes the hat then there will definitely be someone out on the internet willing to buy it when my shop finally goes live.
So there you have it; my very first pattern-free crochet make.
What do you think? Would you wear the hat? Let me know in the comments!
I find crochet and yarn absolutely fascinating. I still can’t quite get my head round how crocheted things actually stay together and don’t just unravel with the slightest touch. As long as you’ve tied off; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally undone a row or two just by dropping what I’m working on. #CrochetProblems.
It’s incredible what different shapes, sizes, and effects you can get just by using a different yarn type or a bigger/smaller hook, and don’t even get me started on all the different stitches.
For example, I’m trying to make my first hat to sell in the shop and I’m following a pattern that doesn’t seem to say how big the finished product should be. I’ve made a start with two different yarns, which look like this:
Side note: I can’t wait for my light box to arrive!
That’s 46 stitches each, using that same crochet hook, but one is with regular acrylic DK and the other is acrylic chunky.
How cool is that??
Okay, possibly not very cool if you’re a hardened crocheter, or not as easily pleased as I am (very). But this is part of what I love about crochet. If I were not frantically trying to make enough stock to open my shop right now, I would probably do a similar exercise with one yarn and every size of hook I own. Just to see the different sizes and effects that came out.
Back to my hats – the blue yarn would only make a hat big enough for a baby, and it’s far too scratchy for that, so I’m just going to undo it. I’ll stick with the yellow yarn and also add in a few stitches because as it was I couldn’t get it round my own head. It’s a pretty simple pattern so hopefully this hat will be ready for listing by the end of the week!
Has anyone else ever got this excited over crochet? Let me know in the comments so I can feel slightly less weird 😉
