Tutorial: Crochet Colourwork

May 7, 2015May 8, 2015 ~ solrencoret ~ 16 Comments

Hello there! I am posting today to share a fun tutorial with you. Remember my Moroccan bag? Well the pattern is still in the works but I realised it would be very useful to create a tutorial for the crochet colourwork techniques I use in my patterns and then I can refer you to them whenever necessary.

I currently use two crochet colourwork techniques: stranded colourwork and tapestry crochet. Both techniques allow you to change between two (or more) colours in a single row and unlike knitting it doesn’t matter if your design has long colour changes. You can use these techniques to play with colour in any way you want but I particularly like to use them to create designs based on charts. For working with charts, UK double crochet (US single crochet) is a good stitch to use, since it is sort of like a small square. Also, for both techniques I work on the back loop only (BLO) since in my opinion it gives the best result.

My Moroccan bag pattern uses tapestry crochet

Stranded colourwork, as its name indicates, creates a fabric where the unused colour is carried at the back of the work as a strand (this is basically what you do for fair isle knitting). If you are working something like a hat or glove make sure your strands are quite short so that you don’t catch them with rings, hair pins, etc. I make my strands 3 stitches long maximum which works for me.

My Night to Day wrist warmers use stranded colourwork

With tapestry crochet the unused colour is carried inside the stitches, creating a bulkier and stiffer fabric, however I have seen beautiful blankets done with this technique so you can adapt it to your needs by changing hook sizes and yarn weights.I leave you with a photo tutorial for each of these techniques, as usual let me know if you have any questions and I hope to post the pattern for the Moroccan bag soon!

Tapestry crochet tutorial (UK terms)

As I mentioned before, I always work on the back loop only (BLO) for any colourwork technique. For demonstration purposes, let’s say that we have a chart that tells us that we need to work 4 stitches in one colour and then 4 stitches on a different colour, alternating them along the row. Remember that with tapestry crochet you always carry the unused colour inside the stitches, and you do this from the first stitch of the row.

I have worked a couple of rows of dc to use as a base and make it easier to show you, but it would be the same instructions if you were working your first row into a chain. It also applies if you are working in the round.

Chain 1.

2. Insert your hook on the BLO of the first stitch.

3. Grab your second colour and hold it behind the back loop and over your hook.

4. Yarn over and pull up a loop.

5. Yarn over and pull through two loops on hook. First dc completed, and the pink yarn is secured inside the first stitch.

6. According to our chart we have to work 4 stitches before changing colour so let’s continue in the same way.

Insert hook in BLO, place unused colour behind back loop and over hook, yarn over and pull up a loop.

7. Yarn over and pull through two loops. Second dc completed. Repeat the same steps to complete the third dc.

8. Now, to get a neat colour change we need to change colours one stitch before: if I need my fifth stitch to be a different colour, I need to change yarns on the fourth stitch.

So let’s begin the fourth stitch as normal, which is still in grey.

Insert hook in BLO, place unused colour behind back loop and over hook, yarn over and pull up a loop.

9. Now drop the colour you have been working with (grey), yarn over with the other colour (pink) and pull through both loops on hook.

10. Perfect! We will need some adjustment here to make sure all stitches are the same size so before continuing pull that grey yarn to make that last stitch look nicer.

11. And now we just continue the same way, let’s work until the next colour change to make sure it is all clear.

Insert your hook in BLO, place unused yarn (now grey) behind back loop and over hook, yarn over and pull up a loop.

12. Yarn over and pull through two loops on hook. Repeat for next two stitches.

13. Since we need to have four stitches of each colour we will need to change colour on the next stitch.

Insert hook in BLO, place unused yarn behind back loop and under hook, yarn over and pull up a loop.

14. Drop the yarn you have been working with (pink), grab unused yarn (grey), yarn over and pull through both loops on hook.

15. Now adjust your stitch so that it looks just like the others and you are ready to continue your row! You should have something that looks similar to this on both sides, it creates a reversible fabric.

Stranded colourwork tutorial

For stranded colourwork you change colours the same way, you just don’t catch the yarn inside the stitches like tapestry crochet. Because you leave strands of yarn at the back you can only work this technique in the round, however for demonstrating purposes I am using a flat piece to show you the technique just so that it looks more clear.

Let’s assume we have the same chart that tells us to change colour every four stitches for each round (remember we can’t work rows with stranded crochet).

1. Chain one. Work 3dc in BLO.

2. Insert hook in BLO, yarn over and pull up a loop.

2. Drop the colour you have been working with, grab the second colour (you can do a slip knot here but it is not necessary), yarn over and pull through both loops on hook.

3. Adjust that last stitch by pulling that grey yarn to make it look more like its brothers…

4. Pick up the pink yarn again to continue with this colour. Work 3dc in BLO.

5. Insert hook in BLO, yarn over and pull up a loop.

6. Drop the colour you have been working with, grab the other colour, yarn over and pull through both loops on hook.

7. Repeat the previous steps to finish your round. You will have something like this on the back of your work.

Finally, I want to show you how to make those strands shorter if you wanted. The strands are as long as the stitches between colour changes (in this case four) but this may not always be the case or maybe you think these strands of 4 stitches are too long for you. To shorten the strands we simply use the technique we already learned for tapestry crochet to “catch” the yarn inside the stitch. Let me show you.

If we continue with the round we are working with, let’s say we want to the strands half as long, meaning we need to “catch” that unused strand between two colour changes.

1. Work one dc in BLO.

2. We want to catch the yarn in the next stitch. So, insert hook in BLO, place unused yarn behind back loop and over hook, yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and pull through two loops.

3. Continue normally until next colour change and then catch the yarn again before the following colour change. I caught the yarn on the second stitch of each set of four stitches, but you could do it on the third or wherever you want. You will get something like this on the back. Shorter strands!

Uf! That was long, hope it is useful 🙂

Sol

Free pattern and tutorial: Autumn Diamonds Part II

September 12, 2014September 11, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 6 Comments

Hello my dear readers! Hope you had a great week. I have been a very busy bee and have just managed to finish the second part of the tutorial for my fair isle mitts. Not long to go but the thumb needs some further explanation. Let’s jump right into it!

Autumn Diamonds Tutorial Part II

Size and gauge

Circumference: 20 cm

Gauge: Crochet 11 waistcoat stitches and 13 rows with a 4mm hook to obtain 5cmx5cm.

Gauge in this pattern is not essential. Fair isle chart is repetitive and you can add necessary stitches for your size and fill in the pattern in a way that satisfies you.

Materials

50g King Cole Merino in Aran (Colour A)

West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply – 1 ball in Pennyroyal (Colour B), 1 ball in Butterscotch (Colour C), 1 ball in Cardamom (Colour D) –> You will use VERY little of the last two yarns so you could use something from your stash if you don’t want to spend more on them.

4mm hook

Needle to weave in ends

Instructions

I have a new chart for the rest of the pattern. As usual you read it bottom-up, right to left and every stitch is a wst unless it has a “dc” in which case it is a UK double crochet. I know it looks mad, but I explain everything below. If you have followed the instructions of pulling tight when you sl st and ch 1 then your seam should be almost invisible, if not try pulling harder!

1. If you have followed the first part of this tutorial your mitten should look something like this.

2. Now we will start shaping the thumb. You will do this by adding two stitches per round, one at the beginning and the other at the end. So you have finished Round 35, joined with a sl st to first st and chained 1 (remember to pull tight)…

3. Now for Round 36 we will do the first increases. Instead of starting the round by making a wst, you will do a normal dc in the first st. So insert your hook in the first st…

4. And crochet a dc.

5. If you look at the chart the stitches that are dc are marked. Now you can continue the rest of the round following the chart using wst until the last st of the fair isle pattern which is yellow. Since the next increase stitch is white you will need to change colours before finishing.

6. The increase now is made by doing another wst in the same st as the last you made.

7. Sl st to first st, ch 1 and pull tight.

8. For Round 37 we increase again on the first and last st. So make a dc in the first st…

9. Now, the next stitch is the first increase we made in the last round, so it is part of the thumb and therefore it is a white st as well and also a wst since it doesn’t have a “dc” on the chart. So make a wst in the next stitch…

10. After the two stitches of the thumb continue with the chart until the last st of the main fair isle pattern, which is in yellow. Now the next st corresponds to the increase of the last round. Make a wst there…

11. … and then make another wst in the same st. This is the second increase of the round, now you have 4 st that make the thumb.

12. Sl st and ch 1. The main fair isle pattern will always have 42 st, but you will continue to add 2 st per round this way until you have 14 st on the thumb. Make sure you keep those 42 st for each round, for some rounds the fair isle pattern starts or finishes with white so it is easy to miss a st. Continue until Round 42, your thumb should look like this, with 14 st.

13. For Round 43 and 44 you will keep the same number of stitches for the thumb, so the first st in the round is no longer a dc, but a wst. Continue with Rounds 43 and 44 with no increases.

14. In Round 45 we will separate the thumb from the rest of the pattern. Your thumb should look like this.

15. Start Round 45 with 7 wst as the chart indicates.

16. Then instead of continuing with the fair isle pattern, you are going to do the next wst on the other side of the thumb.

17. Continue with the next 6 wst.

18. Slip st to first st and ch 1.

19. You will work the next two rounds of the thumb making 1 wst in each of the 14 st. When you finish the second round (third round of thumb separated from rest of pattern), sl st to first st. Fasten off. Your mitt will look like this so far.

20. Now we just need to finish the rest of the fair isle pattern, so we have to go back to Round 45 of the chart, which begins with a st in purple. So insert your hook in the first st of the fair isle chart (as you would normally underneath the two strands that make the ch), then make a slip knot with the purple colour…

21. … Pull it through, yarn over and pull through one loop on hook. Pull tight and now you can begin the first wst as usual.

22. Insert your hook in between the strands that make the V and pull up a loop.

23. Next st is in white but we need to add this yarn since we cut the white we were using when we finished the thumb. So with the 2 loops on the hook make a slip knot with the white…

24. … and pull through both loops on hook.

25. Continue the fair isle chart until the last st of Round 45. Now, before we join with the first st of this round, we will do a small trick to make sure that there is not a big hole where the join is.

26. Insert your hook in the white st of the thumb closest to the last st you made…

27. … and make a dc.

28. Now turn around and make a dc in the st that is closest to the first st of the round (the one I am pointing with my right thumb)…

29. Now simply join to first st of the round with a sl st and chain 1. You are ready for Round 46.

30. First st of Round 46 is white, followed by green. Continue with the round normally and for this round and all the rest forget about those 2 extra st we did on Round 45. So when you finish the fair isle chart for Round 46 with a green st…

31. Simply turn around and join with a slip st to the first st of the round, ch 1 and you are ready for the next.

32. And that is it everyone! Continue with the chart until Round 54 and fasten off. Weave in all the ends.

Ufffff… I know, that was very long, hope it is useful and as usual please let me know if anything isn’t very clear.

Cheers!

Sol

Free pattern and tutorial: Autumn Diamonds – Part I

September 5, 2014November 20, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 19 Comments

*Ravelry link*

Hello there! As promised, I have taken some time to post my latest pattern because I wanted to make a tutorial for you guys. Since it was turning out to be quite a long tutorial I decided to post it in two parts, and here is the first one! I ended up taking the photos by myself so they are not perfect but I hope they are clear enough and I promise the next tutorial will be better.

About the pattern, they are fingerless mittens with fair isle motifs using waistcoat stitch. I came across this stitch while looking in Google for ways to work fair isle patterns with crochet. I found a very nice and detailed explanation of the stitch here if you want more information, and it is a lot better than my tutorial 😛 The pattern is worked in the round and leaving the unused colour as strands in the back.

The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners in 4 ply and King Cole Merino. If you are in the Edinburgh area you can get it from Jess at Ginger Twist Studio. The pattern doesn’t use much yarn so you will have plenty left for another project and I already have something in mind for the leftovers so stay tuned!

This first part of the tutorial will take you up to right before the thumb, so you will have plenty to do before I post the second part.

Autumn Diamonds Tutorial

Size and gauge

Circumference: 20 cm

Gauge: Crochet 11 waistcoat stitches and 13 rows with a 4mm hook to obtain 5cmx5cm.

Gauge in this pattern is not essential. Fair isle chart is repetitive and you can add necessary stitches for your size and fill in the pattern in a way that satisfies you. HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THE FABRIC MADE WITH THIS STITCH DOESN’T STRETCH, so please take that into account when deciding how many stitches to do.

Materials

50g King Cole Merino in Aran (Colour A)

4mm hook

Needle to weave in ends

Abbreviations

wst – waistcoat stitch

dc – UK double crochet

sl st – slip stitch

ch – chain

Instructions

We will be following the following chart for the first part of the pattern which will take you right before we start the thumb. You read it bottom-up, right to left, each row of the chart is actually a Round and each square is a wst. It starts from Round 3, first couple of rounds are simply two rounds using colour A (white). The tutorial will show you how to do the first few rounds so that you learn the technique and can apply it for the rest of the chart. It is the same pattern for both mittens.

1. Foundation chain: With color A, chain 42

2. Making sure you don’t twist the chain, join the last chain to the first with a slip stitch

3. Pull on the yarn very tight to make the slip stitch as small as possible.

4. Chain 1, and then pull on the yarn tight again to make the chain as small as possible. These last two steps will be repeated for every round to make the seam less visible.

5. Round 1: Dc in first chain and every chain across. You need to crochet loosely all through the pattern to make it easier to do the waistcoat stitch.

6. Slip stitch to first dc, remember to pull tight. Chain 1 and pull tight again. *It was pointed out by someone trying this pattern that it might be easier to start with foundation double crochet rather than what I have showed here, so please feel free to try this out. Here is a tutorial of foundation double crochet.

7. Round 2: On the first stitch, insert your hook in the post of the stitch, between the two strands that make the “V”. Yarn over and pull up a loop.

8. Yarn over and pull through two loops on hook. First wst done! (Here is a better tutorial for this stitch if it is still not clear)

9. Wst in next st and each st across.

10. Slip st to first st, and chain 1. Remember to pull tight!

11. Round 3: We will introduce a new colour in the third round. The chart indicates that the first stitch is in colour A, and then you have 3 stitches in colour B. I will show you next how to make clean colour changes. Start your first wst: insert your hook inside the V, yarn over and pull up a loop.

12. Here is when you need to change colours. Keeping your two loops on the hook, make a slip knot with colour B.

13. Now finish the wst by pulling the new loop through the two you already had.

14. You just learned that you need to change colours in the last stitch of the previous colour. I will show you next how to not get your yarns tangled and get nice strands. Now the chart indicates we need 3 wst with colour B, then 3 in colour A and so on. So let’s do two stitches in colour B…

15. Start the third stitch up, insert hook in V, yarn over and pull up a loop. Now is time to organise your colours: put the white ball in front of you and the purple on the left. Make sure they are not tangled.

16. Drop colour B to your left, and grab colour A to finish the stitch. Pull colour A a bit to make sure that the last stitch you did on that colour is finished nicely. Then yarn over (don’t pull too tight so strand is not too tense) and pull through the two loops.

17. Now we need 3 white st, so we will repeat for the white: 2 stitches…

18. …and we change colour on the third. Insert hook inside the V, yarn over and pull up a loop. Now drop colour A and make sure you leave it in front of you.

19. Now grab colour B again on your left. You will notice that colour B comes under colour A. If you keep your yarns where they are and change colours this way they will never get tangled up and you will get clean strands. Yarn over colour B and pull through both loops on hook.

20. Your strands will look like this on the back. White ones will be higher and purple ones lower. Make sure that every time you pick up the new colour you pull on the yarn to make sure that the last stitch you made on that colour is finished nicely, but don’t yarn over with the new colour too tight or too loose so that the strands are not too tight that they will affect the tension or too loose that you might catch them too easily with something.

21. Continue with the chart until you finish the round. Slip stitch and chain 1, remember to pull tight. This is almost all the technique you need to continue with the chart. There only a couple of things left to show you: how to keep the length of your strands in check and what happens when you finish a round with one colour and have to start the next one with another. Let’s begin with the first one. Continue with the chart until the last stitch of Round 6, your mitten should look like this so far.

22. Here you will have to join and continue the next round in the same colour (white) for 3 more stitches. If you continue with the white as usual you will get a purple strand in the back that is 6 stitches long, I don’t usually let strands be longer than 3 stitches because they could get caught in something very easily so no matter how long a chart says I have to work with a specific colour, I always catch strands every 3 stitches. Let me show you how. First, join with a slip stitch to first stitch and chain one, pull tight as usual.

23. You have done 3 stitches in white in the last row (Round 6), so now it is time to catch the strand in the 4th stitch of the same colour, which in this case corresponds to the first stitch of Round 7. So start the stitch as usual by inserting the hook in the middle of the V (sorry about the hair in the way and my horrible nails!)

24. Now, before you yarn over with the white, make sure that the hook goes underneath the purple strand. Now yarn over with the white and finish the stitch as usual.

25. In the back, your caught strand will look like this. I JUST REALISED THIS HAPPENS FIRST WHEN YOU CHANGE FROM ROUND 5 TO 6! SORRY ABOUT THAT… make sure you catch your strand there as well.

26. Continue with the chart normally. Now the final thing I wanted to make clear is how to change colours when you finish a round with one colour and start a new round with another. For example, this round finishes with colour B, and Round 8 starts with colour A. So continue with Round 7 until the last stitch and just like with any other colour change, before you finish the last purple stitch of this round change to the white, then slip stitch, chain 1 and continue the chart with the white. I was going to put more pictures but it is really the same as before so hope it is clear enough, just let me know if you have any questions.

Continue with the chart until you finish Round 35. In case you are wondering about when to cut the yarns, I did it every time I finished with one. For example, the first few rows of the chart are white and purple, then two rows of white, white and purple again, then white and yellow and so on. When I finished with the colour that isn’t white and changed to another, I would cut the old colour. So I would cut the purple if the next 3 rows of the chart are white and yellow (hope this makes sense, it is quite late!)

Uffff, that was long! Please ask if you have any questions. I will post the next part of tutorial soon and have added the pattern to Ravelry too, here is the link.

Have a great weekend!

Sol

Free Pattern: Happy Triangles – BLO version

August 8, 2014October 4, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

*Ravelry link*

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a very busy week for me, I started a new job and it has brought many challenges and has occupied most of my time so I hadn’t had the chance to share the second version of my last pattern with you.

My Happy Triangles pattern published recently used UK double crochet and a 3mm hook for a DK weight yarn, which gave a very tight and dense result. I wanted to share with you the version of this pattern using UK double crochet in the back loop only (BLO) and a slightly bigger hook.

So the first obvious result with this changes is that you get a bigger purse for the same number of stitches: 22.5cm long instead of 20cm. I made this purse a bit shorter to get a more rectangular shape, so with 6 rows of triangles you get a 22.5cmx14cm purse.

Secondly, the BLO makes the triangles look straight and since the colours are not contrasting they look sharp as well. The seam technique I mentioned in the pattern works great with BLO so you get a very straight seam, in the original pattern it twists up a bit so that it shows on one side of the purse. It doesn’t bother me but if you prefer a straight seam then BLO is the option. Finally, using BLO gives a different texture to the fabric than the one you get doing the stitch normally, you get ribbed rows that I believe look quite nice.

So if you prefer this version of the Happy Triangles pattern, here are the instructions! I made a slight change to the base so that the seam runs along the side and doesn’t show.

Happy Triangles Pattern – BLO version

Size: 22.5cm x 14cm

Materials

Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK: 1x50g ball White, 1x50g ball Blue Green, 1x50g ball Pistachio

3.50mm hook

Fabric for lining ( I bought 20cm of a fabric and it was enough)

Needle

Pins

30cm zip

Abbreviations

dc – UK double crochet

sl st – slip stitch

ch – chain

htr – UK half treble

BLO – back loop only

Instructions

Base: With white yarn Ch 50, 2htr in 3rd ch from hook, htr in each st across until last ch, 6 tr in last ch. Turn to work on other side of ch, htr in next ch and each ch across until last ch, 4htr in last ch, sl st to first htr (104 st). Don’t turn.

*Remember to pull tight on the sl st and the ch 1 when starting a new round to keep the seam straight.

Round 1: Ch 1, dc in BLO in each st across until the end, sl st to first dc (104 st). Don’t turn.

Round 2: Ch 1, dc in BLO in next st and each st across until the end, sl st to first dc. Don’t turn.

Round 3-26: Follow chart below, from bottom-up and from right to left. Each round has 104 st (each square is a st) so you need to repeat the 8 stitches in the chart 13 times for each round (13×8=104). Remember to continue working each dc in the BLO. Repeat the chart until you have 34 rounds in total so that you have 6 rows of triangles, 3 of each colour. You don’t have to cut the colours if you don’t want to, all the ends will be hidden once you do the lining.

Round 27-28: With white yarn, ch 1, dc in BLO in next st and each st across until the end. (104 st)

For the lining I used the same post by Futuregirl, tuck in all the ends between the lining and the purse, no need to weave them in!

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great day!

Sol

Free Pattern: Happy Triangles

August 1, 2014August 8, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone! First, I apologise for all the days of silence, there is a lot going on at the moment and the blog has been on my to-do list every single day but hadn’t had the chance to write anything. To make it up to you I will share a new pattern with you guys, remember my geometric little purses? Well I have been sewing and sewing for days! I finished the fabric lining for one but still working on the second one so I will share the pattern of the finished purse and the other will come soon. Both patterns are quite similar but as I mentioned before the end result is quite different.

I am still working on the fair isle fingerless mitts, they seem to be the right size now but the dreaded thumb is coming soon so fingers crossed I will get it right this time.

As usual, a few comments about the pattern:

The colour changes are done leaving the unused colour as strands in the back. I have used this technique in my Night to Day pattern so check that post for links to videos explaining how to change colours and get nice strands. I also mention there a technique to keep the seam straight from Crochet Ever After, follow the links for instructions.
When doing chart patterns I usually work in the back loop only because otherwise the shapes of your chart will lean to the right when you crochet them. For this purse I didn’t work in the back loop only (BLO) and you can see that the triangles lean a bit. I still like the result but if you prefer a more neat-looking pattern then wait for the next one which does use the BLO. You can work in the BLO for this one but I would advise not to use very contrasting colours. The dark green against the white didn’t look right when working in the BLO, the edges weren’t clear so I used light colours for the next pattern and it looks a lot better. Check this post where I talk about the differences with each technique.
I wanted to get a very tight fabric for this purse so I chose the smallest hook size recommended for this yarn (3.00mm). This did slow down the process considerably because it was a struggle to get the hook through for each stitch, but you do get a nicer fabric and the triangles will look neater as well. If you are a very loose crocheter and can’t help it, then I advise you to use colours that are not very contrasting to make sure that the shapes are still clear. You can also wait for the next pattern which was crocheted looser.
The light green colour is very bright but it looks quite dull in the pictures, sorry!

Happy Triangles Pattern

Size: 20cm x 14.5cm

Materials

Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK: 1x50g ball White, 1x50g ball Blue Green, 1x50g ball Pistachio

3.00mm hook

Fabric for lining ( I bought 20cm of a fabric and it was enough)

Needle

Pins

22cm zip

Abbreviations

dc – UK double crochet

sl st – slip stitch

ch – chain

htr – UK half treble

BLO – back loop only

Instructions

Base: With white yarn Ch 50, htr in 3rd ch from hook, htr in each st across until last ch, 6 tr in last ch. Turn to work on other side of ch, htr in next ch and each ch across until last ch, 5htr in last ch, sl st to first htr (104 st). Don’t turn.

*Remember to pull tight on the sl st and the ch 1 when starting a new round to keep the seam straight.

Round 1: Ch 1, dc in BLO in each st across until the end, sl st to first dc (104 st). Don’t turn.

Round 2: Ch 1, dc in next st and each st across until the end, sl st to first dc. Don’t turn.

Round 3-34: Follow chart below, from bottom-up and from right to left. Each round has 104 st so you need to repeat the 8 stitches in the chart 13 times for each round (13×8=104). Repeat the chart until you have 34 rounds in total so that you have 8 rows of triangles, 4 of each colour. You don’t have to cut the colours if you don’t want to, all the ends will be hidden once you do the lining.

Round 35-36: With white yarn, ch 1, dc in next st and each st across until the end. (104 st)

For the lining I used this great post by Futuregirl, she uses a sewing machine but I had to do it by hand since I don’t have one. Took ages to finish but love the result. Just tuck in all the ends between the lining and the purse, no need to weave them in!

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions and here is the Ravelry link 🙂

Have a great day!

Sol

Geometric Pattern Update

July 20, 2014July 23, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

Hi there! Hope you are having a nice weekend wherever you are. Since it’s Sunday morning I am still in bed while writing this post, love lazy mornings like this and the older you get it seems harder and harder to get them.

I wanted to give you an update on that geometric pattern I have been playing with, the one with the triangles? Well I have done two samples with different techniques and wanted to share my thoughts with you.

The pattern is a simple triangle pattern with three colours, first I tried it with white, lime green and petrol green (I can’t get the pictures to show the real colours, it is a very bright green but it shows a lot darker). With this sample I used UK double crochet as normal changing colours with strands on the back. I wanted a sharp image so used a 3mm hook to make tight stitches. The result is quite nice in terms of the fabric, it is tight and stiff which suits the purpose of being a purse. The triangles are sharp enough but they do lean towards the right (you can see in the picture that the triangles move with every row, at the bottom row I ended with a dark one and at the top row with a lighter one). To be honest for this pattern this doesn’t matter as much as I would’ve thought, the visual effect is still nice, the triangles just lean a bit but I can live with that.

Now, the downside of this pattern was to crochet with a small hook. The yarn calls for a hook between 3 and 4mm but using a 3mm was indeed a pain, you do struggle a bit with every stitch and it felt like it took forever to finish.

After this first sample I wanted to try something different. I know that working in the back loop only will stop the stitches leaning to the right, but when I tried this with the petrol green colour the triangles didn’t look very defined because the colours were very contrasting. So I decided to get a couple of pastel colours to work with the white and try working in the back loop only. I also changed my hook to a 3.5mm to make it faster and easier.

As you can see the result is indeed a nicer pattern, no leaning of the stitches and the triangles look sharp enough with these colours. The only downside of this sample is that it is not a stiff fabric, the 3.5mm did make quite a difference. So I guess that if I were to make this properly I would use the pastel colours with a 3mm, but I am pleased with my sample so will line it with a cotton fabric and see if that makes it a bit stiffer.

I will write a pattern for the pastel colour purse once I have a finished product with fabric and zip, not very good at sewing so I will probably ruin it but have to try 😛

I am still playing with colours and chart patterns and have already started something else, will share it on the week once it is a bit bigger.

Hope you have a great day!

Sol

Trial and error

July 12, 2014July 23, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t been posting much this week but I have been very busy, it was my boyfriend’s birthday a few days ago and there has been little time to crochet or update the blog. We had a lovely time and the weather couldn’t have been nicer, I even made a cake and it turned out so good I will have to have an excuse to make it again before next year!

Lately I have been working on this geometric pattern I showed you last week, but had to start over after some problems with the tension. It will be a little purse with a fabric lining and a zip to store some pens, I am really liking it so far but I realised that the technique to keep your seams straight when working on the round works much better when you do stitches on the back loop only.

I have been doing the same technique as the wrist warmers on this project but the seam keeps moving, not as much as it would without it and it is less noticeable, but it is definitely a diagonal. I would work on the back loop if it weren’t for the dark green colour, it is too contrasting and the shapes of the triangles are not as clear when you work on the back loop but have bought lighter yarn to give it a try with a different sized purse.I think the shapes would be clearer if they were bigger but I wanted small triangles.

Working on the back loop only will also fix the slight tendency of the shapes to lean to the right side. I know I should’ve just started with the new purse with lighter colours and back loop only but it will be a good exercise to see the final result with both techniques. So, lord give me patience to finish them both!

I get so impatient when I spend too much time on a project, specially when it is small. This pattern is deceiving because all the colour changes make it more time-consuming than it seems, but I still love the final effect. I will keep you updated on my progress, the seam is just turning enough to start showing at the front so will see how much that bothers me soon 😛

Hope you have a great weekend!

Sol

Lazy Sunday

July 6, 2014July 23, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

Hope you are having a Sunday as lazy as mine, just nice food, time with my boyfriend, crochet and TV 😀 Above is a sneak peak to what I have been up to lately, if it turns out nice there will be another pattern on your way! I am writing the pattern for the Yeoman lace project, so I hope to post that soon.

Have a great week!

Sol

Free Pattern: Night to Day Wrist Warmers

July 4, 2014October 4, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 7 Comments

*Ravelry link*

My first pattern! I am so happy to share this pattern with you and hope your wrists will be happy with them, mine surely are!

Some comments first:

This pattern uses techniques for fair isle crochet. You can check the following videos by Crochet Ever After for the basics:

Fair Isle Crochet Tutorial #1: How to Change Color

Fair Isle Crochet Tutorial #2: How to Catch Your Float

I carried the yarn in strands at the back instead of inside the stitches as when doing tapestry crochet because the colours are very contrasting. I made sure to catch the unused yarn every 3 stitches regardless of the chart, e.g. if the chart says 7 stitches in the dark colour before changing to the lighter one I would do: two stitches in the dark colour, catch the strand in the third, two more dark, catch the strand on the 6th and then change to the light colour before ending stitch number 7. Shorter strands reduce the chance of catching them when you put them on.

To get a straight seam when joining each round I used this technique by Crochet Ever After which also makes the joining less visible. Basically, when you are working in rounds you usually do the last stitch, join with a slip stitch to the first stitch, chain one and then continue the pattern in the NEXT stitch to the one you slipped the hook through when joining. This makes the joining move one stitch with every round and then you get a diagonal seam. By doing your first stitch in the SAME stitch as where you did your slip stitch you always join in the same place. So if Round 1 and 2 of the pattern sound confusing check the video for further guidance.

You don’t really need a gauge for this pattern, you just have to check the size first. I added 4 stitches to the original pattern shown in the picture since my wrists are very small. Before starting the pattern, chain the number of stitches required, join to first chain and check if the circumference is large enough that it fits the part of your hand where your thumb starts, otherwise you won’t be able to put them on. If it is too small for you I have added some empty columns to the chart in this file: print it and fill in the squares randomly and adapt the rest of the pattern to your new number of stitches. Just remember the chart is for half the number of stitches since you repeat it once. You can also do more rounds of the solid colours depending on how long you want them.

This pattern is available for free to my dear readers, and you are welcome to sell finished products (but of course not the pattern), I only ask that you credit the pattern to me.

Finally, this is the first pattern I have ever written so I apologise for any mistakes and please ask any questions you may have, I will be happy to answer them.

Night to Day Wrist Warmers

This pattern is crocheted in the round, without turning your work and on the back loop only. The middle section of the pattern uses a fair isle technique to change colours and carry the unused colour as strands in the back, as explained in the comments above. The pattern is written for one standard size, but click here to download a printable chart that allows you to add stitches if the pattern is too small.

US terms

sc blo – single crochet in back loop only

ch – chain

st – stitches

Materials

Hook: 3.5mm

Yarn: 1 x 50g ball Excelana 4 ply in Cornflower Blue, 1 x 50g ball Excelana 4 ply in Nile Green (I only used approx. 15g of each colour)

Needle to weave in ends

Instructions

With darker colour chain 40, join to first chain (make sure not to twist them) with slip stitch and pull hard so that the chain just made is less visible.

Round 1: Ch 1, sc blo in first ch (where you just did the slip stitch) and in every ch across. Join with slip stitch to first sc. Don’t turn (40 st).

Round 2: Ch 1, sc blo in st where you joined with slip stitch in previous round, sc blo in next st until the end. Don’t turn (40 st).

Round 3 -10: Repeat Round 2.

Round 11-24 : Follow chart below from right to left and repeat once for each row (chart is for 20 stitches, in each round once you get to stitch number 20 go back to the first stitch of the row and repeat for the next 20).

Cut darker yarn and continue with lighter yarn only, leave a tail long enough to make it easy to weave in.

Round 25-31 : Ch 1, sc blo in st where you joined with slip stitch in previous round, sc blo in next st until the end. Don’t turn (40 st).

Fasten off, weave in ends.

I have added this pattern to Ravelry as well if you want to add it to your queue 😉

Please post a comment if you have any questions and enjoy!

Sol

a crochet journey

Tales of my journey to a colourful and creative life

colourwork

Tutorial: Crochet Colourwork

Free pattern and tutorial: Autumn Diamonds Part II

Free pattern and tutorial: Autumn Diamonds – Part I

Free Pattern: Happy Triangles – BLO version

Free Pattern: Happy Triangles

Geometric Pattern Update

Trial and error

Lazy Sunday

Free Pattern: Night to Day Wrist Warmers