Potholder pattern now available

I've now added a second pattern to my Everyday Things line - a little something for those who want to try their hand at double ended crochet!

Source: Everyday Things - Potholder via amkb on Craftsy

This pattern includes instructions for an optional edging.  The thick, reversable design is created by working front post stitches.  It's also easy to adjust the size.  Smaller versions make great coasters.  Like the can cozies, this is one of those items that I find myself using for all sorts of things!  I even keep one as a coaster next to my keyboard.

Coasters

The local crafter's group I'm part of is doing a swap, and the item this time around is a pair of coasters.  We're all partnered up and can  made coasters in whatever style we want, then get together to swap them out at a later date.

At first I was thinking of making coasters out of painted tile or little tile mosaics.  I still like the idea, but in the end I decided to make them using my double ended hook and a front post Tunisian stitch I came up with.  I've looked at different Tunisian and double ended hook stitches out there, but have not found anything quite like it.  It makes me wonder if I've come up with something new. 

I started off by making 4 inch squares in red and white.

At this point, there's no front or back except for the colour difference.

The pattern is similar to Tunisian Simple Stitch, except that it's worked around both vertical bars, front to back. 

Working the next colour's front post Tunisian pushes the previous row to the back, making for a deep ridge and making the colours more one-sided.  The result is a very thick, dense fabric.  I've made a few simple squares in this stitch and have found they make great coasters and hot pads.  I've entertained the thought of making a bunch of squares and sewing them together to make a small floor mat or stadium seat cushion.  Because of how dense the fabric is, it becomes more difficult to work the larger it gets, so small squares are perfect.

This stitch has a lot of stretch on the bias and vertically, but has almost no stretch horizontally.

There's plenty of loops on the edges to work into for finishing.  In working the edging, I did single crochet worked into the middle loops of sides.

I worked two rounds of single crochet for the edging, which also created a front and back on the coasters.  This made for a fairly solid coloured block on the front, so I slip stitched around in contrasting colours to break it up a bit.

Then I slip stitched another round, working farther outside the edging than the first slip stitched round on the front, in matching colours.  I felt this made the back look less obviously "the back," and makes them more reversible.

Even with the edging, there's still a lot of stretch on the bias.  There's still vertical stretch, too, but the edging cuts that down a fair bit.

This gives a better view in between the raised edges, showing there the stitches were wrapped around the posts to create this effect.

I'm going to look around some more to see if this stitch is out there somewhere.  If not, I'll see about posting a tutorial on how to do it.  I really like this stitch and have a number of squares and rectangles done in it hanging about the house.  I've got one right next to me that I use as a coaster, and it works out so well, I figured it would be great for the swap.  They can take a lot of rough handling, too.  The cotton can handle a lot of heat, and they're easy care, too - just toss them in the regular wash.  They take a bit longer to dry, though.

I hope my swap partner likes them.

My husband is awesome.

I am just a lucky woman!  I have such a sweetheart for a husband.

In working with the new rosewood needles he bought for himself, he discovered that... well, his hands sweat.  When they start sweating, that affects the wood.  So he decided to get himself a second set of needles so that he could switch between them, letting one pair dry while working with the second pair.

So off we went today to River City Yarns to see what they had.  At first he didn't see the rosewood needles and he was going to get a birch pair, but when he found the size he was after in rosewood, he got those instead.  They're quite a bit longer than his first pair, but that's okay.  As long as they're the same size (he's using 5.50mm).  I think the birch would have been lovely, too.  He did 10 inches of scarf yesterday and is now at 20 inches.  He's really loving the wooden needles.  Much nicer to work with than the plastic and metal ones we already had.  (Earlier today we were sitting in a coffee shop, him with his needles, me with my hook.  Some guy ended up sitting with us as we chatted about sharing knowledge of crafts and skills.  It was great!) 

While at River City Yarns, we looked at quite a few other things.  Including yarn that my younger daughter described as feeling like kittens.  Soooo soft!!

Looking through the tools, I was thrilled when I asked about hairpin lace tools and they actually had some!



I am now the proud owner of a Prim Universal Netting Fork.  The woman at the shop told me that hairpin lace tools are very hard to come by, so when she finds them, she takes what she can!



The packaging opens up and gives some pretty decent instructions.  This is the only tool I was missing for my course, so I'm pretty happy.  If that was all I got today, I would have been quite pleased.

Then after paying, my darling husband shooed me and our daughter away so he could buy what he was hiding behind his back.

Uh oh... ;-D

While waiting in the hall, I was actually able to guess what he bought.  You see, in the process of helping someone else, one of the staff opened up a kit that really caught my attention.  I told my husband that this was what I wanted for Christmas.  I could have happily waited that long, but he's a generous sort, and this is what he bought me.



This is a set of Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks.  It's got 12 heads, 7 cords, 2 extenders and 4 end buttons.

First awesome thing about this kit.  The hooks can fit on either end of the cords.   There are no duplicate hook sizes, but spares can be purchases separately.  This gives me the option for a flexible double ended hook, which is something I was wanting.  Also...



See this?  See the openings at the ends?

Yup.  I can thread cord through those and turn them into knooks!!  Though I think I could actually just use the cords in the kit, and not add an end button.

Which means that, in one kit, I now have not only several tools I was wanting - flexible Tunisian hook, flexible double ended hook and a knook - but I have them in a selection of 12 sizes.

I am so thrilled!!!!  I can't wait to get started with them.  I must resist, though.  After I'm finished my course, then I can start playing!

Though I will be able to use some of these for my course later one. :-D

Did I mention I have an awesome husband?  Let me say it again.

My husband is awesome.
:-D

Oh, and...



Cat.

Just because.

Experimenting with a new yarn.

Michaels has brought in a whole bunch new yarns that have caught my attention. This in particular.



This is Red Heart Boutique Doodle yarn. It's a 100% polyester yarn that's listed as 6/Super Bulky, with a recommended hook size of Q/16mm or needle size of 50US/25mm. It's the thickest, squishiest yarn I've ever seen! Very soft feel to it, too.

The sample at the display, however, was very disappointing. It's just a length of the yarn, braided. So I went looking at the free patterns available at Red Heart for this yarn.

More disappoint. I can't believe the folks at Red Heart couldn't come up with something more creative. I kept going back to the display, wondering what I would make with such a soft, squishy and bulky yarn.

Perhaps I'm showing my age, but the idea that kept popping into my mind was a butt pillow. *L* There have been a few times recently where I really would have liked having some sort of cushion I could use to sit on, such as during Taste of Edmonton, when what few seats were available were quite wet from the rain.

So I finally forked over the cash and got the two hanks pictured above.

After some thought, I decided to do the equivalent of double ended crochet. I dug up a piece of dowling to serve as a double ended hook. Here is my first attempt.




I started off by hand chaining 7 stitches. I picked up the loops through the back bars of the chains, placing them on the dowling. The dowling serves only to hold the loops and nothing else. Tension was all maintained by hand.



After turning the work and pushing the loops to the other end, the new colour was pulled through the loops...



Then the new loops were drawn up the same way as Tunisian Simple Stitch.

The whole thing was turned and the loops pushed to the opposite end of the dowling to pick up the first colour again.



Here the first colour has been drawn through the loops.



Then the new loops were picked up again.

Working with the dowling was all right except that it wasn't as smooth as it should have been, making sliding the loops from one end to the other less than idea. Here is how it looked at the end.



Here's one side, before I wove the loose ends in.



I had more of the lighter coloured yarn left, so I hand chained it to make a carrying loop before tucking the end in.



Here's how the other side looked.

I was no happy with this. As the work progressed and I got more used to handling the yarn and loops, my tension changed a fair bit. The last rows were quite a bit tighter and denser, and I found I preferred it. I also didn't like the dimensions very much. So I undid it and started over.

Here's the finished result.





For this, I worked with 10 stitches, but made everything a lot tighter, making the resulting butt cushion smaller than thicker. I ended up with two fairly long ends, so I hand chained them and tied them together to make a handle.

That's when I discovered a problem with the yarn. The yarn is made up of short lengths of fibres caught in a twisted core. Some of them came loose as I was tying the ends of the two colours together. The next thing I knew, tufts of colour was bursting loose in my hand. I ended up taking the small lengths of yarn that had tied the hanks together to tie around the ends to stop it, but those started coming apart, too. It seems stable now, but I'm now afraid the knot will simply disintergrate at any moment!

Aside from this, however, I consider the project a success. I still ended up with the last rows looking narrower than the first rows, but I don't think much can be done about that.

It is also a very comfortable butt pillow! *L*

Tunisian bag - work in progress

So I decided I wanted to make a new bag.  I finished one not to long ago, but haven't got around to taking photos of it.  I keep forgetting.  My daughter has been using it, which makes me happy. :-)

For this bag, I had a few things I wanted out of it.  I wanted the body of the bag to be very sturdy and dense, with some stretch to it, but which wouldn't stretch out of shape, wear out quickly, or need a lining to prevent things from poking through.

To meet the sturdy requirement, I decided to make the bag in Tunisian in the round, with a stockinette stitch.  This would require my double ended hook (a 6.00mm) and two yarns.

Yarn was the next concern.  I wanted something smooth and durable.  I considered using paracord, which comes in quite the variety of colours now, but decided it would be a bit much for this project.  Before going shopping, I went digging through my stash.

I didn't have to go shopping.

The first potential yarn I found was a Super Value Skeins yarn in a pale lilac, that I got from a friend.  Not the Bernat Super Value, but something made in Turkey.  I can't find anything online about it, and the label doesn't have much on it.  It's a 60% acrylic 40% cotton, machine washable and dryable.

The other thing I found was this.




This photo was taken after the body of the bag was finished (yes, that's it in the background) so it's a fair bit smaller than when I started.  We found it at the Reuse Centre, so I have no idea what it actually is.  I think it might be macrame cord.  Whatever it is, it fit the bill!

For the foundation chain length, I thought about how I wanted to use the bag and settled on an chain of 80.  I wasn't sure yet if I would just close up one end, envelope style, or give the bottom some width, but figured this would still give me the width I wanted. 

I at first experimented with using the lilac for the foundation or the blue cord, as well as with Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS).  I settled on making the blue the predominant colour and started with it, bringing the lilac in with the other end of the hook.  Using Tunisian Simple Stitch, the second colour would have been a lot more visible, and I decided I liked the second colour as something that was hinted at, rather than really obvious.  TSS also was a bit more floppy than I wanted. The stockinette solved both issues.

It had been my intention to take photos at the very start of the project, but that didn't happen.  One of the fun things about working with Tunisian is the curl.  It seems to curl a lot tighter when working in the round, too. Instead, here is a photo after the body portion of the bag was completed.




The depth was something I eye-balled, keeping in mind that I still wasn't sure how I would finish the tops and bottoms.  At this point, whatever I wanted to do, that curl was going to be a pain! *L*



This is a detail of what the foundation chain looked like at the bottom.



And this is what the top looked like after unrolling.

With the lilac naturally sitting sort of on top of the work, I decided to work around it.  Carefully dropping the lilac off the hook and onto a stitch marker, I worked a round of sc in the blue.  I put the hook through the vertical loops as if I were doing the stockinette stitch, then finished as a sc instead, which encased the lilac in the stitch.  This left a fairly open space under each stitch.  Before completely the round in blue, I switched my hook from the blue to the lilac.  I just needed to do a few stitched in the lilac to get it past the start of the blue so I could finish the blue round.  I slip stitched the lilac around the vertical posts the sc were worked through, closing up the gaps and giving the edge more structure, which helped get rid of the curl.

After doing the round of sc, however, I didn't stop there.  After joining the round, I did 1 ch and, without turning, did a round of ss into the round of sc, under the top loops.  See below.



The finished top edge, showing the start/finish stitches.  At the very top edge, you can see the front loop of the sc stitches, which have been pushed back slightly by the round of blue ss.  This gave the edge more width and stability.  The slip stitches in both the blue and lilac were finished by pulling up the last loop, one space back from the first loop, and cutting the yarn with a several inch tail on the inside.  After threading a yarn needle to the tail and removing the hook, the tail of the yarn was brought to the front though the next space, though the loop, pulling the loop closed slightly to match the size of the ss loops already down, then the tail was worked around the very first ss, back through the loop of the last ss, and through to the back of the of piece like an embroidered chain stitch.   The ends were then woven into the back to finish off.



Here is a view from the inside, at the join.

By this point, I had settled on making an envelope style back.  When flattening the tube, I made sure the join was at one side, where it would be least visible.

Now to the bottom.



Once again, I combined sc and ss.  Here is the first row of sc that closed up the bottom.  I positioned the stitches so that there was one stitch on each edge.  With an 80 stitch foundation, this meant 1 stitch at the start, where I joined the blue cord, 38 stitches across the bottom, carefully lining up the front and back (which got progressively easier as the curl was straightened out), then finishing with a single sc at the end.  I then did 1 ch and turned the whole thing...



... and worked slip stitches under the top loops of the sc all the way across.  At the last stitch, the yarn was cut and pulled through the loop.  Before taking the tail to the inside to finish off, I made sure to tack it down thoroughly with a couple of stitches on the outside, then flipped it inside out to finish off.



This is what the bottom seam looks like on the inside.  It just disappears into the Tunisian work.

Only now do I realize I didn't take a photo of the entire bag after the top and bottoms were finished.  Excuse me while I go take care of that!

Done.




Here is the completed body of the bag, waiting for the straps.  I've decided to make a pair of straps that will be long enough to wear across the chest.  I haven't quite decided how I'm going to attach them to the front and back of the bag; I might use some of the decorative buttons we have, or a funky knot.

I'm also still debating whether or not I want to add embellishments to the bottom of the bag.  I'd been thinking perhaps some beads, a fringe, decorative loops... I don't know yet.  The more I look at the bag, however, the more I'm thinking to leave well enough alone.  I'll know better once I've got the straps done and attached.

My thoughts so far:

I'm really happy with how this is turning out.   The blue cord is much more durable than the yarn, which makes it ideal as the primary colour.  The contrasting colour is just hinted at, and flashes a bit more when something moves the fabric.  Though not as visible, it adds a lot to the physical structure of the bag.  I had considered using the lilac for a more decorative contrasting edge at the top, but more and more, this is a piece that says "keep it simple" to me.

About the only thing that has me thinking more about the body is practicality.  In thinking of how the bag would be used, I'm seeing the need for pockets on the inside.  Or something to help keeps things a bit more organized.  Not sure how I would go about doing that, if at all.

Meanwhile, I'm working out the first strap, but will see if I'm happy with it before I write more. 

Revisiting Tunisian in the round: step-by-step child's hat

I've decided to take part in our co-ops annual craft and bake sale again, so I'm making more winter wear for my inventory. 

It's also a great excuse to try out new things and work out the kinks in old ones.

For this hat, I went back to doing Tunisian in the round, working from the top down, in Tunisian simple stitch.  I wanted to see how close to the beginning I could begin the Tunisian.

For the yarn, I went with Bernat Alpaca in Stone and Fern colourways.  My Tunisian hook is a 6.00mm, which is the size recommended for this yarn.




I'm rather happy with how close to the middle I was able to start the Tunisian stitch.  I started with a base 8 ring in sc.  For the first while, I could only pull up about 3 loops on the hook at a time before I had to switch ends, which made things a bit tight, but I much prefered this to having a larger disc in sc.



In this photo, you can better see the increases, and how much the work curls in on itself. 

I played around with the increases a bit, starting with 8 increases per round until there were 48 stitches in around, then did a single round with no increases before switching to 6 increases per round until I worked it up to 60 stitches per round.



Here's a closer view showing the increases in different places.





Working the sides at 60 stitches per round.  The gauge using Tunisian made for a size suitable for an older child or small adult.  For an larger adult sized hat, I'd have increased to anywhere from 5-10 more stitches per round.

That tuft you see on the left side is a flaw in the yarn.  I pulled it to the inside with a hook later on, so it wasn't so obvious.




An inside view.  At this point, the sides of the hat were built up as far as I wanted and I was ready to start on the brim.



I decided to take advantage of the hat's natural curling tendency and work up a brim in slip stitch, which would then be worn rolled up.  I started by dropping the dark yarn completely and doing a round in the lighter colour, sc into each vertical bar.  You can see a closer view here.



Then I dropped the light yarn, picked up the dark and began slip stitching into the sc round.  I worked in a spiral, alternating colours with each round, for several rounds, then tried it on.

It didn't work.

The slip stitched rounds were significantly tighter than the Tunisian stitches.  There was no way it was wearable.  Away they went!

I still wanted to do a slip stitched brim, though, so I broke out my 9.00mm hook.



Using both yarns on the hook, I worked a round of sc into the vertical bars, then began slip stitching.  In this photo, the first round of sc is done and the slip stitch round is just begun. 

The larger hook and doubled yarn worked out much better.



Here is the finished hat.  (Well, almost finished.)  The two yarns together made for a random pattern in the slip stitched portion that I rather liked.





When worn, the brim is meant to be rolled up like this.



Here's an inside view, showing where the yarn was finished off.

I decided that it needed more, though.  Using the left over yarn, I worked up several spirals.




I did pairs in each colour of varying lengths, working with foundations of 10, 12 and 15 chains, leaving long tails at the start and finish for attaching to the hat.  At this point, I hadn't decided on how many I would end up using.  To attach them, I tied the start and finishing tails together in an overhand knot as close to the crochet stitches as I could, threaded both ends into my yarn needle, pulled them through the hole at the very top, then stitched them into the inside.  I just kept adding them, alternating colours, and ended up using all six.



I think it looks rather cute. :-)

Top Down Tunisian cloche

After working the Bottoms Up hat, I had to try another version from the top down.

Looking through my stash, I dug out some super bulky (6) Wool Ease Thick and Quick I had left over from other projects.  I wasn't sure I'd have enough of two colours to finish a hat, but there was enough to figure out how to do one from the top down. 

Normally I'd work the super bulky yarn with a 9.00mm hook, but I've only got one size double ended hook.  That changed things a fair bit, which I will cover later on.






Using one end of my double ended hook, I started by doing a spiral disc of sc working into the front loops only, so it wouldn't be as dense as it would have been if I went through both loops.  I made several false starts before I figured out when to start working the Tunisian Simple Stitch.  Increases are worked in the forward pass, so right from the start, I worked an increase.  To just pick up loops without increases, I worked through the front loops of the previous sc.  The first loop for the increase was pulled up through both loops of the sc, then the second loop was pulled through the front loop of the sc.  Once I was past the disc, the increases were worked by pulling the first loop from the back, in between the vertical bars, then the second loop of the increase was worked through the next vertical bar as usual.  You can see in the above photo that these increase stitches are far less visible than decreases.





Like the Bottoms Up hat, this one is 56 stitches around at the widest point.  Once I increased to 56 stitches, I just kept going until I started to think I'd be running out of yarn.  The body was a bit longer than the Tunisian portion of the Bottoms Up hat, but not by much. 





I finished by working rounds of sc in the front loop only. 

Despite being the same number of stitches around and using the same hook size as the Bottoms Up hat, the super bulky yarn made this into a much tighter hat.  Too tight.  The finished size would fit a child much more comfortably. The length would probably look better on a child, too.  The extra thickness made for a fabric stiff enough to hold its own weight.




Here you can see where I switched from the Tunisian to sc in the front loops.  I kept working in a spiral, too.

Here's a comparison of the insides.




The discs of the crown look completely different with the two methods.  Although top down was easier to work (the curl was not as much of an issue), I like the look of the bottom up method better.  In fact, how the blue middle looks on the inside is how I'd rather it looked on the outside.  


With the top down method, I found I had to make the beginning disk quite a bit larger before I could start up the Tunisian portion, though that might have as much to do with the thicker yarn as the method.






In this side view, you can see the transition from the first (blue and red) and last (green and pink) stitches of Tunisian and the brims. 

Getting feedback from the family, they all prefer the Bottoms Up hat.  They like the look the decreases made, as well as the decorative brim, while I preferred the less obvious look of the top down method.

Both methods worked up well, but the bottom up method was harder to actually do because of the curl.  I liked the thickness and extra warmth of the super bulky yarn, though I would have preferred to use a larger hook.  Were I to do it again with the super bulky yarn and the hook I do have, I'd have to make sure to increase the number of stitches for a larger hat, since the density reduces the size significantly.

While the Bottoms Up hat went over better with the family, the aesthetics of both are pleasing.  Top down was slightly easier to work, though it required a larger disc on the crown before I could start the Tunisian.  In the future, if I were to do a top down version, I would work both colours into the starting disc so that it's not so blatantly different. 

In the end, I find I really enjoy doing hats with the double ended hook even with the irritation of how much it curls.  Certainly enough to now be wondering what I have in my stash to try again, this time using a stockinette stitch.