i crocheted a stuffed dog for my boyfriend! i've made 3d/amigurumi stuff before, but nothing this complicated. it was really fun! i want to crochet more stuffed animals! (pay no attention to the ear that changes dye lots halfway down. i ran out of brown yarn and had to get more, but i couldn't find the same dye lot... luckily boyfriend is mildly color blind so i'm pretty sure he won't notice.)
OH THAT IS SO CUTE I also like the colorshift the doggo I live with has a couple of gradient-style ones so it seems really fitting aaaaaa
So i am working on my 3rd crochet project ever and I have...questions ftr I made a very basic rag rug and then a plushie hammock, and this pattern I'm working on now uses mostly double crochet, which I'm still sort of wrapping my head around. I got one of those big color changing balls & it came with a pattern that I thought...was a scarf pattern. It was not. It was a blanket pattern. So I did my best to reduce the width by a third but it's been a lot of trial and error. start is the big yellow stripe. you can see at the bottom right where the edge is basically flat until halfway thru the red stripe, because the pattern said to do 3 chains before turning on each side, but that resulted in one side being wavy and one side being flat. I don't entirely understand why, but I started adding 2 extra chains on the bottom edge to make it symmetrical. (I was way too far in to go back and start over, i would have lost my will to continue...) I'm fairly certain this is the "right" side but tbh I still don't have enough experience to tell by looking at it. I'm also running into an issue where I'm not really sure how to hold the piece while working on it? I've been working with the "right" side facing me, which is easy going from right to left because I'm right-handed, but going back the other way throws me off a bit and always feels awkward. last is that I'm still sort of puzzling over whether or not I'm grabbing the correct part of the double stitch to add on the next layer, or if it doesn't matter too much as long as I'm consistent about it. I can probably scan the pattern and post it if people want.
... are you crocheting left to right for some rows? i have never heard of that, is that a thing? i've only ever seen people flip a piece over after each row-- that's what "turn" means on a pattern-- or crochet in the round (so one side is always facing you, but you're still only going right to left.)
Tbh I taught myself with various websites and youtube videos so I've kind of been. winging it. and none of the tutorials I followed ever explained that at all, so. whoops. a lot of things suddenly make sense now!
Finally something I can help with!! I've never tried explain not in person, so here goes. Like hyrax said, you should always be going right to left. Unless you're doing cabling or something, crochet doesn't necessarily have a right side that you can see. I usually do the chain and then turn, because then chain adds a bit of flexibility. They say to chain 3 for double crochet because you need to be at the right height to start. Doing single crochet, you chain one at the end of ever round so you start at the top of the stitch, kinda Personally, my chains are loose while everything else tends to be tight and I don't like the way the chains make little holes on the side. That's what created the wavy bit on yours. So I only chain 2 and it looks better imo. The chains should be alternating sides since you should be flipping it back and forth :) For holding the fabric, you'll want to do whatever feels most comfortable for you. I'll try to get a pic for how I hold it later. For now, I hold the fabric I'm working with my left thumb and middle/ring fingers. I have the yarn I'm working looped over my index finger, which I leave sticking out, and looped around my pinky for tension. My right hand holds the hook. You're supposed to hold it like a pencil but I was never held a pencil right, so I just kinda grab it in a way that's comfortable for me. For double crochet... The top of the stitch could look exactly the same as the top of a single crochet stitch. The top should make a V and you want to always go under that V with just the V I top of the hook and everything else underneath. There's also a V in the side of the stitch that if you go through will produce the same result, so it depends on which is easier for you to see. And just in case, for double crochet the way I think about it is 1) get a second loop on the hook (yarn over) 2) go through the V and grab (yarn over) the new yarn and come back. Now you have three loops on the hook. 3) grab (yarn over) the yarn and pull through two loops. Back to two loops on on hook. 4) repeat 3 but now you're back to one loop so you can start again. From what I can see, most of your stitches look like they should! (Triple and quadruple crochet just ups the number of times you do steps 1 and 3, but they're basically the same) I can do a picture or video tutorial if you think it would help
Thanks to the advice I'm actually going much faster! I was averaging about 1 stripe/day and now I'm getting about 2.5 :>
IT IS COMPLETE (big yellow stripe was the start and small one is the end. I just finished the whole ball, it was a big one) Finished length is nearly 6' XD Second yellow stripe is about where I started actually...doing things correctly...which is why it looks much looser and more natural for the rest of it i think.
Fantastic funky colours @Enzel Also on Tuesday i went to a knit and chat thing and finally started knitting this hat for my mom, years after i finished the accompanying cowl. I started on the i-cord for the tie around the brim, checked with her, she doesnt want the tie so now i know how to i cord And i dont actually have to do it Also, ran this yarn by her so now i have 2 skeins to make her this other hat
My newest fiber order (for handspinning) came today! I could gush about how excited I am. FOR AGES! about the wool top I got but I don't know if anyone else here is at all interested in excited mildly intoxicated infodumps about rare sheep breeds in islands-adjacent-to-England. I have pictures though :D
So, I remembered yesterday that the cruise I'm going on - which starts on March 9th - has theme days. Specifically, I forgot about the Science and Cosplay days and then asked in the Facebook chat what I should go ask, specifying that I need something that can be acquired or made within the time remaining. Someone suggested Ms Frizzle. Now, the hair may be difficult but I have a dress pattern that can work. And I ordered fabric and notions last night, I just...need them to arrive. And they're being shipped from the US, so I couldn't get expedited shipping on it, so it'll arrive in 4 to 7 days, which means I need to prepare for having only five days to work on this dress. I'm considering getting some more fabric from a local shop, so that best case, I end up with two Ms Frizzle dresses and worst case, I at least have one dress.
Updates: the fabric I ordered from online is looking like it'll arrive by the end of business tomorrow (technically today, now). This is the good news! The bad news is that when I was re-reading the pattern requirements so that I can make sure to get what I need from the local shop, I realized that I forgot to order interfacing. And I already looked online, and the answer to "can you just skip the interfacing" is "yes, but it's going to make the garment look homemade, the interfacing is supposed to be there for a reason".
