This one slipped in just under the wire, a stylised cat stitch made of shells and long drop stitches. My little swatch is not the best execution of this stitch, but you can sort of see a cat-ish-ness shape in the purple, if you squint. (Video at the bottom.)
Today is the last day of February, so the last day of Crochet Month. It’s been a surprisingly educational month, but I’ve not only learnt a huge amount about crochet, I’ve also come to appreciate really clear, concise instructions. A lot of stitch instructions are much more confusing than they need to, especially when they are written out long-hand. I also learnt that I dislike having to rely on videos because they are time-consuming to watch and people aren’t always as careful as they ought to be with where they put their fingers! Sometimes, though, they are essential.
It’s also been very time-consuming to do all these swatches, more so than I thought it would be. I was supposed to be doing just 15 minutes a day, but often these swatches have taken me an hour or more. So next month, I’m going to be doing something that is kept strictly to 15 minutes!
One of the things I’ve learnt about crochet this month is that most of it’s really, really simple. There are only a handful of actual basic stitches and the rest is how you put them together. Today was the double (US: single) crochet chevron, which is basically just a matter of skipping a stitches here and adding a few stitches there. Simples!
Larksfoot stitch (which sounds sooooo much better than icicle stitch) would be lovely with a different colour for each set of two rows, but it looks fine with a single colour too. Very easy stitch, though, so a good one for the arsenal.
I was expecting a bit more from spike stitch than I got, tbh. It sounds interesting, but it’s just double (US: single) crochet worked into the base of the stitch below instead of the top. Which basically means it’s a very slow stitch to work up and a rather thick fabric when it’s done. Not a very attractive result – it visually emphasises the rows in an unattractive way. Now, it might look better if you used a different colour for each pair of rows that make up the pattern, but I’m not all that impressed at this point.
I’ve been using a double crochet foundation for my swatches, because I don’t get on with foundation chains very well. Unfortunately, most patterns assume a simple chain instead, and that can sometimes lead to issues. This daisy stitch is one of those times. I did a dc foundation of 20, and should then have done a simple chain of 3 to get going, but didn’t realise that until the end. That’s why the bottom right looks a bit squiffy.
However, I really like daisy stitch. It’s pretty, it’s easy, and I’m pretty sure I could manage to not add stitches if I concentrated harder.
A friend of mine is making this amazing owl blanket and shared with me the video explaining the shell and V pattern, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s pretty easy and produces a very pretty fabric that would be great for a blanket or a shawl in a lacier yarn.
Something slightly different today – Solomon’s Knot. It’s a very open, lacy stitch, unlike anything I’ve done before. It seems complicated at first but is actually very easy. The biggest challenge is keeping each stitch the same length as the last. Finally, though, I can see a reason to buy lace weight yarn!
Moss stitch is another stitch that’s ludicrously easy. It’s just rows of alternating double (US: single) crochet and chain, with the next double crochet going into the chain. The biggest challenge is making sure you don’t accidentally drop a stitch at the end of the row, but counting fixes that. It’s a nice looking fabric though!
This one’s ludicrously easy – it’s just rows of half treble (US: half double) but hooked into the lower back loop instead of the top. It gives a nice rib and is simple to do. Definitely another for the day-to-day arsenal.
Today is the fiftieth day of my year of creativity, and I’m still hugely enjoying it.
Today’s stitch is bobble stitch, which is basically puff stitch on steroids. I followed the written instructions, rather than the video, and my sample looks a bit different to their photo. I think again that the cotton is too unyielding which makes the tension very tight. That said, this would be a nice stitch for a blanket, though it would use a lot of yarn!
I knew that when I started this project, there would be days where I just wouldn’t have time to get my entry done and up, and yesterday was one of those days, so today you get two stitches: Grit stitch and mixed grit stitch. Grit stitch is so ridiculously easy, it’s just double (US: single) […]
Crossed half treble (US: half double) crochet stitch crossed falls in to the category of simple but annoyingly fiddly, though part of that might have been that the yarn I’m using splits easily, which makes it harder to get the hook through the right part of the stitch. The first row was especially irritating, but I […]
Today has been a long day, and possibly not a good evening to try a fiddly stitch. I thought that after last night’s success with waffle stitch, it would be nice to do diamond stitch tonight, but it took me three goes to get the first diamond row done. In part that was just because […]
Waffle stitch is one of those stitches that I thought would be really complicated, but it turns out to be incredibly simple. It’s just treble (US: double) stitches done either in the top of the stitch below, or around the front of the post of the stitch below. By alternating, it creates a grid pattern. Very clever!! […]
I probably should have done yesterday’s starburst stitch after today’s shell stitch, as shell stitch is the upper half of a sunburst, but hindsight is 20/20! Still, it made for an easy swatch.
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