Month: October 2024

Once I had mastered the chain and double crochet stitches last week, I moved on to the treble and half-treble crochet stitches (known in the US as the double and half-double stitches). Bella Coco’s videos were, once again, very informative and decently easy to follow. However, I began to learn the treble crochet late at night when I was running on fumes, so I did not quite grasp every step that I needed to do at the time. I was also getting frustrated frequently, because learning a new pattern with several new steps and sleep deprivation isn’t exactly easy.

The incorrect square is on the left, and the corrected square is on the right.

The next night I foolishly decided that I had grasped every step, and, without re-watching the video, I created my 1^st treble crochet square. I realized that I had messed up on the first square when I moved on to learning the half-treble crochet stitch, so I went back and re-did it to ensure that I understood the process. As you can see to the left, the 1^st square has edges that are a bit wavy compared to my 2^nd treble crochet square. There were two critical errors that I made. For the stitch at the end of each row on the failed square, I grabbed a whole stitch instead of a loop. This caused the row below it to be pulled upwards and back into itself, which contributed to the wavy sides. The second error I made was where I started each row. I was starting the stitches on the closest hole instead of the second one over. This caused there to be too much yarn on that side of the row, making it so that the area jutted out of the piece. The newer, more correct treble square has softer edges and corners, and the waves that appeared on the incorrect one are noticeably absent.

My Half-Treble square with no issues (I hope).

I took a couple of nights off from crocheting before I went back to properly learn the half-treble stitch and commit to creating a square with it. I wanted to be sure that I was well-rested and mentally ready so that I could cope with my frustration and be able to grasp what I needed to do. My pre-planning seemed to work as the process went a whole lot smoother than the treble crochet incident. Once I had fixed the mistakes I made with the treble crochet stitch pattern, I had already prevented the mistakes that I could have made with the half-treble crochet stitch. The half-treble stitch is the same as the treble, except you just pull through all of the loops at the same time instead of going through them by twos. I created the half-treble square soon after I had started practicing, because I felt more than confident in my abilities.

I am happy to report that my stitch-counting abilities have improved greatly since my post last week. I can now confidently count how many stitches are in a row. My row counting abilities are getting better but are not where I would like them to be yet. I still get confused and am still mostly relying on the fact that I remember how many rows I counted out when I created with them. I hope it starts to get better, because I will have to rely on those abilities when I am trying to follow patterns. I am also getting more comfortable with the flow of crocheting. I no longer feel like my hands aren’t working the way I want them to, and I am starting to turn my hook in the same way that Bella Coco does. I just started turning the hook to face the bottom of the loops I am pulling through, because it made it easier to get the hook all the way through. I realized that that is also what Bella Coco was doing during my half-treble learning session.

As I mentioned last week, I learned about different types of yarn. This week, I figured that I should determine what types of yarn I would need for the plushie patterns I have selected. I am going to the city this week, so I wanted to know what yarn to look for when I am there. I know that I did not want to buy anything for this project, but I am finding that I really like crocheting. I am sure that I will want to continue learning and creating things after this class is over. Plus, the plushies that I want to create will look really bland if I only used the white yarn that I have.

My list of yarn types for the plushies and colours to look out for.

Most of the patterns I have chosen ask for 8 ply/Light Worsted yarn, which I have learned is a pretty standard size for most crochet things. I will be buying all or most of the yarn in that size due to its ability to be used for many creations (and the fact that I do not need a huge cauldron plushie). The last thing I would want is to buy a bunch of yarn that I do not end up using. If I buy any other yarn, it will be one or two spools of different colours in the 3 ply/Sock/Fingering yarn size or 4 ply/Fingering/Sports yarn size.

However, I ran into some trouble while attempting to figure out what I needed. Some patterns referred to the yarn needed as being “DK”, “Weight 3”, or “3-Light Weight”. Those terms weren’t on the Crafty Arts Table from last week, and I was really confused. I decided that I needed to look it up and stumbled upon the Herrshners’ website, which explained that these were even more terms used to refer to 8 ply/Light Worsted yarn. So many terms to learn about and keep track of!

Once again, I can’t wait to tell you about what I learn next! As long as all goes well, I will be starting to move into phase two of my learning journey. I only have one more basic stitch to learn before I move on to plushie-specific stitches!

Up Next: Double Treble, Magic Ring, (maybe) Slip Stitch, and a Yarn Haul (if I can find it and it’s not too expensive)

Bella Coco’s playlist was the resource that I used to begin my learning journey this week. I watched her chain video first, which also taught me about slip knots, how to hold the piece I was working on, and, most importantly, which hook to start with. (Yes, I did not even know what all of the different hooks were for.) I picked up the packaging the white yarn came in, like she had told me to do, and found what hook I needed on it. As I picked up my 6mm hook, I wondered if it would even be big enough to hold onto the thick yarn. I fumbled with the yarn long enough that it certainly felt that way.

The crochet hooks from Mom. Second one from the right is the 6mm one.

This is the hold that works the best for me.

I completed my first slip knot quite easily (although I still struggle with remembering how to do it), but learning how to do the chain properly was interesting. The process made logical sense to my brain, but translating that into my hands was a challenge. My hands are quite small (like smaller than most of the kids I teach kinda small), and I had to adjust my tension hold on the yarn since her version was not working for me. Through much practice, I finally got my hold and technique acceptable enough to create the chain without much difficulty. However, the chains were sometimes completely different sizes and some had to be redone along the way due to them being too tight for the hook to pass through. This means that I could not get my yarn tension to be consistent. I went back to the video and noticed that she used the widest part of the hook to size the loops, and I found that the trick worked wonders! With my clumsiness lessened through practice and the yarn tension issues resolved, I was able to create long chains with consistent loop sizes very quickly.

The top looks longer than the bottom. (i.e. it is warped)

After taking my time with practicing the crochet chain, I wanted to go to the next step. According to Bella Coco’s playlist, the next thing I should learn was the Double Crochet stitch. The whole square started with a chain, so I was off to a great start there. But, I still had to figure out how to adjust my grip to a piece that was now more than just a single row. That hurdle stumped me for a while, and I felt like a child trying very hard, but mostly failing, to refine my fine motor skills. All of the new yarn volume was throwing off my groove. Additionally, I was making my chain row way too tight to fit my hook through, so the extra chain practice actually hurt me in the end. The too-tight-chain also warped that edge of the square and was impossible to fix unless I went back and redid everything. The theme of too-tight-ness continued as my 1^st double crochet row became too tight for me to create the second row. Loosening the tension on the yarn felt wrong at first, but it helped me to actually move past row one of double crochet and create something that looked better overall.

Side Note: Bella Coco’s videos were clear and concise and partnered well with my way of learning, although her hands did get in the way at times. If we had technology that could make a crochet piece hover and not have anything obstruct the view of it, it might have helped me a little bit more. Also, there was no distracting music in the background, so I was able to focus on what I had to do pretty easily.

Once I completed the first double crochet square, I decided to challenge myself by using the smaller, pink yarn to do another double crochet square. However, the packaging of the yarn did not tell me what hook I needed to use this time, and I had to look up “what crochet hook to use with 3 ply yarn”. I stumbled upon a very informative table on the Crafty Arts website, which shows the UK, US, and the AUS and NZ term equivalents for yarn weight, that solved my problems. I found my 3mm hook and got to work.

The table also made me wonder whether or not I had the right yarn weight for the projects that I wanted to do. What yarn weight/thickness would I even need? (That’s a topic for another week 😉.)

My two double crochet squares. Less heavy/thick yarn=more difficulty.

Transferrable Skills I Need to Keep Working On:

• Counting Stitches: Counting stitches is very important in crocheting, because you will not know what point you are at in your creation if you do not keep track. (I am slightly dreading the point at which I will be creating circles for plushies, because circles don’t exactly have edges.) Currently, I have to count the stitches as I go and take all of them out if I forget what number I’m on. I am hoping to eventually be able to recognize all of the stitches and count them without having to do all that.
• Counting Rows: This is very similar to counting stitches, although I straight up cannot do it yet. The one thing I have learned is that I should not count the chain line. I accidentally did this when creating my double crochet squares, so there are only 9 rows in each square instead of the 10 I was aiming for.
• Learning the Difference Between US and UK Terms: Besides the chain, there are different terms that the US and UK use for stitches. For instance, the Double Crochet stitch that I have been mentioning is the UK term. In US terms, it is called a Single Crochet. I will be using UK terms throughout this blog, but I will always try to point out what the US equivalent would be. I also have to be careful when watching videos or following patterns as the US and UK Double Crochet are very different things.
• Keep Practicing the Stitches: Simply put, I will hopefully get better at the stitches as I continue to practice them.

Next Up: Treble Crochet and Half-Treble Crochet

I am genuinely so excited to continue learning about crocheting, and I can’t wait to let you know about what I do next!

P.S. I also want to credit Caitlyn Hartman for inspiring me to create and imbed my own video examples!