Trouble with the Trebles

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)