Now that I have learned all of the foundational stitches, it is time to move onto the fundamentals that I can use for almost any plushie. This week I tackled the magic ring/loop, slip stitch, front loops only, and back loops only techniques. The magic ring/loop was the most difficult technique out of the four (the other three techniques I did are slight variations of stitches I have already learned). The magic ring/loop is held together only by your hands at the beginning and can fall apart if you lose hold of any part of the yarn. Once you get your fingers to cooperate and create the anchor point, you then have to create whatever number of single (us)/double (uk) crochet stitches that your pattern asks for. This part is difficult because the circle you have now created can turn, wiggle, and warp in whatever way it wants. You just have to deal with whatever it throws at you. However, the last step makes the struggle worth it because pulling the loop closed is insanely cool and magical. Watch the compilation video below to see me demonstrate these new skills.
This shows the base row of chains and the first row of double crochet (us) in a v formation.
I had a lot of success this week with learning all of these techniques, hence why I learned so many in just one week. Granted, these techniques do not require a bunch of steps in order to learn, and the source that I used was very straightforward. The Woobles company is well known in the crocheting space for creating such a large and widely accessible library of crochet tutorial videos. The videos target people who have never done crocheting, and I think that the videos they created can teach most people anything from the simplest stitches to the most complicated techniques. The videos were made to be teaching tools and would be really helpful to someone just starting out. For me personally, they contained information that was a bit redundant at this point in my learning journey, but that just means that I am definitely learning and progressing.
Each of the v’s of double crochet has 6, 8, or 10 double crochet stitches in it. this gives it the rounded petal look.
I do want to warn people about one thing though. The Woobles plushie kits are insanely expensive. When I was looking for sources that I could use to create plushies, I remembered that Woobles existed and wanted to at least check it out. Single Plushie kits cost anywhere from $35-$45 Canadian, and the cheapest bundle I could find had four plushies at a price of $140 Canadian (plus shipping costs probably). That is insanely expensive when you can just find free patterns and use the Woobles tutorials for free. Once I realized that the tutorials were free, I definitely was not going to spend that much money. I did spend roughly $55 dollars on cheap yarn and stitch markers, but I can use those materials for far more than just 4 plushies.
Here is a side view of the finished rose.
However, this week’s events are not over yet. I really wanted to create something by crocheting, and I happened to stumble upon Hopeful Turn’s How to Make a Rose Video. It was easy to follow, and I was able to execute new stitches alongside her. The video could even be used to create different sizes of roses. You just had to adjust how many of each stitch you were doing in order to create those different sizes. I just did the size she demonstrated in the video, because it was the middle size and I was unsure how difficult making it would actually be. However, there are some cuts in the video. Hopeful Turn does not show themselves doing all of each row, and you really have to know your terminology in order to understand each step. Hopeful Turn also writes out the pattern abbreviations of each step, so I got a bit of practice with reading and deciphering patterns (I’ll definitely need that for the plushies).
Top view of the finished rose.
The process of creating the rose did take some time, but it went smoothly once I had figured out how to do for each row. I finished the rose within 2 hours (I think), and I think it turned out pretty good! I am proud of myself for trying it and proud that it also looks good. It makes me feel like I will be able to tackle plushies easily enough once I finish my list of must-do plushie techniques. I really can’t wait to start the plushies at this point. I had so much fun doing the rose, and I just know that the plushies will be a fun challenge!
Up Next: Stitch Increases and Decreases for the single, half-double, and double stitches, invisible versions of increases and decreases, and how to use a stitch marker.
Rose cat says, “Have a good day!”
