I'm Making a SCARF!!

21 August 2013

These past few weeks have been crazy to say in the least.  I have been wrestling with my Visa application for studying in England and all the pre-work that has to be done in order to send it in.  I had to get my fingerprints scanned and a full facial photograph.  This is in addition to the countless piles of paperwork I had to sift through in order to create the package to be sent for Visa consideration.  All in all it has been a long and stressful road thus far, and I’m not even in England yet.

This is all in addition to my sister preparing to head off to college.  As you may or may not remember I attended Arizona State University.  Well it seems my family is destined to be a House Divided since my sister is going to attend the University of Arizona.  The long standing rivalry between these two schools is famous and each year they have a game, called ‘The Duel in the Desert’ for ownership of The Territorial Cup, one of the oldest trophy rivalry game.

This past year it was won by ASU!  Go Sun Devils!

So visa stuff and college prep for the next sibling in line after me, quite busy.  But alas I still find some time for a little crafting.  When we were last together I was figuring out a few basic stitches and was thinking about my first project.  Well I did a little research into how to make a simple scarf and found that you only need to know how to Chain stitch and Single Crochet stitch.

It was about 25 chain stitches long

I started by making a chain stitch for as wide as I wanted the scarf to be.  Length will be determined by how long I continue to stitch.  I tend to stitch very tightly and thus the holes you typically see are quite small and hard to see.  That also means that my fingers are a little achy from the pressure I put on them for making such a tight stitch.

Close up of the chain stitch

From there I made my first real row of single crochet stitches.  This is accomplished by ‘turning the chain’ which for a single crochet stitch means crocheting one chain stitch when you get to the end of the row before continuing onto the next row.  This is to ensure that the stitches look right and are of the right height.

First completed row

And then I just continued for a few rows.  It took me a little longer to get those few rows done than I thought but I did notice that I sped up a bit as I went.  You can certainly enter a sort of trance when working on crocheting projects. 

The adventure has began, only a zillion more rows to go!

I know it is going to take me a while to finish this scarf to the length that I want but I will be sure to keep the blog updated with my progress on this and any other projects I start.  Until next time!

Brittani

The Start of Something New: Crocheting

8 August 2013

A few years back I had nonchalantly picked up a set of knitting needles thinking I was going to sit down and learn how to knit.  The short story is that they were set aside and completely forgotten.  Many years went by and I had pretty much given up on ever having the time or desire to try anything like that again.  Well the whole returning to the States and having time as well as a need to be more resourceful and profitable in other areas I returned to the idea of knitting.  But a new question arose, to knit or to crochet?

I did a lot of extensive research into what each created and how easy or hard they were to learn.  What it came down to as far as I could tell is that the main difference between the two was the needles used.  Crocheting uses a single needle with a hook that is about 6 inches long whereas knitting requires two needles that can range in size from a few inches to a foot or more depending on what you are making. 

Crochet Hook

The reason I decided on crocheting was because it was a smaller single hook, much easier for travelling with and since I am going to going to England in a few months it made more sense.   So the next step was to acquire some other supplies, namely yarn and needles.  A quick pop over to JoAnn and I had a set of three different sized crochet needles, two balls of yard and two little books about stiches.  In total I spend about $17, with a student discount.

Two stitch books, two balls of yarn and a set of three needles

One thing that was difficult for me to initially understand was the different sizes of needles and yarn and how they corresponded with each other.   What I found out was printed on the yarn packing it says what size needle you need to work with it.  

Yarn Packaging

Needle packaging

 I would say that the most common sizes are between 2.25-5.0 mm or B-1 to H-8.  In my set I have a G-6 (4.0mm), H-8 (5.0mm) and J-10 (6.0mm).  In all of my initial attempts at crocheting I am going to use the G-6 (4.0mm) size with the yarn pictured in my supplies.

So, the first thing I need to do is get something started and for my basics I turned to a website: http://www.anniescatalog.com/pages/stitchguide/index.html?cid=3, starting with how to hold the crochet hook and then on to how to tie the slip knot which starts off your crocheting experience.  From there you create a ‘chain’ which is simply a single strand stitch.

My first attempts at making a chain stitch

From there I worked on the very basic stitches of single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, treble crochet and the slip stitch.  These are all the basics that each come with their own abbreviations that are used in patterns on the internet and in books.  Chain is ‘ch’, single crochet is ‘sc’, double crochet is ‘dc’, half double crochet is ‘hdc’, treble crochet is ‘tr’ and the slip stitch is ‘sl st’. 

Top Left: Double Crochet, Middle Left: Half Double Crochet
Bottom Left: Slip Knot, Middle: Treble Stitch, Right: Single Crochet

What is even more interesting and important to learn, besides just how to create a single strand of a stitch, is how to make that second strand.  That is where knowing how to chain stich is important, that is how to gain height within a stitch to make a double crochet stitch larger than a half double crochet stitch.

Now I have a few basic stitches down I can pretty much start a simple project, like a scarf, choosing one of the simple stitches as the means to create it.  Or at least that is how I think you get started on a scarf.  Haha!  I suppose a little more research is needed.  Well until next time!

Brittani