Lessons

Lesson Info

Teaching the Simple Crochet Stitch

It would be fun to show just a really simple crush a stitch and I kind of pulled the audience and you guys don't do you crash a don't ask you I know one pattern one granny square okay, we're used to and you yeah yeah so I made it for years and I loved him it but when I discovered kirsch a I I really like it a lot because it's just to me it's reportable all you need is a hook and a ball yarn and it is you can switch colors I think a little bit quicker and easier so we actually have there is a project in my book that uses a combination of the felted, the felted fabric that we made an admitted fabric and I will show you that and we're going to do a version of that here said this one is a blanket that I make a scene. Okay, um I started using scrap yard when I was watching tv at night too just in it squares we call engaged watches where you would just in it even square and I just needed something to do with a hand. So we're watching movies at night and I posted about thes on my block that I...

was just using these and I started getting squares from people in the mail and which was great so that's where I get like this really cool cabled one you know, they were really doing some fancy ones, so to make this I gathered all of the mitt swatches that I had and then I combine them with felted sweaters to do make the other swatch just to sort of pick the colors that I liked and I combine them so I mean, I'm going to kind of teach you a single crash a stitch and show you how you can turn it into one of these all right, school I like how some of the different squares have different of the of the sweaters have like the cable? Yeah, yeah, yes, they have different stitches and this is such a fun project tio do with friends you can each eye once you get the basic idea of this watch down of thiss watch the little square down, you make it and you're just good to gop and so you can really get a blanket fast when your friends send you let's watch our sends you submitted swatches and things like that they're on the sewing machine, but I use where's are you? I use the yard and I'll show you how I do that so this this is actually pretty easy you just lay out you ladies out, you find a pattern that you like and then you're just using a running stitch toe hold these together and it actually looks pretty enough where you could use the running such is the front of the and then I take a few extra stitches at the edges and what I was thinking that after I made this is this would even be pretty too stitch our machine stitch like a flannel sheet and make it into kind of close it in in the back. But I like these a lot of people really like the's unfinished seams when they show I do, too. I think they're really cool. So that's, how you join him, it's just a really I used a contrast yarn because of the time I was doing, and I wasn't sure which side I would like better, so I want to make sure that I used to yarn color that I thought might be cool some so I'm going to teach you guys how to make a single crash a stitch. I love the stitch it's, a basic stitch it's pretty to look at, and it creates a really nice texture admitted some difference watches here in different size hook so you can get a real idea of how pretty the stitches and if you guys watch this and learn this stitch, I've also created a pinterest board that I have a link tio in your materials that's. All single crash a project, so we're single crash a stitch projects so you've got all sorts of things you can try there's a hat, there's a scar, there's all different kinds so it's very, very fun. So if I'm going too fast turning point when I'm teaching this, you just slow me down and tell me, but for I'm using a worsted wool yarn, the whole idea behind what I refer to is engage swatch when I was talking about those you knit records, shea engaged watch to see how compatible your hook size is with your yarn size, so if you're using a really fat hook and a really thin yarn, then you're gonna have a really open piece of fabric, whereas if he used a really thin you are a really small hook, you're going to have a really dense piece of fabric so that's why people will try, especially if you're knitting something that you're going toe wear gauge is very important when you're getting in front of the tv to make a square it's not as important it's more of an aesthetic thing you know? How do you like the way it looks? So my favorite size hooked to use when gauge doesn't matter is a five it's not too small, I admitted, or I curse shade with crash a threat before, and I've used ah hook that was almost too small for me to see and those are all fun but when I'm watching tv I like a big big cook but not too big and this is the worst day wait yard but you could try this size hook with any type of yarn doesn't matter so what I'm going to do first you have tio make a loop that you're going to hold on to the hook so I'm going to cross this over and make a loop like this and then I'm going to bring the long length of yarn coming from the ball is what you call your working you are this is your tail so this is your working are and this is your tail I'm going to stick my hook into the loop that I just made and I'm going to bring up my working yard through that lube and I'm going to pull it on the hook like that so now I've got a secure tale you're gonna want it to be fairly snug not tight you wanted to be able to move around. There are many ways to hold your yarn, but you're going tohave teo you can't just hold it like this so the way I do it is I wrap it around my pinky and I hold it and everybody's got a different way but it really you're just creating just enough attention so that it's you're making your sketches uniform, so I'll show you that again, I just wrap it around my pinky and wrap it around my pointer finger like that. I used to do it a totally different way that cramped my hands, so I figured out how to do it, so you just have to try what works. So now to do the swatch, you have to have something a base, a foundation to crush a into. So to do that you create a chain, you guys probably all create some sort of chain before what I'm about to show you is probably not anything especially new, but what you're going to do is holding your yarn you're gonna yarn over when I say yarn over, I'm wrapping the yarn one time around the hook and sort of letting it like get caught by the hook area, I'm gonna pull it through the loop that I just made. I just made one change, so we're going to do that again yarn over and pull through, and now I have two chains you never count the one that's on the hook, you're only counting what's already been done, so I'm going to keep doing that so that you guys can see how I do it the foundation chain is never the most fun part of kershaw saying, once you get like the first foundation chain and the first row done it's like smooth sailing but after that before that it's just you got to get it done it's lot of counting so you can see I'm making a chain of stitches literally a chain the front of the stitches have a v shape the back of the chain stitches have like an extra little bump and then you can tell the difference as you start to do them some to keep chaining do you use anything to help you count like the encounter? No yeah, they have this whole clicker counters yeah, I don't I don't usually the projects that I don't usually need that much precise counting but those were good and sometimes I'll just have a piece of paper beside me and I'll just make a hatch marks or something we're just going to keep doing this a little bit longer is to make another this is what I love about chris shape but this in my purse and when my kids used to do after school activities that I had to kind of sit and watch it's so fun to just polite my hook and this yarn comes from out of nowhere full strand for my purse and you can just keep gallen okay, so that's pretty good so we have a chain of stitches I don't know I'm not counting because really when you're making these swatches, you're looking it's a visual you're looking at how large you want it so if I wanted thiss even bigger I would just keep going, but I think this is a pretty good size disturbed with so now what we have to j now we have the base that we can crash into, so now we need to know how to curse she ate into it so the single karsh a stitch in the u s is also just to not be confusing this is the exact same stitch that you would call a double crash a stitch in the uk, so to further confuse things. So when you you know, if you're looking at a pattern, make sure you know that it says u k or u s and that way you know, if they're saying double crash a, they really mean single kershaw so why we couldn't all be together and have not sure, but so to do this with our base chain, you have to get the stitches up, you have to raise them up so that you can start going back across. So to do that with the single kirsch a stitch, all you need to do is skip the first chain you're not going to do anything with that first chain, but skip it then what you're going to do is put your hook into the second chain and to put it into the right space you want to put it in the v in the little v area so I'm gonna stick that down in there so now my hook is poking out the back I'm getting yarn over again and I'm going to draw that yard up through that v that I just poked through and so now I have two stitches on my hook from there without poking through again I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to pull that yarn over through both of those stitches and that is the single crash a stitch and if you've never car shade you probably think that's a lot of steps but it's really it it gets so much quicker seem to do that one more time I'm going to put the car she hook down in between the v's where they need and I'm going to yarn over I'm gonna grab my yard from the back and I'm going to pull it through so now I have to yarns or two loops on the hook I'm going to yarn over to get those two loops off my hook and sometimes you have to just sort of work it through so now I've done to single crash a stitches let's do one more time and put it through the loop or through the sorry yarn over pull it three so I have to yarn over and ease those two off of my hook together turns out again and some cursi stitches uh there's a double car shea there's a half double car shea once you get into those you get into a light area look single kirsch a stitch it's denser and it creates I just think it creates a really pretty um effect so let's keep going else show I'll speed it up a little bit so that you can see what I'm doing does this make sense to you to you guys weigh talked about you will have washed this yarn so that when you're measuring the size to go with a felted size you're all set yes yes that's a good point so if you've washed the yarn or if you have washed the sweater that becomes the yarn it's good to go it's good to go so that finished blanket could be washed at that point I probably wouldn't wash it in hot water and agitated again just because you don't want it to continue to shrink that if you wash on the gentle cycle it would be totally fine grizzly make one of the squares either networker shea not very long I mean I can make a square once you get the hang of the stitch I can make the square in anything in a movie or you know, maybe two movies I don't know but yeah I can make a few of those swatches a week with just casually sitting down at night with my yarn and then what's great is that then you use your felted sweaters to fill in which those take no time and it goes really fast to the knitted squares versus felted squares like how many of each you should use to make the blanket well because I was mainly looking at the color I liked the color so in the end when I was ready to put the sweater together or I'm sorry the blanket together I just went by the color yeah so I just was laying it out according to what I thought was pretty and I didn't worry about what was in it and what was I mean you could that would you know and plus if you're knitting swatches out of the same ball of yarn you may want to make sure those air dispersed through like if I were in it if I were adding this color to it I may want to make sure that I've got a good assortment of that all throughout the blanket but yeah he just you do what what pleases you I'm all about the color so that was the driving force in the design of that blanket so once you get this initial couple of rows done it gets so much easier because you actually have something they can hold on to and there are uh tutorials that I have seen online where you can actually combine this into one row like a foundation um in a single kirsch state crow shea such all together and that works really well too and it just sort of does he rose at once any other projects in your book that you sort of what after you've cruciate or after you've unraveled sweaters way have the swatch blanket I also did a really simple admitted our sorry crowe shade in the round so you get these round discs and then those disks are sewn together individually and you can make placemats or table runners or scarves or and those were fun because, um once you've learned to do this stitch, you can crush a in the round pretty easily. The instructions are pretty straightforward so you know there's a there's a lot you can do and these you can practice the's swatches and use them on like a hot hot pad or something on your counter peace one under my kmex at home all right, so there we've gone all the way across me to this last one so now it's not very pretty it's going to get prettier because this is like you're setting it up so that now you can actually like kind of go for it. So when you finish this first row, you're going to turn your work just like if you naveen it, you turn your work and again you're going to need to raise your stitches up to that next row so you're going tio rather than skipped the first crash? A you're just going to I'm sorry, the first chain you're just going to make a change and that's going to, like, create the height you need for the next row and from there to make a single crash a stitch into the row, I'm going tio once again stick the hook in the b yarn over I now have to loops and a yarn over on my hook, and I'm just going to pull those both through to have one yarn left somebody that again it gets a little easier this point, like I said, because you do have something that you can hold on to so into the yard over two loops yarn over and then pull that threw the two loops I do anymore, and this is again why I whenever and teaching krish a, I always teach on a wool yarn because it's not as thready cotton yarn tends to you don't want to split the yard, I don't want to stick the needle are the hook. I'm sorry into the yard and split it uh and so it's just easier if he's a yarn that doesn't have as many strands to it that makes sense that's basically it and you keep doing that and you end up in this is how it looks in a thick yarn with several rows and you're just going to continue doing that really? I eyeball it until I have a square shape and then from there that's I would I would not cut my felted sweaters until I had an idea of how big I wanted and then once you cruz shade that first watch then you know going forward I need to do you know roughly this side this is what's gonna look like then cut your felt sweaters to make your blanket and that's really it it's super simple and really cozy yeah chicken on how we're doing over here if you want to bring that back up tio the caller was knitted on as they were finishing the body so it is all one piece so it's a little complicated in unraveling it but you know let's try it this way plus it's got these kind of crazy yeah so I unraveled the side scenes the rest of the way okay? And I noticed that it started unraveling from the top down so you can pull this usually but then you have to go through a loop where the shoulder seem was and have to pull your your yarn back through that for some reason it's like they somehow they made it all together and then you know maybe I should cut the urine shorter then as you continue to unravel getting to the collar you've got to do the same thing but there's another loop that's interesting. So you do get nice long pieces of your arm, but you just have to sort of get through. Yeah, yeah, and then what you end up with is this peace appear that probably will unravel on its own. Yeah, two. Yeah, so you have to decide and this actually isn't that newly looking. This is pretty it's good to be a really nice you're into unit with yeah, it's a nice feel to it in mice. Save this one in the sub breaks at some point. Is that all right? Yeah, I just keep going for broke a lot. That's probably. You know that side? Yeah, if it breaks, just keep going. Just make a new little ball or just keep whining on the one that you have to do is harmony any final questions when you crash a is there a right side and a wrong side? Like, is there a way to identify which? Because if you have to switch sides when you're doing your work, if you lose your place, how do you know which which is the front, which so there's not really a right side and wrong side? I mean, you can take a look at this because you're turning your work, you're always doing the same stitch, and it is just doing the same stitch on the opposite side. So you're getting, um, first picking up where you left off. So what I do, like if I were going to stop this, I just pulled a really long tail to leave it and it's pretty easy to figure out where you leave off with these stitches. Um, you're always going down into that. B even if you're making a double car, shea or half double marcia, you're always starting with going into that v, so you can kind of figure it out. If you really can't figure out you just related, rip a few back. Just wait, okay, I get it.