My First Finish

I suddenly realised that I hadn't Posted a picture of the throw I finished a couple weeks back..... D'oh!  This was standard granny squares joined with a join as you go method that I got from Attic 24.  I added a border and left it at that, no edgings or anything, just simple.

This is intended for my daughter, who is 2 at the moment, but I reckon it would just get ripped just now so it is getting saved until next Christmas so she can appreciate it more.

I did find that adding the first row of granny border made it ripple and with some help from friends in the Ravelry group "We Love Lucy" I fixed it using this.  The only problem was  that I was halfway through an 8 row border....oh well.  I can see a few patchwork designs looking good in crochet though which means my patchwork books will come in handy for some inspiration.


Have Fun!

More Babette Ponderings

Right since I first starting thinking about this I've changed my mind a bit.  To be fair that's normal for me its to be expected.

First off I am not using Bonus DK as the colour range isn't wide enough for the Warm/ Cold colours I wanted to do.  Someone pointed out to me on the "We Love Lucy" group on Ravelry that the Babette cushion I said I like was being made with Biggan Merino 8ply (DK weight).  So off I went and immediately started drooling, bought a shade card and I am still drooling.  It does cost more per ball, well d'oh its merino its supposed to, but the shades it comes in make it worth it and then some.  I can't get enough of the shades this comes in  :)

So now I have got my yarn sorted I decided to plan out a rectangle Babette by making an extension.  I was happy too that I have managed to draw this in Electric Quilt 7.  This means once I get the colours picked I can colour it in on screen and plan out what I'm doing well in advance.  For now though i need to save up for my yummy yarn :)

Other than all this I have been up to a lot and think I need to do a few postings to show what I've been up to.  Finishes, new starts and ideas :)

See you soon :)

Babette Ponderings

I think I first saw the Babette on Ravelry sometime and liked it.  To be fair I wasn't keen on the colours but I loved the design and to me it seemed mad! Just like me :).

So I bought the pattern, at the time I was working on my daughters throw which was granny squares using a Join as You Go method.  So I went back to Ravelry and looked at the pictures and saw that there were indeed some made from granny squares and not solid squares.

At this point I stopped, I'm skint at the moment so didn't think any further than that.  That is until I got the border on my daughters throw.  I suddenly thought "Could the Babette be done Join as You GO?"  I couldn't think of a reason why not, there would be a few kinks to figure out.  So again off I went to the Internet and found that someone has already done this, yey!  So now I knew it would work.

The thing is making a Babette needs planning especially if you are not using the yarn in the pattern as you need to figure out what colours you are using and then do your own lists etc so you know what you are doing.  You could wing it though :)  I will be using Bonus DK by Hayfield for two reasons, it’s cheap and its acrylic as well as the fact I have been using it and like it :)

The thing now is I need to plan as "Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail" no idea where that came from but it popped in my head.  I'm going to start by trying to draw the layout into Electric Quilt, which I already own.  Once I have that sorted I can colour it in to my hearts content.  Then I can make lists of colours etc.

I've been on Ravelry in the meantime looking at the photos there of other peoples Babettes’ trying to decide what I like and don't like about them.  I love the ones using just one colour scheme; there were just pinks and just green Barbettes’.  I also liked the ones where the colours were planned, I definitely wasn't too keen on the stash busting ones as the colours were too mad for me but they still looked cool.

Whilst on the way to the shops this morning in the rain I got thinking again.  What if I used a standard rainbow, I could have "warm" squares and "cold" squares.  I could also have some crossover squares, that way the throw would flow from warm to cold etc.  I like this idea but it would need a lot of planning, but I will be doing that regardless so I don't mind.  It suddenly occurred to me that some colours crossover anyways, you can have red yellow and orange in a warm square, blue yellow and green in a cold square.  I think my next step has to be to look at what yarn I would buy and go from there.  Although my first step is to draw it in EQ so I can colour it in on the PC.

My other major decision needs to be if I'm going to leave it square or make it bigger.  For now though it’s off to draw out the skeleton :)

See You Soon!

Random Waves Tutorial

OK, my first tutorial.....I'm going to apologise first as I am new to this but also as I don't have a decent camera....just my mobile phone.

Right, I first saw a concept in a library book "The Crochet Workbook by Sylvia Cosh & James Walters", just to be clear its not my concept and I'm not taking credit for it.  If you like this it's worth trying to find a copy of the book as there was a lot of great stuff in it about freeform, it is however out of print.

Firstly a picture of the piece that I am making to sample the technique, it going to be a cushion cover when finished so it isn't very large as yet.

This design has a 2 row sequence which means all your tails will be at the same side, at first i would just leave them there while you get the hang of how this works then when you are happy you can work over the tails as you work you rows.....there's lot of tails :(

Pattern
US terminology used
Yarn/ hook - whichever yarns and hook you wish to use, i used DK weight with a 4mm hook

Chain as many as you want for what you are doing

Foundation Row (this is optional but i wanted a straight row to start the work from)
DC in 4th chain from hook, DC in each chain to end, and turn the work.  It can be easy when working this technique to add stitches to the work as you can get confused when to count the turning chain as a stitch or not....so from here on in be careful :)

Row 1
Using the same colour that you used on the previous row, it should start with a straight edge but as this is random sequences it work be mm perfect straight....but ish....you know :)


Using Single crochet (SC), Double Crochet (DC) and Trebles (Tr) work along the row in a random way but don't jump from a Single Crochet to a Treble.  Always make sure that there is a Double Crochet between Single Crochets and Treble Crochets....that is how the waves form by flowing through the stitches. You can work each stitch anything from once to seven or more times....be unpredictable and try not to look at previous rows too much.  When you get to the end of the row, change colours, cut the yarn and turn the work.

The turning chain is random, the same as the rest of the row but making sure you keep to forming waves........ I personally am making the stitch next to the turning chains the same as the turning chain to help me remember what the turning chain represents.


Turning chains
Single Crochet = 1
Double Crochet = 3
Treble Crochet = 4

This next pic shows the end of row one, its all wobbly :) but its shows the waves flowing, theres always a DC between Sc and Tr to keep the sahpe of waves.  Sometimes its only 1 stitch, sometimes its 4 or 5, sometimes i go from SC to DC and back to SC before going to another DC then a Tr

Row 2

This is where you need to pay attention, the stitches you work are directly related to the ones below.  To begin with look at the last stitch you made......and using the rules below decide what stitch you need to make into it.....

Rules
If the stitch below is an SC......work a Tr
If the stitch below is a DC......work a DC
If the stitch below is a Tr......work a SC

The turning chain follows the rules as well, be wary of counting the turning chain as a stitch or not as you may end up increasing at the ends of rows.

Turning Chain Rules

If the stitch below is an SC......work 4 chain - does count as a stitch
If the stitch below is a DC......work 3 chain - does count as a stitch
If the stitch below is a Tr......work 1 chain - does NOT count as a stitch


Work across the row following the rules set out above, it can be tricky to start with but you get used to it quickly, i find i can flow across the rows at normal speed now but i was slow to start with. 

here's a pic of the completed row 2. 

Rows 3 onwards

Repeat rows 1 and 2 in sequence changing colours every 2 rows to form the stripes.  whenever you come back to row 1, do not copy previous versions, each repeat of row 1 is a new random selection

closeup pic of my sample piece

if you look back to the first pic you can see how this develops with a few rows on.  I hope i haven't confused anyone as this is my first time writing a tutorial and i hope it makes sense :)