Mois : juillet 2013

Don’t think you have the right yarn on hand? Need to go shopping to find something that will suit the pattern you’re admiring? Perhaps not. Many times, the right yarn is there, in your stash. It’s just hiding in different skeins. Certainly, if you need a very fine yarn and all you have on hand […]

Newsletter August 2010: Armwarmers AdelineNews:I’m very happy to present Lune Rouge, the fabulous new shawl design by EclatDuSoleil!In this semicircular shawl, a simple filet center sets off a beautiful vintage-inspired border. All is thoroughly explained with step-by-step photos. The shawl in the picture is in a lovely cotton, but I can easily imagine Lune Rouge in wool, […]

The adjustable loop: This month, I want to talk about a simple and very useful way to start crocheting in the round: the adjustable loop. To many of you, this may be old news. However, when I learned to crochet, I had no idea that there was another way to start a motif in the […]

Newsletter February 2010: Painting in crochetNews:As you might have noticed in the e-mail announcing the previous newsletter, I am now producing a monthly podcast in French, in which I speak about the subject of the newsletter (and more). If you want to listen, you can subscribe through I-tunes (hopefully also outside France – there is […]

Foundation stitches So, when you intend to work in rows, you have to begin with a starting chain, right? Actually, no. A starting chain is often convenient, but it has its limits. One of those is lack of stretch. Many, many crocheters have experienced how their work is pulled in at the bottom because of […]

Newsletter December 2009: Best wishes for the New Year!The end of another year – it might have been happy, it might not. In any case, the start of the new year is a time of hope, of resolutions, of renewal.I hope you will all have a wonderful new year, that you will stay healthy, that you […]

Dealing with a loooooong starting chain I have a project in the works that starts with 451 chains. Handling this long starting chain is really the only difficulty with this design – once the first row is worked the rest is very straightforward (for a quite lovely result, if I may say so myself). The […]

In the round … but back and forth: Very often it will be convenient to work a crochet project in the round (a hat, a skirt, a glove, a doily…). However, when working in the round, the very nature of crochet stitches may play tricks on you. As I think you know, a crochet stitch […]

Changing a stitch pattern There are (a few) crochet designers who invent complicated new stitch patterns from scratch. I admire them a lot, but I’m not one of them. I generally use an existing stitch pattern as my starting point. Sometimes I’m inspired by a stitch pattern, and use it as a part of my […]

The crochet turning chain One of the first things you learn as a crocheter is to make a turning chain. At the beginning of a new row, your hook will need to « travel up » to the height of the next row. This is done by making a « ladder » of chain stitches, called the « turning chain ». […]