October 2008: Carrying colours
News:
Plenty of new, fun patterns in the pattern shop this month!
Check out the Luscious Collar (see first photo at left) – a combination of knit and crochet, first published in Interweave Crochet Fall 2006. This issue is no longer available, so I’m happy to be able to offer the pattern. This is a quick project, which would make a great Christmas gift.
Another combination pattern, though it’s mostly crocheted, is Guy, a jacket for children – see second photo in the left-hand column. The stitch pattern was the one my husband liked best when he helped me to test stitch patterns for men ages ago. He’s still waiting for his garment, though – I made this jacket for my son (and wrote up the pattern for other little guys out there).
And last, but really not least, Falbala, another beautiful shawl from my friend EclatduSoleil (third and fourth photos at left). The pattern is illustrated with plenty of photos, showing you step by step how to work this lovely little shawl. The pattern is suitable for many different yarns. If you would like to use the very same 100% merino yarn as in the sample, we will soon have a kit available for you.
Carrying colours:
Yes, colours again! There is so much to say about colourwork in crochet. This is yet another small but useful tip.
Stripes are perhaps the easiest form of colourwork, yet they can be so intricate, beautiful and satisfying. Now, I will not suggest that you arrange your stripes so as to minimize the number of ends to weave in. I suggest that you arrange them in the most beautiful way you can find. Weaving in ends can be nice too (especially with a nice cup of tea/coffee/chocolate by your side and some wonderful music in your ears).
Often, however, stripes come in even numbers (2, 4, 6 or more rows). Should this be the case, it’s useful to carry the different colours up the side of your work instead of cutting the yarn at the end of each stripe. I will show you how I do it.
Please note that you will need to apply some kind of edging to hide the edge stitch when using this technique. A simple row of single crochet will work fine. In a garment, you can often hide the edge stitch in a seam.
Here’s my little swatch. I just started the first stripe. Please note that I did not use the nice, clean method for changing colours described in my previous newsletter. I completed the last purple stitch in the last purple row using the purple yarn, and did not change to yellow until the turning chain.
This means that the purple yarn sits at the top of the row. This will make it easier to carry up along the side than if it were sitting lower in the stitch.
Here, I have come to the end of the second row of the yellow stripe. I am working my last double crochet in the row. When putting my hook through the last stitch in the previous row, and before doing my yarnover with the working yarn, I simply put the purple yarn around my hook. I don’t work with it, but the working yarn is pulled through it at the same time as through the stitch in the row below.
I complete my stitch and turn my work.
There is my purple yarn, safely trapped in the bottom of my yellow stitch.
If the stripe has more than 2 rows, I can, of course, continue to carry the other yarn up the side this way for the number of rows required. The only thing to be careful about is not to pull the carried yarn too tightly. This might cause the edge to pucker. However, it is quite easily adjusted at the step shown above – tug a little on your work to check that it stays flexible.
In my swatch I decided to stick to 2-row stripes, so the next step was to work my turning chain with the purple yarn.
And this is what the edge looks like a few rows later:
I generally don’t use this technique with stitches higher than a double crochet, but you can experiment and see how it works for you.
Oh, these swatches make me want to crochet more stripes!
See you soon!
