Tag Archives: clothing

Easy Window Wrap

Inspired by the success of the Blanket Wrap we have now completed the Easy Window Wrap.

Pattern 42 v1

This pattern is an easy one – hence its name – and is perfect for those cooler summer nights…

Pattern 42 v2

…or winter subtropical days, depending on where you live! The pattern is on sale at Ravelry.com if you’d like it.

 

 

 

Eyelet Scarf Tutorial – 7. Troubleshooting


Woof and Welcome,

Olive the dog here. Today I’m going to reveal all the mistakes I made making the Eyelet Scarf and  how we fixed them.

Problem – One section of the scarf is a lot thicker than the previous section

Lesson 7A

Ooops. This uneven width is caused by having different sized yarn for each section.

SOLUTION

Keep the ply of the yarn the same for the whole project even when you change color. In other words if your first color is 8ply make sure your second color is 8ply too.

Problem – I don’t have the right number of stitches in my row.

There are 2 common causes for this. Either it got skipped in the middle of a row or it was dropped at the end of a row (most common).

A HOLE

Stretch out your work and have a careful look. Is there a little hole in it like this?

Lesson 7B

SOLUTION

As a beginner, the best solution is to unravel your work and restitch it without a hole. If you have been counting your stitches every row, the hole will be in the row you’ve just done and you won’t have to unravel far, if not… well you might have to unravel more.

A STITCH DROPPED AT THE END OF THE ROW

Stretch out your work and look at it. Is one side of your work getting thinner like this?

Lesson 7C

SOLUTION

If you dropped the stitch at the edge you need to do an extra stitch at the end to complete that line. If you have been counting your stitches every row this will fix the problem, however, if you have been losing stitches over several lines you may have to unravel back to the line where the first end stitch got dropped.

Problem – I’ve run out of the yarn I was using

In my scarf I ran out of the orange yarn I started with because I didn’t check I had the whole 50g I needed before I started. (It was a second hand ball of yarn, you won’t get this problem with a newly bought ball unless you miss read its label.)

SOLUTION

If you are lucky you can buy more yarn of the same color. (You add it into the scarf in the same way as a new color.)

Alternately you can unravel it and use it for something else.

Or if you can’t bear to unravel  you might be able to end that color and change to another one without it looking odd on the finished product.

In my case, I unravelled the orange and reused it in the middle section which didn’t require as much yarn.

 Problem – My rows don’t add up to the right number

If you get to the end of a section and the rows just don’t add up, chances are you missed a row somewhere along the way.

The most likely thing is that you’ve done two dc or two sc rows in a row.

Lesson 7D

If your work looks like this you have left out a sc row. If you look carefully you will count from the bottom up a dc row, sc row, dc row, sc row, dc row and then another dc row – see how the posts tilt slightly to the left instead of the right?

Or if you’ve left out a dc row you might have something more like this:

Lesson 7E

You can see there is a dc row, a sc row, a dc row, a sc row, a dc row, two sc rows and a dc row, and a sc row at the top. The missed dc row leads to an extra horizontal line in the fabric, and then the dc are tilted to the left in the row following.

SOLUTION

Yep, you got it, the sad truth is you’re going to have to unravel your work back to the mistake… unless you decide you don’t really care and just continue on, but on many patterns that will cause problems further on.

And we’ve reached the end of our trouble shooting. I hope I’ve been helpful. If you have any more problems please write in and tell us about them and even better, how you fixed them

So now we’ve reached the end of the Eyelet Scarf tutorial. It’s been woof…. I mean fun, I hope you’ll join me again for projects in the future. Enjoy your hooking!

Bye for now … Woof!

Olive paw 2OLIVE

Eyelet Scarf Tutorial – 6. Finishing off!

Woof, woof, woof and woof!

Eyelet scarvesToday we’re up to the finishing touches on our Eyelet scarf! It’s so excitement. Do you like my picture of Emma and my scarves side by side? I think I’ve done a very good job in the end – I certainly had to unravel parts – but now it’s looking great! How is yours looking?

OK so what I really want to tell you about today is how to finish off when you’ve crocheted your last stitch.  All you have to do is chop the yarn with your teeth… I mean scissors and pull the end through the last loop until it forms a knot like this:

Lesson 6BLesson 6C

 

Now you use a needle and thread to sew in the loose ends of yarn created by the color changes. It doesn’t have to be done in any particular way, I just sew an end into the fabric moving out from the knot for a little way, then turn around and sew back the way I came.

Lesson 6D

Finally I chop off the remainder of the thread and you can’t see it.

I hope your scarf is fantastic and you’ve enjoyed learning to crochet. We have some other FREE patterns for beginners that you might be interested in making so check out the Beginner Projects page for the details.  Happy hooking.

Until next time …. Woof!

Olive paw 2OLIVE

Eyelet Scarf Tutorial – 5. Changing Color

DSC00001Woof and welcome, it’s Olive the dog here showing you how to make the Eyelet Scarf – let’s see how your first 17 rows went… all good? Congratulations. This is how mine is looking.

Lesson 5A

OK so the next thing to do, is to check your rows by counting them. When you are crocheting you can save yourself time by only counting the rows in the current section. For example after your 2 rows of eyelets count 5 wide rows to reach the top of the section. Then check that there is a short ridge – a row of sc – between each one. But you must end on a wide row.

When you think you’re at the top of Row 17 count ALL the rows a couple of times from the bottom to be certain.

The next thing we do is repeat row 2-17. Make sure you are starting with Row 2 – a sc row – and not Row 1 – a dc row. And that Row 3 – the first row of eyelets is – the SECOND row you make.

Lesson 5B

Then you should be right to just follow your nose, I mean the pattern. So now do 2 rows of eyelets, and 5 wide dc rows (always checking there is a sc row in between) and I’ll meet you at row 33. AFTER you’ve counted them from Row 1-33 to make sure you’ve done them all.

Lesson 5CGreat!

And now we’re going to do another 9 rows and a color change.  Make absolutely sure you’ve done Rows 1-42 and you’re about to start Row 43 first.

Now there are numerous ways to change color but we’re going to use Emma’s favorite.  It actually starts on the last stitch of the row before so undo one sc. Next go to make a sc but don’t quite complete it. STOP when you have 2 loops on the hook like this:

Lesson 5D

Then put the second color on your yarn holding paw … I mean hand, and pull the new color through the 2 loops to complete the stitch like this:

Lesson 5E

Pull both color ends to tidy up the stitch, and you are ready for your turning ch in the new color!

Lesson 5G

So now go ahead and finish the first row in the new color. It should look like this.

Lesson 5H

And that is all you need to know to get to the end of the scarf! Happy hooking and I’ll see you when you reach the end so I can show you how to finish it off.

Until next time …. Woof!

Olive paw 2

OLIVE

Eyelet Scarf Tutorial – 4. Making the Eyelets

Woof and welcome, Olive the dog here, continuing our lessons on the Eyelet Scarf

DSC00001Last time we made a sample square. OK, woof, so now you are happy with your sample, right?

Let’s start the scarf for real! Put aside your square, or unravel it.

As you will read on the pattern, the foundation ch is 18, Row 1 is dc and Row 2 is sc. This is basically the same as what we have already done but a bit wider.

Follow the instructions on the pattern and let’s meet up again when you’re ready for Row 3.

OK for Row 3, we do our turning ch (3 ch), 1 dc into the 2nd dc and then we do 2 chain stitches. To make the eyelet we skip the next two sc and we dc into the sc after that.  This is how it should look.Lesson 4A

As you can see, the two ch stitches line up over the two skipped sc so that we have a hole but we still have the same number of stitches.  Now see if you can complete the row and make it look like this, remember to count those stitches at the end of the row.

Lesson 4B

All good? Woof!

Now the next row is a sc row, but there is a trick to make it easier. Instead of trying to sc into the ch stitches themselves you can sc into the spaces they have made, as referred to in the pattern.

All you do is a turning ch, sc into the first two stitches, then instead of putting your hook into the chain stitch, put your hook into the space like this and pull the yarn through to make a sc.Lesson 4C

The finished stitch should look like this:Lesson 4D

Put a second sc stitch in this space as well, then continue to complete the row. It should look like this, with a total of 18 stitches.
Lesson 4E

Looking good?! Woof! Next we’re going to do it all again, repeat those 4 rows again.

Lesson 4F

Now don’t be alarmed that my square has turned pink. I had to start it again… I made a big mistake… I’ll explain in 7. Troubleshooting. Along with all the other things that have gone wrong.

Follow the pattern till you get to Row 17 and we’ll check in there at the beginning of the next lesson. You’re doing  woof …. I mean, wonderful!

Until next time…. Woof!

Olive paw 2OLIVE

Eyelet Scarf Tutorial – 3. Making a sample square

Woof and welcome,

DSC00001Today we’re going to make a sample square. Now I know you’re probably thinking  “enough of this already, let’s make the woofing scarf!” but this isn’t an unusual thing to be doing. Many patterns and just about all garments start with a tension square. We’re not going to do that entirely but starting with a sample square is a great habit to get into.

As I said yesterday, if you look through the pattern you will see that every odd row is double crochet, and every even row is single crochet, so that is what we are going to practice.

Start with 15 chain (ch) stitches.

Lesson 3A

Make sure you don’t include the loop on the hook as one of your ch stitches.

Next we’ll make our turning chain. Because this is a row of double crochet (dc) stitches coming up we need a turning chain of 3 ch stitches, this will create a ladder like stitch as tall as a dc.

So do another 3 ch as your turning ch for Row 1, which means you’ll have 18 ch in total, then do your first dc into the 5th ch from the hook.

Lesson 3B

Now you have 2 stitches in your first row.

Keep doing dcs and when you get to the end of the row you will have 15 stitches including the turning chain (first 3 ch) as 1 stitch. Make sure you count them! ALWAYS count your stitches at the end of the line – it will save you a lot of trouble!!

It is easy counting dcs, just count the columns (these are called posts).

Lesson 3C

Next we will do a row of single crochet (sc).

This is a short stitch so our turning ch only needs to be 1 ch. So do 1 ch then turn the work around so you are ready to crochet at the far right side.

Crochet a sc into the top of the last dc in the previous row.

Lesson 3D

Next, sc into each of the remaining dcs in the last row. When you get to the turning ch at the end of the dc row, sc into the 3rd of the 3 ch, in other words the very top chain. See my hook in the third ch??

Lesson 3E

Now that you have completed your row of sc COUNT them!

Having trouble? Look at the top loops and count each one. Are there 15? Or did you count 16?? If you counted 16 don’t panic, you have probably counted the turning ch as a sc. Look carefully and see if this is so. The turning ch will be a loop only, whereas a sc have have a chunky little stitch below the loop.

 

OK so now we’ve done 2 rows. That was woof… I mean fun, wasn’t it!

Lesson 3F

Next let’s do 6 more rows alternating between sc and dc and see how we go. Remember to count those stitches at the end of each row.

If you don’t remember which row you are up to – dc or sc – an easy way to remind yourself is to look at the tail and incoming yarn threads. If both  yarn threads are on the one side you have completed a dc row, if they are on different sides you have completed a sc row.

And if you do make a mistake, pull the hook out and pull the yarn. Just unravel back to where you went wrong and try again! Don’t be frustrated, we all make mistakes, just think of the beautiful scarf you’ll soon own and keep on trying.

OK so this is what it should look like when you’re done.

Lesson 3G

Now if you have a problem and you don’t know why, jump ahead to lesson 7.Troubleshooting for some examples of the kind of things that go wrong and how to fix them. Or contact me at the end of this tutorial or through the contact us page. Don’t give up!

Once you’re happy with how your stitches are looking you are ready to move on to the actual scarf. Woof… I mean yah!

Until then … Woof!

Olive paw 2OLIVE