Today we are really going to look at what goes into making a blanket. The Mario graphs work well because the Mario Video Games are in what they call "8-bit". That means that it is all small little "box" that make up the image. And that is what a graph is. They are boxes coloured to make up an image. Those images can be small (like the Mario Graphs we are sharing this year), or quite large like a full blanket. But they all work on the same principle.
(Example of a Square Graph Grid)
Keeping this in mind, this will help you create layouts for your blankets with these Super Mario 2 Graphs. The main thing to remember is that you want to put the same sizes together. So if you are using a 25 x 50 landscape graph you need to match those measurements to make the blanket even. Now this doesn't have to be the exact same. For example, you can use two 25 x 25 graphs to make up the 50 side of the first graph. But you want to make sure everything lines up properly.
Finishing a crochet project is very simple. (For this post we are going to assume the project is plain with no ends to weave in). Once you are finished your row, instead of chaining like you would to start another row, cut the yarn (giving yourself a 5-8 inches of slack), yarn over and pull the end through the final stitch. Pull the end tight and your are basically finished. At this point you can add a knot if you like, or you can weave the end into your project. With this example, I was adding tassels to the blanket anyways so I made a small not and incorporated it into the other tassels.
Finding the crochet stitches can be difficult sometimes. The looser you crochet the easier they will be to find. However sometimes, depending on the yarn and hook size they are hard to find. A great tip to finding them is pulling the work tight and the holes should become very evident.
Finding the Stitches
You can tell the stitches apart by finding the holes on the top row of your work. This is where your hook will crochet into.
Depending on the crochet you are doing sometimes you need to go all the way through and take the two pieces of yarn sometimes you just need to take the front piece.
Crocheting is really easy once you get the hang of it. It does take some practice but it is not too hard to pick up. The hardest thing is figuring out what works for you. Every crocheter holds their hook differently and their yarn differently. It is all about finding what is comfortable and it is just a personal preference, once you get down what works for you the rest comes much easier.
How I Crochet:
My stepmother taught me how to crochet. Her style is different from mine so I can show you how I crochet, and how she crochets. Neither is right or wrong it is all about what feels good for us.
I am right-handed so I hold my hook in that hand. You probably should hold the crochet hook between your thumb and forefinger. This will give you the most control over the hook and you would hold it the way you would hold a knife to chop with or a pencil to write with. As you can see in the picture below most hooks come with a flat part to show you where your grip should be.
Holding the yarn is where most crocheters differ. The thing to remember is you want to hold the yarn in a way that is loose and flows easily. This is because if the yarn is too tight the stitches will become tight and the holes will be harder to find and work with.
I take the yarn between my thumb and forefinger, wrap it around my hand and bring it back full circle. Finally, I wrap it around my forefinger and start crocheting. I find that I can keep it tight enough to my liking and it flows well for me. My stepmother wraps the yarn around her whole hand then brings it around her fingers so it is between her thumb and forefinger. Finally, she passes the yarn around the back of her pinkie to her forefinger. I found that got very tight for me but whatever works for you is perfectly fine. I have also seen a style where the yarn gets wrapped around the pinkie three times and then sent to the forefinger.
(Left is my style, right is my stepmother's style)
Starting A Project
All crocheting projects start the same way. You start with a slip knot, then create a chain. The chain will determine how wide your project will be. Remember that the starting knot doesn't count as a stitch. Once your chain has the number of stitches you need then it comes time to work off the chain.
Working off the Chain
When starting a new row, it is important to remember to build up to the next row. What this means is on top of your chain, you need to add more stitches to create the wall to the next row. For example: If you need 50 stitches in your chain foundation, and you will start the second row with a single crochet; you need to chain 50 stitches then plus 1 for the side before starting the new row. In order to start the new row properly, you need to skip the first stitch and start on the second stitch with your single crochets.
Starting and Finishing a Row
The important thing to remember when finishing a row is to crochet every stitch. This sounds simple but sometimes it is not always done. The last stitch in the row often doesn't look the same as the other stitches and gets left out. If you do this your work will grow awkwardly and unevenly.
Once you finish all the stitches in the row, you need to chain at least one to start the new row. This will create the side of the next row. How many you chain depends on what stitch you are going to be doing. For single crochets, you need to chain one, for double crochet you need to chain two.
(Left picture is of the extra chain, the right picture you can see the extra chain forming the side as the next row starts.)
On the left you can see what the yarn looks like. To work with it you need to stretch it out like the picture on the right. There will always be one side that is finished and one side that has the loops. As you can see I have a pen pointing to the side you use to crochet.
The way to start any Sashay Scarf, no matter what method you use is by folding the end over itself about an inch or two. Dealing with the yarn is like dealing with stitches, the yarn has holes for you to work in. We start this way because you want a clean edge to show. Since we fold the yarn over, the first few loops are double, depending on the pattern you follow.
Finishing a Sashay Scarf
There are a few different ways to finished off a Sashay Scarf. So far I have come across two different methods. (I will update this post if I find more.)
Method #1: Just pull through
When you have decided your scarf is at the length you like (this will depend on the way you want to wear the scarf also), you should have one loop left on your hook. In this method you need to fold the end piece (or cut the yarn about two to three inches away from your work). Fold the end piece, like you would to start the scarf. Now you want to pick up the loop at the top end of the fold (where you would work) and then pick up the loop closes to the finished edge.
Now you should have three loops on your hook (it may look like more because the end is doubled but count it as only one loop). What you want to do next is pull the two loops through the loop you already had, so you will be pulling the end piece through the last loop of your work.
This is what it will look like once pulled through. As you can see the ruffles of the scarf will hide the end part and it won't be noticeable. If you feel like it is noticeable or hanging too low, you can cut the end slightly but be sure to leave enough so that the scarf doesn't unravel.
Method #2: Pull through and Knot
This one is just as simple however it involves a knot. Not all crocheters like having knots, some feel they are noticeable either way it's personal preference as to how you finish your work.
Again you start with the last loop of your work on your hook. This time you want to hook the yarn off the ball and pull it through the loop.
Once you have this loop, you can take out your hook and use your hand now. With your fingers pull through the yarn (off the ball) and cut it liberally (leave a few inches). Pull the end through and make sure the knot is tight. If you feel that the end is too long you can trim it down, however you want to leave enough so that the knot doesn't come undone. As you can see below the not doesn't show once the ruffles are over it.
Last year, my grandmother passed away (not due to COVID-19 virus). And she was an avid knitter. I had never been into knitting but it was something we shared. She had given me yarn before passing away and once she was gone my family decided to hand her yarn down to me. I was very grateful. To have this connection with her still was an amazing gift. Unfortunately, I didn't know a thing about knitting. And though I used some of this yarn to crochet. Some yarn just works better for one craft versus the other. So I decided to learn how to knit.
My grandmother already had a scarf started so I started working on that first. However, the tutorials I am going to share this month are going to go in order so you can start and finish a project. So the first step to knitting is casting on. Now depending on a certain pattern, you can do this in a number of different ways. I found one video that has a few different options and it can be handy to anyone who wants to try the different styles and see which fits. I recommend the video below. I watched this one also and tried to learn the way she did it. It didn't work that well for me but I could see it working for others.
The one I learned and found the easiest to pick up was called a Long Tail Cast on and that's the one I am going to talk about. There is no right or wrong way that I can tell. Again this may depend on the pattern. I also want to quickly mention that unlike crochet, knitting takes two hands, so it is very difficult for me to take photos to show how to do this cast on. I tried and they really didn't turn out great. So hopefully with my comments and the video will be enough to help anyone trying to learn.
To start the Long Tail Cast on, you want to make a slip knot (just like crochet), leaving a long tail on one end and the working yarn on the other. Once you have this you want to focus on your thumb and forefinger of your non-dominate hand. Hold the needle in your dominant hand (the one you right with or crochet with). You want to hold your fingers in a way that makes it look like you are showing someone the measurement of an inch.
You want to take these two fingers and go under the yarn and bring them to the needle. Then lift your fingers up so that the yarn forms a loop around your fingers. Finally, you will want to hold the ends of the working yarn and the tail in your remaining three fingers. (Note this is not how she shows in the video, it is just an alternative.)
Once you have this you want to start casting the stitches on. You notice four strands, two around the thumb and two around the finger. You want to take the needle and go under the first strand (on the outside of the thumb, and go over the next two strands, and pick up that strand. Once you have that you want to go back through the loop on your thumb and pull tight. You must repeat this per stitch.
For today's Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday we are going to talk about the Tunisian Simple Stitch. Tunisian crocheting is a different type of crocheting that uses the basic crocheting skills and works somewhat like knitting would.
To do Tunisian crochet you need a special hook. These hooks come in different sizes and styles. Some are just really long crochet hooks with a tapered end so the stitches don't fall off, others look like normal crochet hooks with long wires at the end. Either one should work the same as the other.
The first project I did using this stitch was a washcloth. With a washcloth, I only used 26 stitches so it was small enough to use just a regular crochet hook (they were a little cramped but it worked fine for me).Like regular crochet sometimes it is hard to find the last stitch, so it is very important to keep count and remember to work all the way to the end of that stitch. It is sometimes hard to work into the last chain. Keep in mind the last "loop" will be doubled and it would look like part of the "chain".
Also, something to remember with TSS, is that there is no turning your work, you have to work one way and back to count as one row. (To help me learn how to do this style of crochet I watched this youtube video).
Starting a Tunisian Project:
Any Tunisian project starts the same way a normal crochet project starts, with the chain. For this washcloth, the starting chain was 26. As with regular crochet for the TSS, you want to skip the first stitch and work into the second from the hook. Next, you will start the same way as you would a normal single crochet, but do not finish it. Once you have pulled a loop onto your hook, go to the next stitch and repeat.
Once you have all the stitches on your hook, you will have to pull through them to get back to the end you started at. (You always start at the same end, and never chain before starting.) To pull through you want to yarn over and pull through the first stitch. This is the only time you will pull through one stitch on your hook. The rest of the stitches you will yarn over and pull through two, all the way to the end.
This is what one row should look like when you are done. As you can see this process results in "ribs" or bars running across the row. This is the stitches, and where you will work into. Make sure to skip the first stitch (you can see the hook is touching the stitch to skip in this photo), and work the rest. Continue this until you have the length you desire. (Usually, I stitch to 26 by 26 but 28 x 28 is a good size also.)
Finishing a Tunisian Project:
To finish a TSS project, you will work into the stitches the same way you did before. This time however you will slip stitch and always keep ONLY one stitch on the hook. At the end of the row, once you have done the last slip stitch you pull the end through the way you would a normal crochet project.
This is what a finished dish cloth will look like one side it will have the "ribs" the other side will have a knitted look.
(You may notice the ends rolling up, you can place them under a heavy book to help stop this, you can "block" them or you can try doing a row of single crochet before starting the Tunisian Simple Stitch part of the project.)
The video below shows Claudette Crochet demonstrating
