Thursday, January 27, 2011

I know..I know...

I know I guess I probably shouldn't be trying to skip ahead of the game, but I heard of this book on one of those knitting shows I like (I think Knit and Crochet Today or Knitting Daily), and I had to get it. I checked it out from my local library. I'm excited to write down some of the patterns from the book, and take notes on it.
That's been my goal for a while now, to actually make something I can wear. Besides a hat, I mean. Like maybe making a skirt suit or somehing like that. I love this dress that I saw on the cover of the book.
Instead of increases and decreases, the author and crocheter of this book uses graduated stitches. Maybe my first thing out of this book, would be a skirt. I think I saw it on the second page. Anyway, after the gray beret, and unless the lady that I made the gray beret for doesn't want anything else, I will start on some projects from this book. (And then maybe finish up some of those "unfinished" projects that I have).

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Crochet: Second Beret

I'm on to my second beret. The first one that I made, she loved it. And wanted another one in gray. So I bought this yarn, in a "heather gray" color. It wasn't too expensive either. JoAnn's was having a sale. But I wonder why they always have a sale, when I always have a 50% coupon for their store. *sigh* Oh well.
I never really paid attention to this part of the package. I don't understand at all, how to read the instructions for what size hook to use. I understand it for the knitting part, for crocheting, I don't get it. I think it said "I", so I was assuming it meant to use an "I" hook for this yarn.

I have an "I" hook, but it looked too big. The oragne one is an "I" hook. The purple one is an "H" hook, and then the turquoise and lavender are both "G" hooks. I think, from what I have read, heard, and even experienced myself, you can go a size up or down with the hook sizes, depending on your preference. So that's what I decided to do. I'm using a "G" hook. The lavender hook didn't work well for me, even though it's a "G" hook. Maybe because it's plastic. I'm used to this aluminum kind of hooks.

So here we go.....



I'm sure I am going to have more yarn left over after the beret is done. I'm thinking of trying to crochet a scarf to go with it using the extra yarn that would be leftover. Hopefully she'll like a scarf too.
The one thing that I am not sure of, and maybe there are two different ways to crochet a scarf, but it looks like you can either work a scarf from side to side, like vertical to vertical or you can work it like a giant circle. Maybe not circle, but a giant oblong.
Anyway, I am going to be looking at more crochet scarf videos on YouTube to get the real scoop on how it's done.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Crochet: Beret Finished

Here I am measuring the beret. I wanted to get it to 12 inches across, from one side to the other. I didn't get it that long, maybe about 11 inches. But that's okay, because the person I made this for, loved it.
I was able to keep the beret flat through the whole thing. Woohoo! It didn't get too wavy or start to bowl up too much. I think I had to unravel it one time, and that was it.

Here's my very first beret that I tried to do. As you can see it's so wavy. I never was able to figure out how to fix it.
Here's the two of my berets together. The one with the blue/green yarn coming out of it is the new one, the finished one.
Tada!!!!! Finished beret. Mary is modeling it for me. I did it!!!!

This is part of the new beret. I couldn't figure out how to move this picture to the top, so it's out of sequence, but this is where the beret is starting to bowl up a little bit. I think around this time, is when I started the decreasing.



So I did mess up a little bit, but I don't know where. My beret didn't go exactly the way the instructions said, but I think it looks alot better than what I had tried to do on my own.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Crochet: Beret

Beret, beret, beret.
I have about three different patterns for a crochet beret. I'm beginning to understand the main idea of a beret is that you need to keep it flat, until it's at the size that you want it, and then you can decrease. I followed from a video I saw on YouTube, but I think I did something wrong, because they started decreasing, and I was nowhere near to where I wanted the hat to be as far as circumference wise. So I'm thinking I might have to try and figure it myself, as to how to keep going until I am ready to decrease. I think I want this beret to be about 12 inches from one side to another, then I will start decreasing.

I would say it's about 7 inches at the present moment. Still a ways to go. I started a beret a while ago, I can't remember when. I don't like the way my first crochet beret turned out, and also, I could never fix it so that it would stop getting wavy.

Here's a link to my other "berets", that I tried to finish but never quite got around to it. First Beret Pic and Second Beret Pic.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Crochet Video

Me crocheting my first beret. This video was kind of a while ago. I have since moved on from this beret (I'll explain later in another post). Just wanted to see if this video would come up and also, how it looked.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Unfinished


All my unfinished work. What a mess. I see something on tv, then I get an idea, and start pulling out some yarn out of my bag, and start knitting, then put it down, and it stays down for months. I hate that. But what I hate even more, is that it's like that with a lot of things in my room. Piles! Hate em.
And the only way to get through a pile is to go through them. But it has to be done. Can't get away from that. Anyway, after I finishe getting rid of all my paper piles, this is my next task.
*Sigh*

Crochet Vs. Knit Part 2

Here is another comparison of two hats, that I have completed. The green one is knitted and the pink one I crochet. Just like the comparison of the green hat and the brown hat, I think they both came out okay. They both look well made. (At least to me). Just for me personally, I know what I am going to stick with, when it comes to how I want to make a hat! Crocheting all the way! Here's a link to the comparison I made with the brown hat and the green hat.

Crochet: Second Crochet Hat Lost Pics


I found these two pictures also, on my disk. I knew I had more pictures than what I had added to my second crochet hat projetc. Here's the link to that one.

Crochet: Third Hat Finished

I took another picture of this hat, but like a silly, I forgot my memory stick wasn't in the phone when I took the picture, so it actually saved to my phone, which doesn't help. But I did finish. I think in this picture I have maybe three more rows to go, and I would be done.