Friday, March 13, 2015

Crochet Patterns

Been doing tons of googling but not much that has inspired a blog post.  Mainly, I have been searching for crochet patterns.  I recently got back into crocheting after a 20-year absence but it feels like I never stopped!  My first project was a shawl using Lion Brand Homespun. 
My goodness, is that a challenging yarn to use!  The stitches end up not being very well defined and it was difficult to keep track of where I was on the pattern.  Also, the yarn kept getting "stuck" on the crochet hook.  In addition to the problems I was having with the yarn, the end of my crochet hook kept poking my hand and it was getting so sore I had to limit the amount of time spent crocheting.
I thought I would see if there were padded crochet hooks and I came across the Clover brand.  They were more expensive than other hooks but I decided to treat myself.  They are amazing!  Definitely worth the extra price.  The handles are nicely padded, color-coded, and most amazing of all they made crocheting with the Homespun yarn so much easier!  The yarn didn't get "stuck" and I was able to work must faster.  I love them and ended up getting about seventeen Clover crochet hooks!



Anyway, after completing my shawl I decided to make some dishcloths.  My biggest complaint about dishcloths is that they can end up smelling rather quickly so I wanted to make quite a few so they could be switched out often.  I got some cotton yarn and then I searched for crochet patterns.  I found several that were okay but... I don't know... they just didn't seem right.  So, I ended up with my own designs!  Below are my two favorites.


The blue one on the left was my first attempt and I decided to just make a simple square.  I skipped every other stitch in order to make an open weave so it would dry out quicker.  I also decided to use a strand of size 10 crochet thread with the strand of cotton yarn in order to increase its "scrubability".  This one has been used and laundered a couple of times already and works exactly as I wanted.  I went fancier with the one on the right.  I used two colors and made a more open weave.  I again used a strand of crochet thread throughout the dishcloth but this time I added an edging of picot stitches using three strands of crochet thread.  It makes for a great scrubby!