Crochetology.net

At the moment, I have two large crochet projects, The Summer Dress in Flower Motifs and The Skirt in Baby Camel Yarn. I have just wrapped them up and placed them in plastic bags as projects that I will resume work on after I feel better. Yes, I still feel a bit off.

It is not the time for large projects but I do still need to crochet. So a few days ago I started a series of small crochet projects, in particular, projects that take me back to my childhood days, when I first learned how to crochet.

My crochet inspiration at that time was McCalls. That magazine featured crochet fashion from the 70′s, and the most vivid in my mind was a bikini set and a colourful granny squares vest. I never managed to crochet any of the wearables in the magazine, I tried but it wasn’t possible for me. The patterns were too complex for an absolute beginner and all I had was DK weight acrylic yarn.

However, I felt strongly about crochet wearables – from clothes to accessories – and I forever wanted to make them so much more than other items of crochet such as household or toys.

As a kind of celebration of those youthful first crochet years browsing McCalls crochet magazine, I made these Crochet Girl Patterns. These are all quick and easy, small crochet projects that I would have loved to make as a young girl, thus the name “Crochet Girl”. These projects are all made from DK weight acrylic yarn. You can also use sport, fingering or worsted weight yarn. And of course, these projects are all crochet for wearing – accessories and small items of clothing.

So, here’s the first pattern in My Crochet Girl collection.

My Crochet Girl Cowl

Crochet Girl Cowl

Yarn: Acrylic Yarn in DK, Sport or Fingering Weight.
The cowl shown is crocheted in Red Heart Acrylic Yarn, 4-ply. Two skeins of yarn are used totalling about 20 grams of yarn. The cowl is crocheted in baby yellow colour yarn. The flowers are crocheted in baby pink and beige colour yarns.

Hook: 3.5mm crochet hook

Measurements:

Cowl measures about 15 inches long and 4 inches wide. The length can be changed to fit.

The cowl is crocheted lengthwise in rows then the buttonholes and lacey edgings are made in the round all in one piece. The flower buttons are crocheted separately and then sewn on the cowl.

Detail of the crochet flowers. Each flower is made up of two parts sewn together.

Instructions

With baby yellow yarn and 3.5mm hook make a foundation chain of 60 chain stitches to make a cowl about 15 inches long. To make in your desired length, start with a multiple of 4 chains +1.

Row 1: Chain 3 (this count as 1 double crochet), double crochet in fourth chain from hook, *chain 2, skip 2 chains, double crochet in each of the next 2 chains. Repeat from * all across to the last chain. Chain 3, turn.

Row 2: Skip the first double crochet, double crochet in the next double crochet, *chain 2, skip the chain-2 space, double crochet in each of the next 2 double crochets; repeat from * all across to the last double crochet. Chain 3, turn.

Row 3-5: Repeat row 2. Make chain 1 instead of chain 3 at the end of the row. Do not turn.

Proceed to crocheting along the narrow end of the cowl as follows:

Chain 1, in the first 2-chain space make 4 double crochets with chain 1 between them, *chain 1, single crochet in the next 2-chain space, chain 1, in the next 2-chain space make 4 double crochets with chain 1 between them, repeat from * all across the edge of the cowl. Chain 1, double crochet in the last chain.

Now working along the other narrow end of the cowl:

Chain 1, make 2 single crochets around the stems of each of the 5 double crochets. Chain 1.

Now working along the other edge of the cowl:

*Single crochet in each of the next 2 double crochets, 2 single crochets in the chain-2 space, repeat from * to the last double crochet. Chain 1.

Now working along the narrow end of the cowl worked earlier:

Slip stitch in the next 2 single crochets, 6 single crochets in the 5-chain loop, slip stitch in each of the next 2 single crochets, 6 single crochets in the next 5-chain loop, slip stitch in each of the next 2 single crochets, slip stitch in the next chain.

Finally, working along the shells made earlier:

Single crochet in chain-1 space, *chain 3, (single crochet in the next chain-1 space, chain 3) 2 times, single crochet in each of the next 2 chain-1 spaces, repeat from * all across ending with a slip stitch in the last chain-1 space. Fasten off.

Large Flower:

With baby pink yarn, chain 4. Slip stitch in the first chain to make a ring.

Round 1: Chain 1, 7 single crochet in ring. Slip stitch in the first single crochet to join.

Round 2: Chain 1, single crochet in first single crochet, *chain 8, single crochet in the next single crochet, repeat from * all around to the last single crochet, chain 8, slip stitch in the first single crochet to join. Fasten off.

Centre of Large Flower:

With beige yarn, chain 3, slip stitch in the first chain to make a ring.

Round 1: Chain 1, (single crochet in ring, chain 5) 5 times, slip stitch in the first single crochet to join. Fasten off with long tail to sew to the centre of the flower made above. Then sew to one end of the cowl aligned with the first buttonhole.

Detail of the buttonhole end of the cowl.

Small Flower:

With baby pink yarn, chain 4, slip stitch in the first chain to make a ring.

Round 1: Chain 1, 5 single crochet in ring. Slip stitch in first sigle crochet to join.

Round 2: Chain 1, single crochet in first single crochet, *chain 5, single crochet in next single crochet, repeat from * all around to the last single crochet. Chain 5, slip stitch in the first single crochet to join. Fasten off.

Centre of Small Flower:

With beige yarn, chain 3, slip stitch in the first chain to make a ring.

Round 1: Chain 1, (single crochet in ring, chain 3) 5 times. Slip stitch in the first single crochet to join. Fasten off with long tail to sew to the centre of the small flower made above. Then sew to one end of the cowl aligned with the second buttonhole.

A few days ago, I got a new Japanese pattern book, a book of Autumn-Winter crochet clothes and accessories. There are a few lace scarves in that book and I decided to appropriate them to make a skirt.

Crochet skirt in progress.

How do I know which pattern to appropriate?

There are lots of simple scarf patterns. These generally use only one block of design. However, what I wanted for a skirt was something that presented more than a single block of design since a skirt is not as flat as a scarf. A skirt has shape and volume. What I needed was a scarf pattern that presented at least two blocks of design that work well together.

My selection consists of one block of design made up of square motifs. The other block of design is made up of dc meshes. The dc mesh is also made more visually interesting by alternating rows of slanting tr’s and vertical dc clusters.

At the moment, I am very happy with this design that presents the lacy uniformity of square motifs and the variation of alternating meshes. I am also quite pleased with the way a line is made vertically on the skirt – that line where the block of motifs and the block of meshes join.

Materials

I am using dk weight baby camel yarn. Now this is not very stretchy yarn and the stitches I am using are not very stretch either. The resulting fabric will not have a lot of give which is why it is important to treat this fabric as if it were woven.

So I decided to look at some sewing patterns to see how skirts may be shaped.

Looking through various skirt styles, I am beginning to love the skirt again. I have pretty much neglected myself after getting married, not minding much my clothes or little pretty things such as make-up and accessories. It is sad since as a teenager, I was quite fond of fashion, design, and such things. Now I feel quite old and miss the brightness of my younger days.

The skirts I see while browsing through the Internet make me feel happy.

I hope to finish this crochet project soon. I also have that summer dress to look forward to finishing.