Whether you are a beginner or someone who has been doing crocheting for years, tips are always great. Tips can help you to perfect the hobby that you love. They can also be used to make the hobby easier and more fun. There are many places where someone who loves crocheting can find tips. You can even start your own list and share them with your friends.

Image from www.joykampia.com.

Sheer fabulousness.  You must check out some of Joy’s other amazing creations as well.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Owlishly gives us a fantastic and free PDF pattern for these gorgeous amigurumi hearts, in three different sizes.   Hurry over there and don’t forget to check out the other free patterns in the sidebar, and the various offerings in her store.  I’m going to see how many of these hearts I can crochet in one week!

I’ve been playing around with color work in crochet lately and I thought I’d share abit about changing colors without that slight 1/2 stitch shift that you get with most crochet work.

The samples in the pictures are all worked in single crochet and, additionally through the back loop of the stitch only, but the technique works as well with straight forward sc, hdc, dc and trbs (us)

Because the whole piece is worked in sc you can assume that every stitch I refer to is a sc.

When changing from yarn A to yarn B DO NOT complete the last stitch of A – pull a loop through the stitch in the row below and then bring the tail of yarn A to the front, yarn over and complete the stitch with color B.

·        bringing the tail of yarn A to the front places it to the back – where you want it – when you work the next row. ALWAYS bring the tail of the color you are leaving behind to the front.

·        Remember that the final yarn over of the stitch actually becomes the “top” of the next stitch – you want those colors to match – hence the yo of the new color in the last stitch of the old.

When returning to color A on the next row remember not to complete the last stitch of color B and to bring the tail of B forward.

When Color A continues past the color change in the row below just carry color B along inside the stitches – as if you were hiding an end. REMEMBER to begin carrying color B inside the stitches ONE STITCH BEFORE the last color change.

The first rules apply when the color changes line up:

·        bringing the tail of yarn A to the front places it to the back – where you want it – when you work the next row. ALWAYS brig the tail of the color you are leaving behind to the front.

When changing colors a considerable distance from the last color change bring a long LOOSE loop over to your stitch with color B and then hide that long incoming tail of color inside the stitches as you work your way across, including the stitch just before the last color change – this one may be tight and a bit difficult but the end result is much tidier that if you leave that bit of loop exposed.

Drop me a comment if anything is unclear and please post links if you use this in a project!

Toots

Sara

Hello again!

I find myself still swirling in the maelstrom of jewelry ideas so I’ll share a quick project with you.  A bitty pair of crochet earrings. Basic crochet knowledge is a must for this one – my favorite book for the home learner.

You’ll need a pair of wire cutters, copper craft wire of your choice, ear wires, jump rings, 2 focal beads, and a size G/6 or 7/4 or 4.5mm steel or aluminum crochet hook. I recommend a dedicated wire crochet hook. Though the craft wire is very maleable it can put some wear on your hook that could be detrimental to further use with snag-tastic fibers.

I have a great old pile of clip-ons that I’ll mine for beads occasionally. Be careful not to set you heart on all the beads visible on clip-ons, many times a significant number of the beads have been glued in place – especially the beads around the clip, but pendant beads are usually good to go.

Cut yourself about 1.5 yards/1.3 meters of the craft wire for each earring. You’ll need to start your crochet chain with a slip knot and do the number of chain stitches that will reach from one side of the bead to the other – for me this was 4. Now slide the long, working tail of the wire through the bead and wrap the beginning short end tightly around this to hold it in place, 3to 4 wraps should suffice, and cut away any excess of the SHORT wire. Wrap the long end of the wire back across the bead so you can resume your crochet stitches.

Chain 2 and turn the piece. One double crochet in the 3rd chain from the hook, 2 double crochets in each of the next 3 chains. Fasten off the last loop and run the remaining wire back through the bead to hide the end. Attach an ear wire with a jump ring and repeat to make a pair.

They remind me of Medusa or maybe a mid 18th century French lady with a wig, me likey. Drop a comment if you have any questions or if you finish a pair – mine took about 5 minutes

Toots