Holding Tension in Crochet

If you have been around my blog for a number of years you may have already heard some of these stories but it's always worth sharing again. My mother started teaching me to crochet when I was 9 years old. I had some little Barbie/Kelly dolls that I loved but they needed blankets and clothes. Instead of mum just making the stuff for us (my sister and me) she handed me a crochet hook and some 8ply Acrylic yarn. Then mum taught me the basics, chain stitch, double crochet and all that. Since then I have forgotten and retaught myself a couple of times.

Amongst all that my grandma got a hold of me, meaning that she handed me some knitting needles (fairly certain it was at my request) and taught me to knit. When knitting my grandma focused a lot on the tension and making sure it is being kept even. I was also taught the English method meaning the tension is being held in the right hand not the left.

Cue me falling back into crochet again because I always go round in circles with these two crafts and I just work with what I have. I fell hard into making toys (all those cute little amigurumi!) The little characters that you have to keep VERY tight tension with. I fell into very bad habits, though I didn't realise it at the time. I would make the stitch and pull the yarn down to make it very tight. This worked with toys but I'm realising now it really really really doesn't work as I start to move into clothes and stuff.

These past couple of weeks something just clicked. I knew I had this habit of pulling down but I was watching a YouTube tutorial and watching her hold her tension and something just hit me. I watched the way she pulled the thread through and how she didn't pull the thread down and for once I could see the way she was holding the thread steady in her left hand and holding the tension the whole way. See the video just below.

I don't know how I couldn't work that out but finally it clicked. Also I just managed to do it. No fuss it just made sense. I hold my yarn differently to her, I hold it in my left hand in the exact same way my grandma taught me to hold my yarn for knitting in my right hand. But how I hold it was never the problem I just wasn't holding the tension the whole way through the stitch. DUH! It seems like such a simple thing to say but it really does make a difference and I am actually making a crochet fabric that is much looser and just sits nicer all around.

 

Isn't it funny how you can do something for years and then something just hits and you realise where you've been going wrong this whole time. Oh well... I hope you enjoy this realisation as it's been a great thing for me to realise.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin


p.s. amigurumi wants to be spell corrected to fumigator ... apparently that's not a word :)

Friday finds: Homebody Sweater

Ohk I did say back when I started this last year that this was going to become a regular thing but it just didn't work out like that. However, I have found that the more regularly I write and post the better I feel about writing and posting. The words come easier the more I write and I figure that's a good thing to keep practicing as I have two big 1000 word assignments this semester.

So onto my Friday find for this week! Not a video, I am currently obsessed with this pattern.

The Homebody Sweater

Photo courtesy of MegMadeWithLove

So obsessed actually that I have started making it for myself! Yes I am actually CROCHETING an item of clothing that isn't a shawl or beanie! I really found myself liking this style of clothing last winter and enjoying the sort of lazy jumpers that you just throw on at home and lounge around in.

Now being me of course I am not doing it in boring grey... no I'm doing it in purple. I have three skeins of Value Spot Saver yarn from Spotlight and we shall see if it is enough. Actually thinking of heading to spotlight and getting either another skein or another colour to create a contrasting stripe.

My Homebody Sweater in purple

The colour is really not accurate but it's such a deep purple that getting an accurate shot is going to take time. But here is the start of my homebody sweater. Who else is tempted by this pattern or one of the other ones on her website? They are all free as well so really easy to access.

Hope you enjoyed this Friday Finds.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

New gym

A lot has changed personally in the last month and I'm not really going into details as a lot is still being worked out. BUT one thing that has truly changed for the better is I joined a new gym.

I loved the bootcamp that I was doing and it was fantastic to get me up and moving and you've heard me go on about that. But circumstances changed and I found myself needing to find a gym closer to work rather than home. I decided to join my sister's gym and organised to work with her Personal Trainer as well. I was finding that I wasn't getting as much from the bootcamp anymore and I wasn't making the gains that I really wanted to make. So I have now started strength training. Meaning I'm learning how to squat with a bar and how to do a bench press. I'm 7 weeks in and I go one morning a week with my PT and then try and get another morning with my sister. 

 This is me with 45kg on the bar :D I'm getting ready to go down so breathing in carefully.

 This is me going down I'm concentrating really hard ...

 

up up up we go. I've learnt that looking up makes you feel up! 

Don't you just love my tough mudder shirt? I'm hoping to get another this year if everything works out I'm planning on doing the full course! 

I am loving this new workout program I'm on because I feel great and I'm feeling stronger. I woke up this morning feeling Meh, but I had a standing appointment with my sister and once I was at the gym I felt so much better.

This is me at the end of my workout. I was tired and a little sore but feeling great. I don't always look amazing when I'm finished and in this case I was looking forward to my shower BUT the feeling of having worked out was amazing.


Does anyone else do weights? If you don't what do you do for exercise?

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Crafting update 24.2.19

So I start uni in a days time so I wanted to give everyone an update on how my crafts are currently tracking.

I've bought myself a cross stitch frame but haven't had a large chance to use it as I have been stitching in hand more. But I'm excited to see what will become of my large pieces when using this frame as it should make it easier.

Here it is with my snow white biscornu displayed. It does hold it nicely solid and it means I can sit more comfortably. But the real test is with my big frames and I just haven't had a chance.

I've been stitching mainly on little pieces. I managed a small finish of a kit my mum got me from Ireland when they visited. It's a key ring and I've already passed the finished piece onto my brother-in-law to be.

I've started my next piece it's a Celtic bookmark. The reason for so many little starts is that these pieces live in my purse for doing while I'm out and about. I enjoy having a project available all the time.

Then I've been working seriously on beacon at daybreak. I'm hoping to get this finished in the next couple of months but we shall see.... plans of mice and all. But for the moment I'm really enjoying working on it as it just makes me happy. It's all about the happy.

 This is where it was a couple of weeks ago.  This left corner didn't have a lot in there yet....

Significantly more on this piece. It's truly getting closer and closer. 

I have also been drawing... I did this little character one day at work but I wasn't entirely happy with the pose but didn't know how to fix it as I'd drawn it in pen. You can see the legs are very out of proportion to everything else. 

Thankfully the other day I got introduced to a program on my phone called Autodesk sketchbook. This little app is full of sooo much useability. The biggest thing is the ability to create layers and pull in pictures. So I did and I pulled in this little picture and fixed up to pose then coloured it in. So cute! I am so proud of this little character and I'm in the process of turning it into a cross stitch pattern so please stay tuned I'm about half way through at the moment. 

I'm going to leave this update here and I hope to get the pattern done in the next couple of weeks. But we shall see as time always gets away from me! 

Happy stitching, 

Caitlin

Drawing Characters: Goals

I always have wonderful crafting goals and all sorts of plans for what I'm going to accomplish, and then often fail to achieve them as the year takes it out of me.

So I am not putting any particular goals on myself, but there is one thing I would like to accomplish that is not unreasonable to do. I bought myself over the last couple of years a whole pile of art courses through a couple of mediums. I have about 5 art courses I bought through the platform Udemy.com (I recommend only buying from there during a sale) and I have some courses I bought from craftsy of pen and ink drawing. The very simple and I think quite reasonable goal is to work my way through the courses. This just means taking the time to watch the videos and start drawing more often. I have a couple of character art drawing stuff and figure drawing classes. I also have a chibi book that I started working my way through and got about half way through before I just stopped.

The other day while on the phone I was drawing in my book while listening to the instructions and this little character is what I came up with.

I love the face of this little character but I messed up the portions of the body. Although it's a chibi, therefore the body is deliberately out of portion with the head, the body needs to be in proportion with itself and I want to get better at that!

So this is my drawing goal... watch the classes that I spent money buying and practice and improve so I can draw better when I want to. I like just sitting and drawing small little things and enjoying creating characters, they're simple and easy and look so cute. I don't think this is an unreasonable goal or one that I can't do on a regular basis even once uni starts back up.

Thank you,
Caitlin