…So I’m in the testing phase of a new crochet blanket. (This is the one I’m making from Sheep(ish), btw.) I’ve hit a snag, and thought your excellent brains might help me figure out how to fix it. Up for some crochet counseling, Doctors?

Please excuse the photos taken in different lighting. What I’m after is a pattern of large (8″ x 8″ or so) squares, each with a random stripe pattern. The squares contain four colors overall, and the squares are joined with the gunmetal grey you see in the first photo.

I like how it’s coming together – the half-double crochet is the perfect low-attention stitch for when I’m watching football games (which is, after all, when I work on this thing). And I like the challenge of coming up with a different stripe/color configuration for each square.

Here’s my problem: I did a test-join yesterday. I decided I wanted bigger bands of the grey between squares, so I added a border of double crochet around each square and then joined them with single crochet in the same color. I like the width now, but I hate how uneven and spidery those side edges of each square look. Since I’m stitching into the sides of the squares, there aren’t nice, even, regular places to put my hook like there are on the top and bottom edges.

…So how can I get around that? Should I do a side border of single crochet in the same colors as the square along the sides, so I’ll have a more regular edge to add my dc border? Or is there a cleaner way to stitch along the side edges I don’t know about?

Any wisdom you may have will make me very, very happy.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Earlier this year, I did a review of Vickie Howell’s new yarn line, Sheep(ish), for CRAFT. In the process, I whipped up a little crocheted clutch (the light blue one above, in fact).

Vickie, being an extremely nice person, said “People are going to want the pattern for that bag!” Pattern? What? I just kind of improvised it. I’m actually pretty bad with crochet patterns – reading them, that is. The abbreviations and symbols and complete lack of explanation as to why I have to add that weird increase on Row 10 – this stuff still boggles my brain all the time, and I’ve been crocheting five years.

Finally, it dawned on me: this little made-up bag is exactly the kind of project I would have liked to encounter when I’d reached the point where I was getting competent at crochet, tired of making scarves, but not ready to take on more complex patterns yet.

So I decided to write up my process of improvising, and Caron was nice enough to send me some more Sheep(ish) to play around with. (I’m working with Pumpkin(ish) and Camel(ish), to be exact. The turquoise is one of the many mystery yarns from my garage.)

OK, so, to begin, you need one rectangle of crochet. What gauge? What size? Don’t worry about it! What stitch do you like best? Make a base chain that’s a little shorter than the width you want the finished bag to be. Then start crocheting. Continue until it’s the length you need. Then stop. Block it if you need to, and weave in any ends.

You can use literally any stitch pattern here. If you look up above, you’ll see one I made with alternating stripes of double and single crochet. You can use a lace pattern meant for thread – that’s what I’ve done here. Nobody can send you to jail for that. If you have a scarf pattern you like, make just a section of it. Play around. Change colors. (One thing I love about Sheep(ish) is that it takes repeated frogging beautifully.)

Next, fold your rectangle in half, so that the side of your crochet design that you like best faces out. Don’t worry about what the “right” and “wrong” sides are supposed to be. Just pick what you like. You can even turn the pattern on its side if you like. The striped bag up top there, I made with what’s supposed to be the wrong side facing out, and I turned it on its side. I liked how it looked better. Crochet needs to get over its own rules sometimes.

Also, remind yourself once again how nice it would be if you remembered to apply hand lotion before taking photographs.

Now we’ll seam up the sides of this bag. Single crochet works great for that. If you’re crocheting into the sides of your rectangle, as I am here, it may be difficult to see where, exactly, you’re supposed to put your hook through. Don’t worry too much about it! Try to space your single crochet fairly evenly, putting your hook through the rectangle wherever you need to in order to do that. If you use a color that matches your rectangle, it won’t show.

If you aren’t familiar with single crocheting a seam, this how-to is excellent.

Once you have both sides seamed up and the ends of the seams woven in, it’s time to add a flap to your bag. Look at the top opening, and decide which edge is the back. Then, start a new row of crochet along that edge. You can use any stitch you like here – I usually use half-double or double crochet. (This is all U.S. terminology, by the way. Do not get me started on why stitch names in the U.S. and U.K. are so confusingly different.)

Crochet your flap until it’s almost the length you want. If you want a buttonhole in this thing, you’ll need to add that into the second-to-last row of stitching.

…And to do that, you’ll need to know where the center of your flap is. That’s not hard; just count how many stitches you have in this row.

If it’s an odd number, the center point will be a stitch, as shown here.

If it’s an even number, the center point will be the spot between two stitches.

Either way, life is good. Put some kind of marker there.

Then, on your next row, you’ll skip a stitch or two on either side of that center point. Make a chain for each skipped stitch. Then continue stitching as normal.

How many stitches do you need to skip? Well, that depends on the size of the button you want to have on this puppy. Take a moment and rummage through your button stash and find a beauty. How big is it? Your buttonhole should be just a little smaller.

When you add the last row of stitches, just stitch into the opening you made. Since I skipped three stitches here, I made three half-double crochets into the opening. Or, you can make more stitches into the opening and create a little shape there. Try stuff – it’s good for you.

Since we’re working without a pattern, we can improvise anytime we like. Sometimes improvements are an additive process. See how the flap came out a little too small here? I could have frogged it and tried again, but instead…

…I added a border. Problem solved!

Remember, you can add a crochet edging anywhere. You can switch yarns anywhere. You can do anything you want.

If you’re using a lace pattern, or planning to carry something that can poke itself out between the crochet, then you might want to line your bag. I just make a simple fabric bag that’s slightly smaller than the crochet, pop it in, and hand-sew the top edge to the crochet. Then sew on the button and you’re done.

Is this show-quality construction? Nope. But that’s not the point. The point is, you made this without having to rely on a pattern. It’s your original creation! What else can you make patternless?

A few notes on the yarn:

I’m really liking this Sheep(ish). It’s 70% acrylic/30% wool, and has a pleasing handspun look. It’s extremely soft and makes a nice, drape-y fabric, even in single crochet, and even as tightly as my Type-A hands like to crochet. The color range is gorgeous! Very retro and saturated.

You can find this stuff at indie stores, Jo-Ann, and some Michael’s. (There’s a handy map on Vickie’s website.) I just scored some in those blues and greens above to make a new blanket. Without a pattern, I might add. Stay tuned.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I thought I’d pop in a quick update on my granny square blanket before the weekend. I’m finally joining squares!

Commenters on the last post about this project recommended Carina’s excellent tutorial for this double-crochet joining method. I love how it looks! The purple needed a little extra width, and the join adds just enough.

(Apologies for the bad photo.)

Since we’re having no summer to speak of here in PDX, I’ve been able to work on this wool-based baby most days without discomfort. (This climate state of affairs is awesome when I want to work on my blanket, but the cause of much whining by me the rest of the time. I’m fickle that way when I need to wear my fleece in July.)

Some days, though, I’m not allowed to work on it at all.

This is not only my first blanket, it’s the first crochet project in my history that has progressed this far without turning hideous in my hands. When it’s done, I may just carry it around with me, Linus-style.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

We’re being pretty serious around here these days, so I wanted to inject a little crafty eye candy. My granny square blanket is at last moving forward!

It all started with the red squares, and then you helped me figure out the other colors. (Thank you!)

Thanks to the NFL regular season, I’m exactly this far along. And happily, this is one of those rare crochet projects that hasn’t yet grown inexplicably ugly in my hands. (I do not have skillz.)

They need blocking, of course, but you get the idea.

So, what’s your favorite square-joining method?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So, my iPhoto crashed this week, and in the process of completely reorganizing my bloated photo inventory, I found this little brooch. It’s from something I worked on earlier this year, and forgot all about.

But it’s actually kinda cute, isnt’ it? It would look nice on a knit hat or scarf. Here’s the simplest of tutorials for how to make it.

The Harder Part:

1. Make six Dorset buttons, using my tutorial from a while back. You’ll need five smaller ones and one larger one.

The Super Easy Part:

2. Arrage the five smaller buttons in a circle, so they all touch at the edges.

3. Glue the larger button over the center of the smaller buttons. Let the glue set.

4. Cut a couple of felt leaves, if you like, and glue them on the back of the flower. Glue a circle of felt over the back as well, to cover up the center.

5. Glue on a pin back. And voila!

If you make one, I’d love it if you shared a photo in the CraftyPod Reader Projects Flickr Pool!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I’ve said it before, but you people have excellent brains.

I was absolutely blown away by all your fascinating color perspectives on my newfound blanket project. Seriously, you helped me see these little reddish granny squares in a multitude of new lights, and you got me way excited about the possibilities. All of this at a moment when I was overloaded with work and really needed the mental candy. Thank you so much!

So this weekend, I finally had a little time to play with next steps.

I popped over to ColourLovers and used your suggestions to play around with some possible color palettes.

It’s so interesting, how many different lights this red can be cast in! I’d love to hear your input on these directions.

(Setting aside for the moment the question of whether I’ll actually be able to find yarns in these colors. Practicalities, Schmacticalities.)

The two above were first efforts. I like the way the five-color palette looks, but ultimately, I think five colors might be too much stim for this variegated red yarn.

The neutral palette on the left has a nice graphical quality about it, and the one on the right is very autumn-y.

…But if I’m being honest, these two are the current front runners. (After a weekend of going back and looking at them dozens of times. You know how that goes.)

The one on the left came out of a total “what if” scenario: what if I could make this totally-unrelated red into something that would fit into my living room, which has a lot of blue and green in it? I must admit, I kind of like the vaguely 1970s quality.

Do any of you know of a color tool that allows me to build a pattern of concentric squares, by any chance? I can’t seem to decipher ColourLovers’ pattern-making tool.

…And with that, I’m looking forward to hearing what your excellent eyes and minds have to say. This project is way more fun with you involved.

UPDATE: Thanks to busgirlbrown, who commented about using MS Paint to graph her square patterns, I was able to figure out a hack to Pages and make me some squares! And they definitely rule out palettes #4 and #6 for me. What do you think?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So, back in the significantly-more-carefree month of June, I thought, “I need a crochet project.” I had this cone of stranded yarn that I’d picked up from Yarnia on clearance, and I thought I’d fulfill a longtime dream of mine – to make a scarf from small granny squares.

…But then I got curious to see just how many little squares I could get out of this cone. Well, it’s clear at this point that I’ll have enough to make a great big blanket.

And that’s where I could use some help from you fiber-lovers. See the yarn? It’s mostly purple, but that one strand of bright red is really prominent. Not only that, the variegation makes the squares pretty visually complex. I think I need another solid color or two to border these little grannies and give the blanket more harmony.

These red grannies are about 3″ square (or they will be once they’re blocked). What colors would you use between them? I’m leaning toward neutrals, but yarn-color-selection is not my forte. I’d love some suggestions!

(Oh, and while I’m here, I should let you know that my video blog and Google Analytics tutorials have had to go on hiatus until after Labor Day. Sorry, friends – I am up to my eyeballs in work deadlines for a while. The Crafty Goodness will return, don’t worry!)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Susan was lovely enough to grab this book for me on a recent thrifting trip. She knows what I like!

Needlepoint: The Third Dimension (Copyright 1979) is a freaking masterpiece of 1970′s needlepointy goodness – one which (dare I say it) goes way beyond plastic canvas.

Case in point: let me zoom in on the cover a bit. This is an entire needlepoint landscape, my friends – complete with foliage, a pond, and what appear to be french knot flowers. Wow!

Is this not the best bulletin board you’ve ever seen? Everything about those flowers and their basket is needlepoint. Oh – except for the pipe cleaner edging, which makes the whole thing even more awesome.

Speaking of awesome, this piece needs two photos to communicate all of it’s awesome. So first, this wider shot, which shows an interesting table. But what’s recessed into the top there?

Oh, it’s a needlepoint landscape, complete with topographic contours and dimensional trees!

I might need to go lie down just for a moment….

I also find this scissor case, encrusted with dimensional flowers, really charming.

(Apologies for the image quality here. It’s not always easy to photograph 1970′s printing well.)

Now, this bad-boy is made from plastic canvas. And that is some serious PC engineering. Oh- and, I want one.

Also, Roy is one lucky stiff.

In all seriousness, I’m super excited and seeing needlepoint in new ways now. I recently tweeted that the 70′s was the Golden Age of Craft for me. What’s your Golden Age?

(ISBN 0-13-611004-5. Googling the title turns up many copies.)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Yaaay for indie craft publishing! Knitgrrl Shannon Okey has just released a new book in print and digital formats: The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design. I’m honored to be the second stop on the blog tour.

This is a very comprehensive guide to taking your knitting (or crochet) to an income-earning level. There’s a whole lot of content here, so forgive me while I retire to a simple bulleted list for a moment. I just want you to have some scope of what the book covers:

• Social media marketing
• Alternate streams of income: teaching, freelance writing, test knitting, tech editing, selling products, and others
• Copyright, contracts, and dealing with infringement
• Producing patterns for sale
• Selling: wholesale, retail, and online
• Publishing: both through publishers and self-publishing
• Advertising options

Image by Tie Guy II, via Flickr Creative Commons

One area where the book really shines is in decoding the process of writing patterns for sale. Shannon covers setting up a style sheet for yourself, and she explores various software options, sizing, getting tech editing help, selling wholesale, taking online payments – all presented in a very useful, real-world way. It’s clear that Shannon’s been doing this for a while, and her expertise can be of tremendous help to a beginner.

Another very strong chapter is Shannon’s take on getting a book deal. She’s shared (sometimes unvarnished) insights from people in various roles in the publishing industry, and it really helps illuminate the careful stepping that’s required these days to bring a mutually-beneficial book deal into being. And she gets into specific detail on magazine article and book publishing as well as self-publishing.

Image by dutch blue, via Flickr Creative Commons

To wrap things up, Shannon conducted interviews with 32 successful knitwear designers, who are extremely honest about how they manage to make their talent into a vocation.

All in all, this is a book of realism, and that’s awesome. The mainstream publishing industry seems to crank out a lot of “How to be a Professional ___” books that offer a more pie-in-the-sky portrayal of what it takes to go pro. You can’t blame mainstream publishing – this approach probably sells more books. But making your living, even in something as fun as creating, is still about business. It still has good days and bad, and learning curves that seem daunting, and it deeply changes the way you think about creating.

It’s still completely worth doing, mind you. But Shannon’s more honest take on the whole thing will help you make much more educated decisions about this future you’re seeking.

Image by franziskas garten, via Flickr Creative Commons

Giveaway Time!

Shannon has generously donated a copy of her book for a giveaway here. (I say “generously,” because remember, this is a self-published book, and she’s fronted all the costs of production and printing.)

If you’d like to enter to win, here’s what you do: leave a comment below and tell me what your ideal career as a knitwear (or crochet) designer would look like. Be specific!

I’ll draw a winner on Thursday, July 8th at noon PST. Good luck! Oh – And…

Image by dumbledad, via Flickr Creative Commons

Support Indie Craft Publishing!

If you like this (or for that matter, any other) independently-produced craft book, remember that you play a key role in helping it find its audience. Indie publishers don’t have big corporate PR companies at their disposal. So, check out this PDF from Shannon, which lists some ways you can help get the word out.

Other Blog Tour Stops:

• 3 July, Annie Modesitt, @modeknit
• 5 July, Diane Gilleland, @SisterDiane
• 7 July, Natalie Zee Drieu, @craft
• 9 July, Marnie MacLean, @MarnieMacLean
• 11 July, Daniella Cortez/Craft Culture, @danidocrafty
• 13 July, Kim Werker, @kpwerker
• 15 July, Marly Bird/Yarn Thing, @yarnthing
• 17 July, Ellen Gormley, @GoCrochet
• 19 July, Kerrie Allman, @yarnforwardmag
• 21 July, Vickie Howell, @vickiehowell
• 23 July, Melissa Wehrle, @neoknits
• 25 July, Julie Holetz, @skamama
• 27 July, Donna Druchunas, @druchunas
• 29 July, Amy O’Neill Houck, @plainsight
• 31 July, Jasmin Canty/Knitmore Girls, @knitmoregirls

UPDATE:
Congratulations to Sharon, our winner!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I get thousands of emails each week, begging me to offer more plastic canvas coverage on this blog.

(…Okay, well – perhaps that actually happens only in my mind. But still.)

I’ve been noodling with these needlepoint pendants lately, and liking both the process and finished product. They make up quickly, and use up odds and ends of embroidery floss. Plastic canvas makes a great base for these, because it adds a “heft” that helps the pieces drape well.

Also, it’s plastic canvas.

But not just any old plastic canvas!

I used 10-count PC for this project, which is a different animal from the bigger 7-count stuff you usually see at your local craft store. (In the photo above, it’s the stuff in the center. The “count” refers to the number of squares per inch, by the way.) 10-count has a finer finish, which takes very nicely to six-strand or pearl cotton embroidery floss.

If you can’t find 10-count canvas locally, you can get it online. It’s great stuff! (If you’re curious, the canvas on the right is 14-count. I’ve made little gift boxes with it.)

…So, to begin your pendant, cut two same-size pieces of canvas. You can make them any size and shape you like. You may have a specific needlepoint design in mind – and in that case, you’d want to count the number of squares you’ll need as you’re cutting the canvas.

Or, you can take my patented lazy approach, and just cut a shape and figure out the needlepoint later.

Then, stitch both pieces. I like to stitch them differently, so my pendants are reversible, but you can also make them identical. I’m using a crewel needle here, because it fits nicely through the canvas holes, and a single strand of pearl cotton. If you’re using six-strand floss, just use all six strands.

I’m using good old Continental stitch and just playing with colors, but remember – there are so many interesting needlepoint stitches in the world! These are tiny blank canvases – so have fun!

(Incidentally, if you want to sew buttons or sequins to your pendant, this is the time to do that, too.)

Now, we’ll stitch the two pieces together. Place them so the right sides are facing out. Thread your needle with a double strand of floss – it provides better coverage at the edges than a single strand.

Pass the needle up through the top layer of canvas only, as shown.

Pull the needle through until you have about 1″ of floss. Lay this between the two pieces of canvas, as shown. Then take your next stitch by passing the needle up through both layers of canvas together.

Repeat this stitch to cover the edges of the canvas. (It’s called a whip stitch, by the way.) As you stitch, catch that tail of floss in your stitches, as shown here.

Stitch your way around the pendant. To fully cover each corner, take three stitches in the corner hole.

When you’ve stitched all the way around the pendant, it’s time to finish off your floss. To do this, pass your needle carefully between the two layers of canvas, and back out the side, as shown here.

Use a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull the needle and floss through. Seriously, you’ll need the pliers. Unless you possess super-human strength.

Clip the excess floss close to the edge of the pendant.

Get a nice, big jump ring, like a 7mm or 8mm. This is the proper way to open a jump ring – you twist it open a bit.

Carefully feed the jump ring through the canvas – pliers are helpful here, too.

If you want your pendant attached to a chain, you can also feed the chain link onto the jump ring now.

Then, close the jump ring. (Here’s how, if you aren’t familiar.)

…And you’re done!

I’m thinking these have some interesting mixed-media possibilities, because you can add buttons and beads easily, or embroider on top of the needlepoint. You could even applique some fabric over the needlepoint. Heck, you could even try stamping or painting over it.

If you make one of these, I’d love to add a photo of it to the CraftyPod Flickr group! Just email me or comment here, won’t you?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

If you’re a CraftyPod subscriber, you can get this show and over 100 others, plus two new episodes each month. Click here to learn more!

You can also enjoy the current archive of free podcasts over here.

In this show:

• An interview with Tara Swiger, an accomplished knitting teacher who has a lot of interesting things to say about teaching a craft.

• We talk about what it’s like to teach one-on-one vs. in a group setting.

• Some discussion of how different people’s learning styles affect their approach to crafting, and how a good teacher can help

• Some good ideas for starting up a teaching practice in your own community.

Links:

• Check out Tara’s online yarn store, Blonde Chicken Boutique, and her new brick-and-mortar shop, A Novel Yarn.

• Want to meet Tara on Twitter? Here she is!.

• And I highly recommend Tara’s Learn to Knit Kit of you feel knitting-challenged.

You might also enjoy this interview Kim Werker did with Tara about social media and crafty businesses.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Happy Groundhog Day! I finished my entry in the Groundhog-Along just in the nick of time.

There’s a lot of cute critters to see in the Flickr Group. And if you have a hankering to make your own, June’s pattern is just excellent.

Times like these, words fail to capture the excitement of a giant squirrel predicting the weather. :-)

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Woo-Hoo! The ever-talented Lee has offered up one of her Connect-the-Dots Stitch Sets to give away on this here blog.

I think these are absolutely brilliant. Part embroidery, part game. You begin with a piece of numbered cloth. Pop it in your hoop, stitch from one number to the next, and watch the image appear.

What’s even cooler is, each stitch set comes with five designs to embroider, but four of them are a mystery – you have to stitch them to find out what they are!

You can win your choice of one of Lee’s four stitch sets – just leave a comment here and tell me which of your favorite crafts feels most game-like to you. I’ll choose a winner at random on Saturday, January 30. International readers, you’re most welcome to enter.

…And incidentally, if you link over here and scroll down, you’ll find a free connect-the-dots pattern to print out and try!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Ellynz, our winner! Emailing you for shipping instructions….

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

There are many reasons to love CRAFT, but one of my biggest is that they let me do stuff like this. Check out my tutorial over there for this crafty storage box.

…Why yes, it is made of plastic canvas! But I added some fabric inserts to change up the look.

Also, days and days of cold, grey weather make me craft in the brightest colors I can find.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

(Photo by June Gilbank, used with permission.)

While we’re extolling the virtues of Twitter here, let me tell you about one of the funnest craft-alongs I’ve seen in a while. It was born from some seemingly-random chat on Twitter last week.

June Gilbank is a wonderful designer of crochet patterns, and she recently released one for the above groundhog, just in time to get it made before February 2nd. (That’s Groundhog Day here in the US.)

June is also a fan of the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day – as am I, and as are several others on Twitter. And we were all trading lines from the film on Twitter one morning, and the Groundhog-along was born!

There’s a good-sized group forming now, and we’re all making a crochet groundhog before February 2nd. If you’d like to join us, you can get the pattern here, and join the Ravelry group and Flickr group. Oh – and there’s a hashtag, of course: #groundhogalong.

And may I say, BING!!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!