Sunday, June 29. 2008
Crochet? No way!
I must admit that crochet is not my favorite technique. I do like some crocheted things. For example, I have two bedspreads that my grandmother crocheted with very fine white cotton yarn that I think are just beautiful – and I am completely in awe when I think of the amount of time and engergy that she invested in them.
Here's one corner of the bedspread....
And here is a close-up. As you might be able to see, the entire thing is made of hexagonal crocheted motifs, with “popcorn” bobbles. My grandmother made at least 200 motifs for each bedspread! The mind boggles...
I know how to crochet, and well enough that I occasionally translate crochet magazines or instructions from German into English. If I run into a problem when I am translating, I take a crochet hook and some yarn and work the piece in question so that I can see what is meant, so that I can explain it better in the instructions.
But somehow, it‘s just not my favorite technique.
One of the companies that I occasionally do translating work for is “Coats”, here in Germany. Last year they gave me some lovely cotton yarn for Christmas.
It is one of the modern space-dyed yarns – turquoise as the main color, with “spots” of yellow, pink, light green, and a darker blue. They gave me 10 skeins (500 g) which I thought was a very generous gift and I wanted to do something really special with it, but what?
First I tried knitting with it, but I didn‘t really like the way that the color repeat of the yarn turned into a pattern repeat on the knitted swatch. Even when I used yarn from two balls alternately, it still ended up making a pattern which I didn‘t really like. Plus which, I wasn‘t sure how far the 500 g would go – enough for a garment for me to wear? or for my granddaughter? (The colors made it clear that none of the grandsons would be interested.)
So I put the yarn aside for a while, hoping that inspiration would strike some day... and it did. On an afternoon‘s trip to the local pool one sunny day, I realized that I didn‘t really have a good beach (or swimming pool) bag. The wheels started turning (so to speak).
I could use my yarn to make a beach bag. Cotton is great for carrying damp towels and suits and 500 g of yarn should make a fairly good-sized bag.
But what technique? Well, I already knew that I didn‘t really like the way the yarn knit up, so that left crochet. Hmmmm.... At first I considered just working the entire bag in single crochet (double crochet in the UK). A swatch made with single crochet looked good and the spots of color were distributed evenly over the surface – no unwanted pattern repeat.
The disadvantage to single crochet, was that I wasn‘t exactly sure how far my 500 g were going to get me. How many ch should I crochet for the foundation? If I crocheted too many, I would have a wide, but not very deep, bag. Too few ch would result in the opposite. It was during this ruminating that I remembered the good old granny square.
When I was a teen-ager/young adult (during the time of “flower power” ), granny squares were everywhere! Afghans, vests, hats, jackets, bags, etc. etc. – all were made from granny squares. Granny squares are easy to crochet. I hadn‘t crocheted one in years, but I only had to work one square following the instructions, and I had the pattern memorized. Granny squares are good take-along projects – things don‘t get big and bulky until you have to start sewing/crocheting them together. And best of all, for my current considerations, I could just keep making granny squares until my yarn ran out – and then decide how to sew them all together for my bag.
I crocheted a couple of test squares using various sizes of crochet hooks and decided that I liked the looks of the square crocheted with a 3.5 mm hook the best. So I was off and crocheting....
Here‘s one of the squares. It doesn‘t really look like a classic “granny”, where each round is worked with a different color, but I like the way that the yarn colors are “splashed” over the square. I found that I could crochet 5 to 6 squares with one ball of yarn, which meant that I could crochet somewhere between 50 and 60 squares if I used all my yarn, but I also needed shoulder straps, so I crocheted them first – to keep from forgetting them later.
I finally made 44 squares, which meant that I could sew two sections, each 4 x 4 squares, for the front and back of the bag and still have 12 squares to make the sides and the base (4-4-4).
Here‘s my finished bag. I have already used it for the most recent outing to the pool and it easily carries my suit, flip-flops, sunscreen, and several towels. I had debated with myself about whether or not it should be lined, but decided that I would use it for a while before making a decision. The bag itself doesn‘t seem to be stretching with use. The straps have indeed stretched, but that‘s not really a problem, so I will be leaving it unlined. When I showed the bag to my daughter, she said, “How retro! You‘re right in style!” What do you know! That had never occured to me.
I‘m still not what you would call a crochet enthusiast, but I did enjoy crocheting the granny squares and they are a great way to use up scraps of yarn (of which I have plenty) when each round is worked with a different color. It‘s not like I really need a new project to work on, but a granny square afghan would be fun to make...no rush...just one square at a time...as I said, a great take-along project....
In case you‘re interested, here are the instructions for my granny square:
Abbreviations: ch = chain stitch; slst = single crochet (UK)/ slip stitch (US);
tr = treble (UK)/ double crochet (US)
Base ring: 4 ch, join with slst.
Rnd 1: 5 ch (count as 1 tr and 2 ch), [3 tr into ring, 2 ch] 3 times, 2 tr into ring, slst to 3rd of the 5 ch at beginning of rnd.
Rnd 2: Slst into next ch, 5 ch (count as 1 tr and 2 ch), 3 tr into same space, * 1 ch, skip over 3 tr, [3 tr, 2 ch, 3 tr] into next space; repeat from * twice, 1 ch, skip over 3 sts, 2 tr into same space as 5 ch at beginning of rnd, slst to 3rd of the 5 ch at beginning of rnd.
Rnd 3: Slst into next ch, 5 ch (count as 1 tr and 2 ch), 3 tr into same space, * 1 ch, skip over 3 tr, 3 tr into next space, 1 ch, skip over 3 tr**, [3 tr, 2 ch, 3 tr] into next space; repeat from * twice, and from * to ** again, 2 tr into same space as 5 ch at beginning of rnd, slst to 3rd of the 5 ch at beginning of rnd.
Rnd 4: Slst into next ch, 5 ch (count as 1 tr and 2 ch), 3 tr into same space, * [1 ch, skip over 3 tr, 3 tr into next space] twice, 1 ch, skip over 3 tr**, [3 tr, 2 ch, 3 tr] into next space; repeat from * twice, and from * to ** again, 2 tr into same space as 5 ch at beginning of rnd, slst to 3rd of the 5 ch at beginning of rnd.
Fasten off.
Once you understand what‘s happening, the pattern is easy to remember.
