Beaded Crochet

After being late finishing last months post, I thought you deserved a quick but useful article on beading!

 

I've been crocheting and blogging for quite some time now, and yet I am constantly surprised by what I do not know! It was only this year that all the information necessary fell into place.

The first problem you will experience is finding beads that will actually fit your yarn. Just because your pattern calls for a No6 bead, there's no guarantee that your No6 bead will have a big enough hole size for your yarn. As seems to be the usual case, nothing is standardised in crochet or textiles. We in the UK do not even speak the same English language as those of you across the pond in the USA! Beads are no different, so shopping for beads in person rather than on the internet is essential.

That being said, I have recently discovered Pony beads. These are large plastic beads with a 4mm hole. Wooden beads may also be a good choice as you can use a needle file to widen the hole, if you have the patience!

 

There are two basic methods for using beads. Method one; is when you pre-string the beads and the bead ends up on the Back of your work. Method two; is less common, each bead if is picked up when it is required and ends up on the Front of your work.

 

Method One

     Pre-stringing the beads

All the beads you will be using need to be pre-strung on your yarn in the order of use. This presents some problems!

There are lots of methods we could use to get the beads on the yarn, the easiest is with a beading needle.

My preferred method is with a 'Big Eye Needle'. These come in different sizes, but are basically two pieces of delicate steel joined at each end. By applying a little pressure on both ends of the needle, the gap easily opens to allow your yarn to be inserted. It is also a speedy method as you can pick up many beads at the same time.

You can also look for a 'twisted wire' needle. These tend to be very flimsy but have a large open eye at one end. Once the yarn is inserted in the eye it can be closed to allow passage through the bead.

The cheapest alternative is to make your own 'big eye' using a fine needle and cotton thread. Thread the needle with a short piece of sewing cotton and tie off the end to form a loop. The yarn goes through the cotton loop and is pulled through the beads behind the needle.

     

    To crochet

Bearing in mind that the beads will end up on the Back of your work, you should only add in the beads when you are working on the Wrong Side; this is similar to when you are working bobble stitches.

You can use the same method for taller stitches, depending on the result you wish to achieve. Which ever size of stitch you are making the instructions are the same.

• Make the stitch as usual, right up to the 'last yarn over and pull through' 
• Pull the bead right up to the stitch
• Yarn over the hook and pull through all remaining loops on the hook.

 

You can also place the bead between the stitches. In this case after the first stitch is made, pull up a bead and continue to make the next stitch. You can compare the slight difference between the image immediately above and the first image before the instructions.

 

Method Two

This is especially useful when you are only able to work from the Right Side of your crochet. I discovered this method recently when I was making Beaded Fidget balls. The draw back here is that you have to pick up the beads individually as the work progresses. To do this you will need a bead with a large enough hole for a crochet hook to go through. This is where those Pony beads come in handy. Alternatively a thread-crochet needle may work or if you are lucky enough to have a Crochet-tatting needle, which has a long slender shaft.

 

    To Crochet

 When working on the right side of your work and making a Dc (Sc-US).

• Place the bead on the hook first before beginning the stitch
• Put the hook in the next stitch 
• Yarn over and pull the loop through both the stitch and the bead
•  Yarn over and pull through the 2 loops on the hook to finish the stitch as usual

If your hook is too big to fit in the bead;

• Place your hook into the first stitch and pull up a loop
• Drop the loop from your hook
• Place a bead on a smaller hook, which will go through the bead
• Grab the loop and pull through the bead
• Swap back to your main hook to finish the stitch

 

Comparing the Two Methods 

The post of a Dc (Sc-US) is actually made of three strands. Two at the front and one at the back.

In Method1 the bead is held on the single strand which forms at the back of the work. Even if you place the bead between stitches it is still only held on a single strand.

In Method2 the bead is held on the pair of strands at the front of the work. The result is that the single strand holds the beads more loosely on the fabric. Whereas the double strand holds the beads more embedded into the fabric. This might be something you want to consider depending on what you are making.

For these reasons I don't recommend Method2 for stitches larger then Dc (sc-US), but try it and see what you think!

 

A short and sweet post for this month but I hope the information will prove useful and you have fun experimenting.

fastening off... 

 

Book Review: Crocheted Dinosaurs

It never rains but it pours; you wait for ages for a bus and then two come together! I have another book to review; it's Vanessa Mooncie's Crocheted Dinosaurs!

 

Sadly for those outside the UK, it seems you may have to wait longer for the book to be published in your country. You can of course buy from the UK, but it will be in UK terminology, so be warned.

I am a huge Mooncie fan. I wouldn't be so rude as to describe these as Amigurumi. Vanessa's ability to sculpt forms in crochet is magical. No matter what she turns her hook to, it never ceases to amaze me. This is a big book with ten patterns to create everything from a graceful Plesiosaurus, to a scary Tyrannosaurus Rex and the flightless but deceptively vicious Velociraptor. I was never a dinosaur fan but any excuse to play and learn! Besides, I am sure each one of these marvels will quickly find themselves a home to go to.

I hope I will never present you with a book review without taking it for a test drive first. At 168 pages it's bigger than most, although this is usual from Vanessa. My first complaint would be that there aren't enough photographs, but that would of course have added to both the size and price of the publication. What you do get is row by row instructions with stitch diagrams for every row and body part. I find these invaluable for clearly explaining the written directions.

 

The patterns are written with a variety of yarns readily available in the UK. They are chosen for the colour and texture. We are given gauge information for each project so that substituting yarn is made easier. 

 

I decided to start with the most simple form of the Plesiosaurus. To be honest I wouldn't know a Plesiosaurus from a Diplodocus, but I am told this is a marine Reptile. It's the type I think of as Nessie, who of course lives in Loch Ness in Scotland! The pattern is made with Scheepjes Catona 4 ply yarn, that's good because I'm going to use the same yarn for all the patterns regardless! It is relatively cheap and comes in a huge range of colours. I'm told it's harder to source if you live outside of Europe.

I like making characters and creatures, but to be honest I usually get bored making round upon round of increase and decrease. Vanessa's patterns, by contrast will, keep you on your toes. So even this 'simple' pattern has lots of shaping details.

It starts at the head which is made in three pieces, these are joined and then it's all the way down to the tail in turned rounds. The shaping is made with increases and decreases and short rows.

Then four identical flippers are made and sewn to the body. A few finishing touches and he's made. I used 5mm glass eyes which are added after completion. Vanessa gives directions for using either glass or safety eyes. For a young child you would just sew eyes on at the end.

 

The Stegosaurus is one of the most colourful characters in the book. You could of course allow your own imagination to run wild.

He's supposed to be made using a Merino yarn, but I'm continuing with the Scheepjes Catona cotton. He employs both puff and bobble stitches for toes and texture. He even has knee caps and elbows!

In contrast to the Plesiosaurus, the Stegosaurus is made from the tail up. In both patterns there is a clever idea borrowed from sewing. A gap is left in the side of the rows to aid later stuffing, then it is sewn shut. So, the image you see above is still waiting for more stuffing to be added to the neck and head, before facial features are added.

This might be a good opportunity for me to advise you to get yourself a small pair of craft forceps. You should be able to pick up a pair for less than £10. They make stuffing the fiddly areas and tight spaces a breeze!

The legs are made bottom up, with the fun details to keep them interesting. To be honest the first back leg took more than one attempt, but once I had understood exactly what I was doing I quickly ended up with two shapely, legs and knobbly knees!

I finish by making all the plates and spikes. There is quite a bit of repetition thanks to the number of plates to be added but they are essential to the overall look. Sewing them to the body proved to be much easier than I had feared.

The legs on the other hand were more of a struggle. They are sewn on by anchoring the thread with a stitch through the first leg, before taking the yarn on a needle through the body to the second leg. After the second stitch is made the needle returns the way it came and the two ends are tied together. My first attempt ended up in the wrong place. Quite possibly it helps to have a strong arm to tie off the threads!

 

No Dinosaur compilation would be complete without a horned Triceratops doing battle with a Tyrannosaurus Rex!  Quite a few of the characters in the books are made with various Alpaca based yarns, but I continue using my cotton yarn.

 

The Triceratops begins with the neck frill because it will be needed to be joined in before the body is completed. Then comes the body which is made from the tail up, with puff stitches adding texture to the body.

The Frill is crocheted in as the neck is being made, with the beak and mouth parts added in their turn.

 

The horns and legs are made as separate pieces...

before the the parts are all joined and his personality is revealed. That's my favourite moment!

 

I recently discovered bent blunt ended needles. I'd found a plastic version to be extremely useful as the eye of the needle was soft enough to allow it to pass easily through stitches. Unfortunately I also managed to destroy two needles making just these three dinosaurs! 

After spending a stupid amount of money searching for an alternative I finally discovered; Clover, Bent tip, Darning needle set. They come in size 15 and 17, 17 being the smaller size!

Alternatively you could try; Pony Wool needles. These come in three sizes and have a nylon loop to carry the yarn.

If you are doing something more delicate you might find Doll needles helpful. They are long and slim and very useful for attaching limbs. In this case they were a little delicate for use with the cotton yarn. Use them, instead, with something like waxed Linen thread or transparent beading cord.

  

The T-Rex is very angry. He has a wonderful open mouth and tongue and those knobbly knee caps feature again! Its the small details which I really love, like the bobbles forming ridges on the top of his head.

We start with the head this time where most of the detail and interest is. Then we continue towards the tail.

Those back legs seem enormous compared with his funny little arms. The way the toes are are made surprised me, but Vanessa goes out of her way to reduce unnecessary sewing, which I really appreciate! Honestly, I got a little confused but I got it right on the second attempt which is what counts! You have the option to put 30cm/12" pipe cleaners into the back legs. I used 2mm aluminium wire, which is soft and flexible, but probably a stronger and more durable choice. Stuffing around the wire would have been difficult without my trusty forceps.

I had trouble with balancing him on his legs. I would recommend that either you sew his legs in a permanent position or add some weight to his tail. My partner found me some stainless steel ball bearings, which I packed into the end of his tail between the stuffing.

 

For this selection I am finishing with one of those sneaky Velociraptors which made Jurassic Park so scary. This one is much cuter with elegant feathery arms and tails, but he still has those vicious claws. I have been pre-warned that this is one of the more complex patterns which is why, I suppose, he comes last in the book.

My colours are a little bolder than those Vanessa chose. I found him fiddly because he is small, but there is also colour-work and a little embroidery to add to the challenge. 

 

I had hoped to finish him in time, but life had other plans this month. Instead I will add an edit as soon as he is finished so that you can nip back later to see him finished. 

 

EDIT!

Having finally finished the Velociraptor I can add this update.

I thought it might be helpful to show you the arms before the feathers are added. They are worked in a very unexpected way. You start at the elbow, work down to the fingers and then return to finish the upper arm to allow for stuffing. All the claws are added with bullion embroidery stitches. I chose to use a No10 crochet thread as I was nervous about them. it turned out to be much easier than I had imagine.

The feathers on the arms and tail are crocheted as separate pieces and are sewn on at the end. 

Unfortunately I couldn't get my raptor to stand on his own as you can see here from the pins that are holding him in place. I think it might have helped if I had wired the legs as the ankles are a weak point. Perhaps moving the back legs further forward and/or adding a weight in front of the tail. It does make me wonder how birds manage to stand on two legs at all!

 

There are still five more characters in the book, which I have left you to discover for yourself! 

 

Fastening off... 

 

 

 

P.S.

You will find additional notes and Errata on my Ravelry page. Alternatively find Errata on the GMC books website. You will only need that for the T-Rex, Stegosaurus and Triceratops.

Making my own Crochet Raglan Sweater.

 On a tide of positivity, having custom made my very first circular yoke sweater, I decided to do the same with a Raglan yoke. It has been more than difficult! So let me talk you through what I have discovered.

I have searched the internet from top to bottom looking for something which would give me a place to start and hopefully explain the maths involved. I found lots of people claiming to do that, but I got no where. 

 

I don't think I am the only confused crocheter in the world. If you take a handful of crochet sweater patterns at random you will discover that the majority of the older ones are constructed from pattern pieces which are sewn together. The newer ones are more likely to be drop shoulder construction. There are some round yoke sweaters and finally you will find a just few raglan yoke. One reason, I discovered, is not that they are more difficult to make, but that it is harder to grade for different sizes. But perhaps the other reason is that crochet raglan yoke construction is a well kept secret!

 

I would love to tell you that I have solved the mystery, but I have furthered my understanding. Let me instead, share with you my discoveries in the hope that one of you very clever people can move us forward from there!

 

In principle designing a raglan yoke should be simple, so where was I going wrong? I came to the conclusion that I was coming at the problem based on my knowledge of round yoke construction. Round yoke construction is based on thirds. The front and back are formed from about a third of the circumference each, the sleeves from a sixth each. The circumference itself is based on the Bust measurement, + the Bicep measurements, + Ease. The same measurements don't work for a raglan yoke, it's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole!

It was this image that finally led to my understanding. Yes, there are people who tell you that this is how to make a raglan yoke. They will also tell you to place 2 increases at each corner of the raglan and to keep increasing until the yoke fits. You can make a garment this way, but it will not fit well. We are not all made up of the same proportions. If you are very slim, you may find that your sweater is oversized by the time the yoke is the right length. If you are full busted, you may find that your armhole is too low by the time you have achieved the right circumference.

There are two very important measurements we need to begin. They are the High Bust circumference and the Raglan Depth. 

Raglan Depth

For this we need three pieces of information.

1. First we begin with the Armhole Depth. This is the distance vertically from the shoulder to the underarm. Forget all the curves and bends just measure straight down, you can even use a flat ruler. It does help if someone else measures it for you while you stand still!
2. Now you need to add on Ease. It would be very uncomfortable if your armhole was exactly that depth. Once again the ease is the straight line down to the bottom of the armhole in a garment. You can look at another garment to find this measurement or you could measure down using your bra or vest top as a guide.
3. If you look at a raglan yoke, you will realise that the line of the raglan does not begin on the top of the shoulder. Instead it starts at the neckline. So we also need to add in the Shoulder slope. The distance between the place where your neck joins your shoulders and the lowest point of your shoulders.

All of these three measurements, Armhole depth + Ease + Shoulder Slope = the Raglan Depth. What you have worked out is the vertical distance from the top of the garment to the bottom of the raglan line. 

High Bust 

I had never heard of the High Bust measurement before. It is the chest circumference taken at the Raglan Depth. So it is smaller than your Full Bust measurement. You'll need to add Ease to this measurement as well.

Full Bust 

You will of course also need the usual Full Bust measurement and Ease. At the bottom of the raglan yoke, when you begin to crochet the body, you will add a number of stitches across at each underarm. The number of stitches you add will be based on the difference between the Full bust and the High Bust. This is what gives the garment the right size for the body. It should also be remembered that these stitches will also be picked up when the sleeves are added, increasing the width of the sleeves.

 

Planning You Raglan Yoke 

The numbers you need to plan your raglan yoke are as follows:

• Your preferred Neckline measurement, which must be at least the width of your head!
• Your High Bust measurement. Don't forget to add Ease.
• Your Full Bust measurement, + Ease. 
• The Raglan Depth = Armhole Depth, which is the vertical measurement from your shoulder to the underarm + Ease + Shoulder Drop.
• Your Bicep measurement, + Ease. 

It may help to also take measurements from a raglan garment which fits well. You can compare them to your actual measurements and they may help you to decide on the neckline circumference, or the amount of ease to add.

 

Drawing a Chart

I decided that the best way to proceed would be to draw out the yoke on squared paper so that I could understand how it would work. 

So, I began by drawing a rectangle. 

I knew the width, which is half the High Bust including ease.

The overall rectangle depth is the Raglan Depth doubled.

Short Row shaping

There are different ways to add short row shaping as we discussed here. To keep things simple I decided to add 4cms of short rows to the back of my yoke. This lowers the neckline at the front as I did in this mini sampler.

It is perfectly acceptable to make a raglan garment without adding short row shaping but I have mentioned it here as an example. You can see that those short rows are part of the yoke. They increase the width of the sleeves and reduce the amount of increase rounds.

 

Placing the neckline. 

I won't lie, this is the hard bit! 

The shape and size of your yoke will determine the shape of your neckline. Remember you are working in the round, so there will be the same number of rows from the neckline to the bottom of the yoke, as there will be from the neckline to the sleeve cap edge.

I started with the shape of neckline I wanted and worked out:

(High Bust width - Neckline width) divided by 2= the depth of the sleeve cap.

(Raglan Depth x 2 - Neckline depth) divided by 2 = the yoke depth.

Of course those numbers were not the same, so now I had to juggle them about until they matched. It meant I had to change the shape of my neckline.

So once I had got these numbers to match I could draw in my neckline. 

 

There's still one more thing to do.

At the end of the yoke you will add chain stitches across the yoke to separate the body from the sleeves. These chain stitches will give you the full bust measurement, so; Full Bust - High Bust = distance to be filled by chain stitches.

 

Now you have to convert all of these measurements into stitches and rows using your gauge swatch. At that point you may have to adjust your measurements here and there as you can't have half a stitch or half a row. You may decide to add the extra odd stitch to the back or front of your garment or neckline. Will it matter if your yoke is half a row too long or too short? 

 

Then it's time to plan the increases. 

You now know how many stitches will be in your neckline and how many at the bottom of the yoke. You also know how many rows you have to increase in. The chances are you will have an odd number of increases. 

The secret is that you increase unevenly.  You do not have to increase on the sleeve by the same number of stitches as the front and back panel. Which ever way you do decide to increase, you need to spread those extra stitches out as evenly as possible along the line of the raglan.

That being said, there other types of compound raglan where the increases are spread in a different way. But let's not run before we can walk!

 

This is what my finished yoke looked like.

 

You can see how the short row shaping has lowered the neckline at the front. I checked the fit at this point.

In the next round I added the chain stitches across at the underarm. I also finished the neckline before checking the fit again.

 

I then decreased a little, slowly at the under bust bringing in the width towards the waist. For a short cropped style you certainly want to do this. For a longer style you may want to increase again towards the hips.

 

Having completed the body I can now move onto the sleeves. There is quite a big difference between the number of stitches at the start of the sleeve and the number I wanted at the bicep, and the number I want at the wrist. So now is the time to plan the decreases. Don't forget to record any changes so that both sleeves match!

  and Hey Presto! I have a raglan yoke sweater in my size! 

 

In conclusion: 

I think perhaps there is too much fabric at the bust and bicep. Should I have used less ease at the underarm, or perhaps I was overly generous with the shoulder slope? Both things would have given me narrower sleeves at the top. But, looking on the bright side, at least it isn't too tight at the under arm. May be it's time to investigate how a different sort of compound raglan curve works?

 

  

I know it sounds complicated but...

 How do you eat an Elephant?

One bite at a time!

 

If you take it one step at a time you will have a garment that is custom made for you and you alone!

fastening off...