Testing My Crochet Skills on an Advanced Pattern!

Thank you for stopping by today. 

I am so excited to share something with you. Have you looked at some crochet or knitting patterns that you really like, but then find out it is rated 'advanced' and only tell yourself you aren't good enough to do that pattern? Well I have. I have a board in Pintrest with all these beautifully crocheted patterns that just seem beyond my capability.

Last night I was looking at them again, and clicking on some to view their origin. Some do not have written or video instructions, just these beautiful images. Quite a few are accompanied by written instructions, but I am a visual person and sometimes the instructions do not make sense to me. But last night I found one with a video showing step by step, row by row, instructions that were easy to follow.I can't tell you how excited I was at finding this. I watch it for a bit, and knew that I could do this if I followed along!

The square that I wanted to try is the Tropical Delight Square. You will need to scroll down a fair bit to find it, but if you want to give this a go, the instructions are easy to follow.

Before I show a photo of my finished square, I need to let you know that I only had these colours to work with in a #3 yarn. Although the end result is not bad, I would choose some different colours. I was just practising to see if I could do it, so mixing types of yarns and colours were not a priority.

So here we go, my square!

I am so happy about being able to do this, that I plan on making something in the future with this pattern. Have any of you caught my mistake yet? There is a pretty major mistake, but I wasn't worried about it as it was a practise piece.

A blanket made with several of these squares would look quite beautiful on a bed. or even as a smaller afghan.

Any way, I am ready to see if I can tackle another one of these advanced creations I love! I guess the saying is true; you never know until you actually try.

Thank you again for having a peek at today's post.

Happy crocheting!

Blanket Project Progress

Good to have you here again!

Today I am giving you an update, or rather progress report, on how our blanket project is coming along.

Last update I posted a completed blanket from yarn scraps, and before that I was showing you how our squares where building up in number.

Now I am going to share with you that I have started to connect some of the squares together, just for a change of pace. I wanted to do something different than just slip stitch, or single crochet, or sew together, so I searched on YouTube to see what I could find. I was surprised to see all the many different ways you can join squares together! I chose the 'ZIGZAG SLIP STICH JOIN'. I think this will be a good one for these squares, and you get sit at the table, using the table, to make it easier. It's quite easy to do.

So without further words, here are some quick photos I took as I am working on joining the first squares.

As you can see, I am using black to join these bright colours. It will have a black border as well.

You will also note that the joining is done in a long strip first, with the cross joining coming last.

In this nest photo you can get a closer look at the ZigZag pattern.

So, if you are interested in viewing the video tutorial that I watched, I am including it here for you.

Now, onto one more share for you. Because we are making blankets for the needy, and homeless too, I have been trying to find ways to make the blankets thicker. I found a blanket pattern that was shared by Daisy Farm Crafts that I thought might work.

I started one in cream and ran out of yarn. So I decided it is a yarn I always see where I get my yarn from, and started on another colour, dark heather grey. It too is a yarn that is always available. When I ran out of that colour I decided it was time to go and some of these yarns so that I could finish them. I went to my source and could not believe what I saw! The shelves were nearly empty of yarn! I guess with Covid-19, everyone is at home crocheting!

So the following week I thought that they might have restocked. But, when I arrived, the shelves had a bit more in them, but still on the empty side, and the colours I needed were still not there. However, they did have an unusual colour that I thought would look nice in this pattern I was using, and there was enough of it there for an entire blanket, so I got that instead with hopes of finding my cream and grey yarn in a few more weeks. The colour I got is called Red Clay.

This is what I can show you.

This stitch makes the #4 yarn thickness much thicker for these blankets, and you do not have to use the velvet yarn as in the pattern provided at Daisy Farm Crafts.

Here is the video demo from Daisy Farm Crafts in case you are interested in trying out this pattern.

Once I have complete one each of these blankets, I will post them for you so that you can see what they look like finished.

In the mean time, happy crocheting!