I have finished the body of this vintage pattern I am making. The pattern is for 4 ply yarn but I didn't have any of that and I don;t like working with it anyway. I have made it in double knit yarn, both from Home Bargains. I already had the crochet hooks. I don't know where I had the pattern from. I found it in a bag of crochet magazines in my bedroom. I will be doing the sleeves this evening while I watch the Great British Sewing Bee
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I have been quite unsettled and flighty with projects as of late. I have started three projects and not finished any of them. The first is a knitting pattern and I have completed the back and started on one of the fronts and put it down and not picked it up again. I'm knitting this in a lovely grey and I hope it will look fabulous when I finish it. The next project I have started is the the Winnie's Wonderland blanket pattern. I started it from the 'Making Crochet Blankets' book I have but I have found it full of spelling mistakes and it's a bit annoying. All the letter 'p''s have been replaced with a 'c', so when it's meant to say 'chain space' it says 'chain scace'. I did get used to it and read it how it's meant to be read but then I looked online and found it was published in another book called 'Round and Round the Hook' by Emily Littlefair and had a look in the bag of crochet magazines in my bedroom and there was the book. It doesn't have the spelling mistakes. I made it up to round 21 and got stuck on round 22. I don't know if that is because I was following the pattern in the book with the spelling mistakes as I haven't picked it up again. I have selected these colours from my stash. There are two shades of blue and two shades of purple although the photo isn't that clear. I want it to have more purple, green and blue shades next as I really like that colour combination. The next project have started is a vintage crochet pattern. The pattern is for 4 ply yarn but I don't have any of that, so I am doing it in double knit. I have enough to make two sets to gift at Christmas.
What projects have you got on the go? I have bought a couple of little craft kits from Home Bargains. Two needle felting kits and a macrame kit. The needle felt kits were 99p each and came with the roving wool, sponge, 2 needles and instructions. I bought a cat and rabbit kit. Well, I did the rabbit but it doesn't look like the picture on the kit. It looks more like a nightmare bunny! Please avert your eyes or quickly scroll past the next phot if you don't want nightmares. Maybe I should do it as a 'Nailed It' post on Pinterest so everyone can have a laugh at it. I attempted the scary bunny first as a practise because I really want the cat one to look like a cute kitty not a scary cat and now I don't even want to try! I have the Kirstie Allsopp Cats needle felting kits to do as well. I bought a small Macrame wall hanging kit too. That was £1.99 and looks like a good start to practise with before tackling the bigger kit I have. I'll give you an update with photos when I have tried them. They may just end up as more 'Nailed It' posts for you to laugh at.
![]() Hi there, I bought two Sirdar Hayfield Baby Blossom crochet patterns and I was not happy with them. On attempting to do the above pattern 5232, (it's a cute pattern right?), I found a couple of things wrong with it. For starters the crochet patterns are written as if they are knitting patterns. Now, for knitters who also crochet this isn't so much of a problem, but to crocheters it just reads wrong. I have spoken to knitters who don't crochet and they don't see it as a problem, but to me, I end up having to rewrite the pattern into crochet language. I feel like the Sirdar Crochet patterns are written by knitting designers who also crochet but don't know how to write a crochet pattern. ![]() The above instructions don't make much sense. Why tell me to crochet until it measures so long, then tell me to do 6 more rows? Why not just say, "work in the pattern until it measures 23cm"? Also in this pattern, on the right front, just as you get to start the neck shaping, the pattern tells you to do 2 rows of the single crochet, which would just look wrong. I had to rewrite the pattern from that point on. The second pattern is this rather cute girls jacket and hat. I made this in the same colour way as on the photo and using the recommended hook size. I'll start with the hat. It is crocheted flat and then seamed together. I would actually do this in the round so there would be no seam at all and I suggest you go up a hook size for the green brim. Now onto the jacket. It crocheted up quite well and although the pattern is written very much like a knitting pattern instead of a crochet pattern, I could follow it better than the other one. The only grumble I do have is that the arms, when sewn together are very very tight. I had made this with the intention to gift it, but the arms are so tight that a baby wouldn't fit it's arms through the arms. While cleaning up my bedroom the other day, I found a vintage crochet pattern. It's a Wendy pattern in Peter Pan Darling 4 ply yarn. I don't have any 4 ply so I am making it a double knit and it's looking wonderful. The pattern is easy to follow and is written like a crochet pattern. It is working up beautifully and I'll be able to gift the set to friends for Christmas.
When I buy a crochet pattern, I don't think I should have to rewrite it into crochet language or redesign part of the pattern, especially if it's from a well known company. Sirdar, if you ever read this, please take my advice to employ crochet designers and testers. Don't use your ever so talented knitting designers (and they are talented knitting designers, I can follow their knitting patterns) to design and write crochet patterns. The skills are different, the language is different. Your crochet patterns above are filled with unnecessary words and instructions that just don't need to be in there. Look at vintage crochet patterns, look online for crochet patterns by crochet designers and see how their patterns are written and follow the same format. |
AuthorMum from Cheshire who has been sewing since the age of 7 Archives
December 2021
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