crochet tutorial Archives - Zeens and Roger

Crochet Owl Decoration. Free pattern.

September 18, 2019free pattern5 Comments

This is from one of my first ever published patterns here on the blog. The other day I looked back at it and ugh, it was so badly written. I had very little pattern writing experience in 2015 and it shows!! I am keeping the original blog post up, mostly for laughs, but also because I don’t see why I should hide it. Yes, I have improved quite a bit but the whole point of this blog is to record what I’ve been up to. I won’t edit that.

To accompany the updated pattern I also recorded a free video tutorial for my YouTube channel. Click on the pic above to go directly to the tutorial.

If you would like to support my crochet adventures, please consider subscribing to Patreon.

Or if you would prefer, for the price of a cup of coffee you can buy one of my other patterns from Ravelry or Lovecrafts. Thanks ever so much. x

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Materials:

Small amounts of DK yarn in coordinating colours
3mm (C/2) hook
Stuffing
Fabric for lining approx 20cmx20cm
Buttons, felt pieces and embroidery thread for eyes
Sewing needle & darning needle

Abbreviations:

2trtog 2 treble sts together (US 2dctog) st(s) stitch(es) sp(s) space(s) ch chain ch-sp chain space htr half treble crochet (US hdc) sl st slip stitch tr treble (US double crochet) rep repeat beg beginning

Special Stitches:

2trtog: Yarn over, insert hook into st, yarn over and pull through, yarn over and pull through 2 loops (2 loops on hook), yarn over, insert hook into same st, yarn over and pull through (4 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through all 3 loops.

Notes:

Don’t crochet over your tail ends as you go or you will see them in your finished owl. Sew them in after you’ve completed the body.
Instructions are written in UK terms.
No turns at the end of the rounds.
The “2ch, 1tr” at the beg of rounds counts as a 2trtog.

Owl Body:

Chain 4 and join with a sl st or make a magic ring.

Rnd 1: 2ch, 1tr into circle, 1ch, (2trtog, 1ch) seven times, join with a sl st to the top of the first 2trtog. [8 2trtog]

Rnd 2: Sl st in next ch-sp, (2ch, 1tr, 1ch, 2trtog) into same ch-sp, 1ch, *(2trtog, 1ch, 2trtog, 1ch) in next ch-sp; rep from around, join with a sl st to the top of the first 2trtog, fasten off. [16 2trtog]

Rnd 3: Join new colour with sl st in any ch-sp, 2ch, 1tr in first ch-sp, 1 ch, *2trtog in next ch-sp, 1ch; rep from * around, join with a sl st to the top of the first 2trtog, fasten off.

Rnd 4 – 6: Repeat Rnd 3, changing colour each round.

Rnd 7: Sl st into any ch-sp, 3ch (counts as 1tr), 1tr in same ch-sp, 2tr in each ch-sp around, join with a sl st to the top of the 3ch. [32st]

Rnd 8: 2ch (counts as 1htr), 1htr in the top of each st around, join with a sl st to the top of the 2ch.

Rnd 9 -10: Repeat Rnd 8.

Fasten off leaving a long tail for sewing head closed.

Turn inside out and using a darning needle, weave ends. Turn back the right way. Take the scrap of fabric and place inside the owl and stuff. Tuck in fabric neatly. Whip stitch the top closed using a darning needle and the long tail.

Eyes

Cut out circles of felt, sew buttons to the felt and using contrasting embroidery thread sew to the owls face. (Separate out two strands from the thread to give a finer stitch).

Beak

Using a darning needle, stitch on a beak with yarn. First, stitch on a triangle shape, then use five or six more vertical stitches to fill in the space. Finish it off with a couple of horizontal stitches across the top of the beak. Or stitch/glue on a little triangle of felt!

Wings

Chain 9.

1htr in 3rd ch from hook, htr in next st, 1tr in each of the next 3 sts, htr in next st, (1dc, 3ch, 1dc) in last st, turn work to crochet down the other side of the chains: 1htr, 3tr, 2htr, sl st to the top of the first st. Fasten off leaving a tail for sewing wing to body.

Other options

Tufty ears: use a crochet hook to pull three 10cm strands of yarn through the corners of the owl’s ears, take the ends of the yarn and poke through the loop. Pull tight. Trim.

Crochet a hanging loop by attaching yarn to the top of his head with a sl st, ch25 and sl st to join to head. Sew in ends

Don’t forget to add your owls to Ravelry and tag #zeensandroger over on Instagram. Cheers!

Copyright Rosina Northcott. 2019. zeensandroger.com

This pattern remains the property of Rosina Northcott/Zeens and Roger at all times and is for your own personal use only. Please respect my work and do not copy, reproduce, redistribute or re-sell this pattern.

Crochet Tutorial: The Crossed Treble Stitch (or Cane Work or Star Mesh st).

January 12, 2018crochet, vlogging13 Comments

This tutorial has been on my list of things to do for quite a while. As soon as I saw the stitch I loved it! I absolutely knew I wanted to crochet something with the crossed treble/cane work/star mesh stitch. The trouble was, I didn’t understand the written pattern I’d found. With a bit of research and some trawling of Pinterest I found a few different versions. Each version had its own take and they were all written completely differently from one another. Meh! Eventually I pieced together how it was done and in an effort to save you from all that faffing I’ve filmed a tutorial. I hope you like it. Click on the pic above to get to YouTube.

Also, I’m quite pleased that my faffings turned into a design. I used the stitch in my Holey Smokes! shawl, which is available on Ravelry. Read more about it Here. It’s a crochet fade!

To accompany the tutorial, I thought it’d also be helpful to share with you the relevant patterns that I found. They’re not all identical but essentially the elements are there. They’re in the following places: Page 47 of this crochet stitch dictionary, the book I show in the video is this one, there’s a written pattern named the Cane Work stitch in issue 59 of Simply Crochet, it’s called the Star Mesh stitch Here, and here’s a pic break down on Pinterest. You should find these useful. Finally, below is my version with pictures (please note, it just demonstrates the crossed treble itself not the swatch instructions):

The Crossed Treble is worked over 3 stitches (inc a missed stitch in the middle). The bottom “legs” of the cross are made first and then, the top right “arm”. The second “arm” is a treble worked into the centre of the cross.

YO twice, insert hook into required st, YO & pull through lp (4 lps on hook), YO & pull through 2 lps (3 lps on hook), YO, miss 1 st, insert hook into next st, YO & pull through lp (5 lps on hook), (YO & pull through 2 lps on hook) 4 times, ch 1, YO, insert hook in middle 2 st of cross, YO & pull through (3 lps on hook), (YO & pull through 2 lps) twice.

If you want to do a straight up swatch like I do in the tutorial, you’ll need to chain multiples of 4. Begin the first Crossed Tr in the 6th ch from hook. At the end, turn and ch 5 to begin the next second row. The rest of the pattern is a repeat of the second row which staggers the CT’s over the ones of the row below. Eeh, watch the vid and you’ll know what I mean!

Good luck and enjoy!! Cheers. X

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Top Crochet Tips & Techniques!

September 26, 2016May 15, 2023amigurumi, crochet, free pattern32 Comments

amazing-crochet-secrets-thatll-knock-your-socks-off

Making The Best Crochet

One of the great things about crochet is that there are constantly new tips and tricks to learn. I’m always completely bowled over when I stumble upon a new crochet technique, pattern, or colour combination. Actually, I think what astonishes me most is that crochet, or more to the point, how we crochet, always has the ability to surprise!

As part of this, it’s important that, when upping our crochet game, we embrace new skills, news skills that can really elevate crochet and make yarny projects the best they can be.

Top Crochet Tips and Techniques

I learned to crochet six years ago (Nanna tried to teach me when I was little; I didn’t get on with it). After six years I still LOVE crochet and I still love it when it teaches me something new. A lot of it is probably my childish pride but I don’t care, it makes me super happy. It makes me squee when I accomplish something that’s new to me. I’ve found a hobby that continually delights.

And that’s the point here. Many of the crochet tips below are now part of my everyday hooking repetoire but they might be totally new to somebody else. We’re lucky enough that these crochet tricks and techniques get shared, for us all to discover and enjoy.

Anyway, I thought it would be a really good idea to collate some of my favourite crochet tips together in one place. Some are more common than others but I didn’t know them at one time, maybe you don’t either? There are probably loads more I have yet to try as well. Let me know what you think, and tell me if there are some awesome crochet secrets that I’ve missed.

Circle in square crochet blanket. Free pattern.

1. The Standing Start – Alternative to “Chain 3”

Check out Moogly for how to replace the “3ch” and seamlessly start a crochet project. Wrap new yarn around your hook twice and then insert the hook into the first stitch before completing what is effectively the first US dc / UK tr stitch. It is just one method that’s an alternative to the 3 chain at the beginning of rows / rounds. I like this technique for starting rows when changing colour.

2. The Chainless Foundation. Or Foundationless Start

I love this crochet tip! Love LOVE love it!! Find my video tutorial for a foundationless start HERE. In the tutorial I demonstrate the technique for US sc, hdc and dc starts. Beginning crochet projects has never looked so neat and tidy. Plus, there’s more elasticity with this method and you don’t end up with a twisty tangle of a foundation chain.

3. Stop your Chains Twisting!

If you do still want to chain the old fashioned way, here’s how to stop the twist! It is perfect for a project like an infinity scarf. Sometimes the old method is a good method, especially if you’re all fingers and thumbs with the foundationless start. This is the one where you pop the end of the chain onto your hook whilst you whip up the rest of your chains, then slide it over at the end to create a big ol loop.

Amigurumi Easter Eggs. Free crochet pattern.

4. The Invisible Decrease

Planet June has great amigurumi tutorials for techniques that create wonderfully neat crochet creatures. The invisible decrease is ace; it’s one of my favourite amigurumi secrets. It does what it says on the tin, it’s a decrease that’s invisible! Other decrease methods can be seen in the tight stitches of amigurumi fabric, so this one is a doozy.

5. Finishing off your Amigurumi

This top crochet tip saved me from having lots of stuffed toys with ugly bottoms! Quite literally for this fawn (not that you can see his bottom in the picture below).

Have a look here for this easy method for closing the little whole left at the end of an amigurumi pattern. Even with the invisible decrease, I reckon you can only decrease so much with amigurumi before the stitches start looking a bit overstretched. This is normally near the final round or two. So rather than struggling to squeeze them, I like to finish by using a needle and thread.

6. A Smooth Crochet Circle

If you add uniform increases when working a crochet circle, the final item can actually look more hexagonal. It’s all about mixing up the stitches. Bascially, you don’t have to work every increase in a formulaic pattern. Be a bit more random with the placemnt of the increases and it smooths out the rounds.

7. Work under the Bumps

This one, I learned near the beginning of my crochet obsession and I still think it’s fab. Many patterns never seem to state whereabouts in a chain you should work and, when I was a learner, this confused the heck out of me! I used to go into just the one loop of each chain, never really knowing if this was the right thing to do. To be honest, it looks a bit of a mess doing it this way. What someone should have told me was to work in the back “bumps” of a foundation chain. Check out this beginner friendly method here: under the bumps tutorial. Unless, you know, Foundationless…!

8. Tidy Crochet Edges for your Border

I only found this one a few days ago so I haven’t tried it yet. It looks great! My edges tend to look messy even when I make an effort to be extra neat. Felted Button has a great tutorial to rid you of unsightly borders.

Another crochet tip I picked up for creating a neat and tidy border is to make sure you colour match where you can. If the first round of a border matches the main body of you project, you disguise any potential quirky stitch placements.

9. Lose the Granny Square Twist

Why are my Granny’s twisty?! Cherry Heart will tell you! Sandra’s post has lots of useful crochet tips relating to the ubiquitous granny square. So simple, yet I never thought of trying any of these at first. All hail experienced crochet experts!!

10. The Continuous Join as you go

Not to be confused with the Join As You Go method, which still results in lots of ends to sew in (but is useful when using different rounds of colour), The Continuous JAYG has only two ends to sew in and it’s really easy! Honestly, if you haven’t done this before, it’s life changing. I’ve tried a couple of different methods and the one over at Patchwork Heart is the best.

This is one that’s easy once you have seen a demonstration. I tried to make it up once and got in a right pickle!

11. The Fancy Continuous Join as you go

I really really want to do this. You can save time and be pretty! It’s the Continuous Flat Braid. Same as above, but fancy!!

12. The Neat Granny Border

If you’ve gone to the effort of stitching all your granny’s together, the least you can do is make sure they get a beautiful border too. Too many clusters around the edges can cause a bit of a ruffle. Pop over to Bunny Mummy’s guide for how to crochet a flat border.

crochet blanket enjoying the autumn sunshine.

And that’s it for now but I reckon I’ll have to do a sequel one day. Crochet tips like this really can help create beautiful work and I’m always on the look put for more ways I can improve my crochet skills.

Once again, please do let me know if you have your own favourite top crochet tips and tricks. I’d love to hear from you. Cheers!

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