Cool new stitch: the basket weave!

There's a reason I haven't posted here in almost a month. It's not because I haven't been crocheting! It's just that the bulk of my time crocheting this month has been spent making granny squares for projects that haven't yet come to fruition, and posting about a stack of 5" Red Heart Mexicana granny squares isn't terribly fascinating. Of slight interest may be the fact that I tried out Red Heart's new All-in-One Granny Square yarn, which has been receiving mixed reviews across the board. My thoughts? I love it! My granny stitch color changes are still pretty clumsy, so having a yarn that does all the heavy lifting for me is a great help. Sure, you will need to keep adjusting your tension... a lot... for the color changes to occur where they need to, but it's all worth it for me. 

Anyway... here is my latest completed project: a basket weave scarf! There are two factors that make a crochet stitch truly great in my book: 1) it is texturally interesting, and 2) it is easy to learn. The basket weave stitch is a slam dunk in both regards. If you can believe it, it looks even cooler from far away than up close. I wouldn't be surprised if a non-crocheter thought this was achieved with an actual basket weaving technique – it looks that convincing, at least to my eye! It really is dead simple to work up. If you can do front and back-post double crochet, you can do the basket weave! This video on it is very easy to follow. 

This scarf was made with Red Heart Super Saver in Aran Fleck. (I like this color because it's unisex – I could easily see this scarf being worn by a man.) It measures in at an approximate 71 inches long by 5 inches wide.

I will be including this scarf in my next box of donations to Warm Up America. Click the link to find out more about how you can donate crocheted goods to people in need.

– Em <3

Neon striped scarf

My final project of 2023! I finished it last night. I received a skein of Red Heart's popular Neon Stripes yarn for Christmas. After getting over the shock of just how bright the colors are – photos do not do it justice – I wanted to use it right away. I'm aware of color pooling and know that people use this exact yarn to make some truly spectacular creations, but I'm too new to crochet to make it happen just yet. Still, now armed with the knowledge that I can manipulate the colors in variegated yarn to my advantage, I at least wanted to give it a shot. 

It took a couple of hours and MANY different attempts to get it right – I must have tried four different hook sizes and at least six different stitches. All the trial and error was worth it for the final product, though – I'm in love with how this turned out. I did need to keep adjusting my tension as I worked so that the color changes would occur exactly when they needed to, which got a little frustrating at times, but again... so worth it!

As previously mentioned, this was made with Red Heart Super Saver in Neon Stripes. What a fantastic colorway! Maybe someday I'll work up the courage to attempt color pooling with this stuff... people really do work magic with it. 

This scarf was made using the basic moss stitch. It measures in at about 75 1/2 inches long by 4 1/4 inches wide.

I will be including this scarf in my next box of donations to Warm Up America. Click the link to find out more about how you can donate crocheted goods to people in need.

– Em <3

Purple granny stitch stroller blanket

Easily my biggest project so far! I just finished this and while I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, I'm proud of myself for finally finishing it.

This blanket started life as a humongous ball of grape purple yarn that I obtained at the Salvation Army. It had no label, so I'm unsure of the brand, color name, or even the yardage. I snagged it for a mere $1.05 – it was meant to be $1.07, but I was taking a long time digging the last two pennies from my coin purse and the cashier didn't feel like waiting any more, LOL. I, with my untrained eye, couldn't ascertain just how much yarn this massive ball consisted of. Enough for a scarf? A baby blanket? An entire afghan? Who knows? Not me! After some consideration, I settled on attempting a baby blanket. I was able to pull this off... kind of. 

This blanket measures an approximate 22 inches long by 37 inches wide. Baby blankets typically start at 36 x 36, but are usually larger. I could've included another color to add length, and I tried, but couldn't find a way to do it that didn't look awkward and sloppy. (By the way, this video was a great introduction to the stitch. The section on it begins around 14 minutes in.) In my research about different types of blankets, I found something that fit the bill quite well – a stroller blanket! The measurements given are 22 to 30 inches by 30 to 36 inches. Almost perfect! 

I'm not sure if I'm going to donate this to Warm Up America or not. I'd feel strange sending them such a nonstandard-sized item. I think this may be better suited to a local charity shop. I'm sure someone could find a use for it. 

– Em <3

Retro Mod ribbed scarf

My latest creation! I just finished this yesterday. It was quite tedious, for whatever reason – it didn't take that long to work up, but it felt like forever! This scarf uses what is called the bar stitch to create a ribbed effect. This is the tutorial I followed. It's much easier than it looks, using only single and front-post double crochet. I did have issues with this scarf curling up around the ends. I'm guessing this is due to a problem with my tension. I didn't think I was crocheting too tightly, but I can't think of another explanation for this. Oh, well... they can't all be winners.

For this project, I used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in the color Retro Mod. I really like this blend of colors! The blue, white, and tan together remind me of the ocean, surf, and sand respectively. I believe this colorway is now discontinued as I could not find it on the Hobby Lobby website. I actually found the two skeins I used for this scarf at a local Salvation Army. The nearest Hobby Lobby to me is approximately half an hour's worth of congested highways away, so I haven't been there, but I've heard plenty of good things about their I Love This Yarn. They do make some interesting color blends. I'm not a fan of Hobby Lobby as a company, though, so maybe I'll stick to buying it secondhand.

Another thing that bothered me about this scarf – check out the second double crochet row from the bottom. All brown! Every time I'd come back around to that stitch, I'd pray that it would be any other color... and it never was. This brown streak (okay, ew... maybe not the best way to word that) continued for about 12 inches. It only came to an end when I started working on the second skein. 

This scarf measures in at an approximate 82 inches in length and 4 3/4 inches in width. I was initially going to use up both skeins, but abandoned that idea as I came closer to finishing the second one. I have 70-ish yards left of it that I'll do... something with. I don't know what, but it'll get used eventually. Baby hat, maybe?

I'll be including this scarf in my next box of donations to Warm Up America. Click the link to learn more about how you can donate crocheted goods to people in need.

– Em <3

White popcorn scarf

I really love this scarf. I finished it about three weeks ago and I'm very happy with how it came out! I've decided that the popcorn stitch is my favorite. It's incredibly easy, but makes for such a cool textural effect. My only complaint is that it eats up yarn pretty quickly, but I can overlook that for the payoff. This is two rows of double crochet followed by one row of popcorn stitch.

The yarn is, once again, from good ol' Red Heart Super Saver. This is just their plain white. I much prefer a cream or aran color to what I've dubbed "computer paper white", but the yarn section at my local Michael's is woefully small and doesn't carry that color of Super Saver.

This scarf measures in at an approximate 77 inches in length (not including the fringe) and 4 1/2 inches in width. I personally prefer a longer, skinnier scarf like this to something more short and stout. (It's probably because I'm short and stout, and a long scarf creates the illusion that I'm longer, too!)

I did attempt to add some fringe to the ends. I didn't measure, but I'd estimate that the fringe is approximately 3 inches long. I'm not thrilled about the way this turned out. I still haven't found a good way to do it. Just looping the pieces of yarn through doesn't feel secure enough, but tying them makes them stick out at funny angles. Oh, well. Just another thing that will require some trial and error.

I was debating on whether or not I wanted to keep this for myself, but decided that I would include it in my next box of donations to Warm Up America. Click the link to learn more about how you can donate crocheted goods to people in need.

– Em <3

Brown and blue striped scarf

This is the first scarf I ever finished. I can't remember when that was... maybe 4 or 5 months ago? The only reason I still have it is because it didn't fit in the box with all of my other donations, but it'll definitely be going out with the next batch. The only stitch here is single crochet. I wanted to keep it simple for my first big project... but not too much, hence the stripes. Nothing special, just alternating every ten rows. 

The yarn is not special either – the brown is just regular ol' Red Heart Super Saver. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's just called "Brown". Maybe "Chestnut Brown" or something like that. I can't remember the brand or color name of the blue, but I got it from the Michael's website. Okay, I actually went back and found the confirmation email for my order. It's Aruba Blue from Impeccable. Such a lovely vibrant turquoise!

This scarf measures in at an approximate 71 inches in length and 5 1/4 inches in width. It's slightly shorter and wider than I prefer, but not enough to be bothersome. It's not for me, anyway – as stated above, this will be sent in with my next box of donations to Warm Up America. Click the link to learn more about how you can donate crocheted goods to those in need.

– Em <3