Oh, and also, I think I`m going to move craft posts to Thursdays. The way my schedule is right now, Wednesday I usually have time to write the posts, but not take pictures till late, so if I write the posts and take the pictures Wednesday, I can have them posted Thursday morning! ^_^
So, the reason that this post is an update is that I`m still working on my Doctor Who blanket. The third square is currently at this state:
So it`s just slightly over halfway done, since I`ve started on the decreasing rows.
Speaking of, looking back, I realized that while I mentioned I was doing a corner to corner crochet (c2c) I never actually explained how to do it! And since I struggled with decreasing at first, I thought that other people might as well. So…a tutorial!
I learned by reading Two Hearts Crochet`s blog, and that`s also where I got the pattern. Source: The Whovian CAL!
For this quick tutorial though, I took my own pictures of the steps. ^_^ If you don`t understand mine, please go to Two Hearts Crochet and follow some of her resource links!
Depending on what pattern you`re following, you can start with any color and any crochet hook. No matter the size or color, the steps are the same.
Quick note on abbreviations.
ch= chain
dc = double chain
Row 1 Step 1: Chain 6
Row 1 Step 2: dc in third chain from hook, dc in next two ch (This is one square)
Row 2 Step 1: Turn. ch 6, dc in 3rd chain from hook, dc in next 2 ch
Row 2 Step 2: Slip stitch into chain space from first row
Row 2 Step 3: ch 3, 3dc into chain space
From here, you would turn, and do it all again. (Second picture above is turned and chain 6. Each new row while increasing starts with a chain 6) This is how you build up the blocks, and each row is adding one. Even if you left this now and went back to it weeks and weeks later, you could still tell that it was only two rows done. How?
This is the neat thing about C2C crochet. In all the increasing rows, you can easily count the bumps to see what row you`re on. Which is rather useful when you get to really big patterns and works.
For this small tutorial, I thought I`d do a 3×3 square, which means that I need one more row:
So, now that there are 3,
It`s time to start decreasing!
As always, turn from where you left off.
Instead of ch 6, you`re going to slip stitch three times to get to the chain 3 space from that block in the last row:
And once there, do the ch 3, 3dc into ch space:
Slip stitch into next block, ch 3, 3dc into ch space, slip stitch into next block. Then, because we`re decreasing, rather than another ch 3, simply turn. It should now look like this:
As you can see, we`ve gone down from 3 to 2. Which is exactly what was supposed to happen! ^_^
Slip stitch over to the chain space, ch 3, 3 dc into chain space
Slip stitch to connect the block to the other, and you`re done! You can either leave it like that or slip stitch over to the edge to leave off there.
If you look carefully, you can clearly count how many blocks are in each row.
I hope that helps! Feel free to email me or leave a message with any questions. Next time I`ll tackle changing colors!