Carousel CAL - Part Two

The last week has gone so slowly, but Tuesday is finally here again!! 

Part Two of the Carousel Crochet-Along, designed by Sue Pinner and hosted by Stylecraft Yarns has just been posted, and is available to download NOW from the Stylecraft website, in English (US and UK), German and Dutch.

If you haven't set up a Ravelry project yet, the pattern page can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/carousel-cal  

We are working the CAL along with you all (Anne in the new Batik yarn, and Michelle in Special DK, and will post our tips and tricks for each part at the same time as the pattern is published over at the Stylecraft website. Anne is on holidays this week, so we will catch up with her Batik Part Two next time :) 

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments or on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/crochetbetweenworlds/) - we are here to help you. Anne is doing the German translations for the CAL again, so ask away in German too!

Part Two, the Red & Cream Banding:

Our top tips for the Red & Cream Banding are:

1. Use foundation stitches to start each panel instead of chains! It is then a bit more chunky down the bottom to join, but I find it so much easier to work.

Here's our picture tutorial for the foundation hdc: 
http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/tutorial-foundation-half-double-crochet.html 

The only difference for a foundation dc is rather than pulling through all three loops at the end of the stitch, you pull through the first two and then the second two (like a normal dc stitch).

2. Instead of chains at the start of each row, try the stacked standing dc! This also makes the panels easier to join at the end ;) 

Stacked Standing dc: sc into target stitch. Insert hook under two leftmost strands of sc, yarn over hook to do a second sc.

3. If you're like me and can't mentally deal with instructions like "evenly join" or "freeform", here's a cheat way to make sure all your panel joins are neat and even:

2sc in the side of each stacked standing dc (there are conveniently two top v's up the side of a stacked standing dc) + 1sc in the side of each normal dc, plus an extra sc at the bottom (for the straight sides) or top (for the increase sides) = 25sc! 

Plus, if you're using standing stitches to start, do NOT replace the chain join at the beginning of the join row with an sc - it looks wonky and messes up the stitch counts. Just slst join to the very bottom of the first panel and slst in the very bottom of the second panel to begin.

If you're totally cool with making it work free form every time, I take my hat off to you! 

4. When you're weaving your ends in, do it in and around the tops of the stitches on the front. Because the stitching is zig-zagging back and forth along the join, just catching the yarn ends in the same stitching on the back will be visible. See in the photo below, you can't even really see where the ends are stitched in on the front (well you sort of can, but it's less obvious than a gold thread running along between red and cream)! 

We hope these tips help you! 

Check back here in two weeks on Tuesday 4 October for Part Three - the Pentagons :)