Ta-dah! Sophie's Universe!

It's been nearly 18 weeks now since I started on the Sophie's Universe CAL, and I cannot believe how much I've learned in that time. Sophie has made me a much better and more confident crocheter - what a girl! 

Before we get to the photos, a HUGE thank you to the incredible Dedri Uys from www.lookatwhatimade.net, the designer of this stunning project. 

Now, isn't she beautiful? 

TUTORIAL: Foundation Single Crochet

I have a brand new pattern with the graphic designer at the moment! So exciting :D However, it uses a LOT of foundation single crochet stitch. To make your lives easier, here is the Crochet Between Worlds Foundation Single Crochet Photo Tutorial! 

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FOUNDATION SINGLE CROCHET - PHOTO TUTORIAL 

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1. With your hook and yarn, start with a slip knot.

2. Do 2 chain stitch. 

3. Now, look carefully at your first chain stitch (2nd from your hook). There are three threads - the "chain loops" and the "third loop" - I've marked them on this photo for you. You need to insert your hook from front to back through the "chain loops".

4. Yarn over hook, and pull it back to the front - now you have two loops on your hook. 

5. Now the magic begins! Yarn over hook, and bring it through ONLY THE FIRST LOOP, like the photo below. This creates the chains to mimic a foundation chain starting row. 

6. The next step is to make the single crochet stitch - yarn over hook again, and pull through BOTH LOOPS. Tada! You've made your first foundation sc stitch! 

7. This is the part where I was coming undone in other tutorials - where do you put your hook through to start the next stitch? Well, here you go! If you turn the work over so you are looking at the underneath (the "chain" part), you'll see a group of loops. I've labelled with pink arrows which are the "chain loops" that you need to stick your hook through.

Put your hook through those loops from front to back.

Now yarn over hook, and pull through the "chain loops". You'll have two loops on your hook again.  

8. Just like the first time, yarn over hook and pull through the FIRST LOOP only, to create the "chain" section of the stitch.   

9. Then, pull through both loops to create foundation sc #2!

10. Turn you work over again to look at the "chain" side of things. See the next two chain loops that you need to put your hook through to start the next stitch? I've labelled them with yellow arrows below :) 

When you are looking for the next chain loops, make sure you don't pick up the "third loop" by accident! I've spread the threads out a bit and labelled them below. If you start using the "third loop", your chain side will look a bit strange!

Once you've got the hang of it, continue on in the same way: 

FOUNDATION SINGLE CROCHET STITCH - SUMMARY

STEP 1:  Insert hook front to back through chain loops of last stitch, yarn over hook, pull back through chain loops (2 loops on hook). 

STEP 2:  Yarn over hook, pull through 1 loop ("chain") (2 loops on hook). 

STEP 3: Yarn over hook, pull through both loops ("sc"). 

Top 5 Crochet Techniques and Tricks

Although I've had a very long crochet career, learning how to do chains almost as soon as I could hold a hook, for most of that time my repertoire has been limited to granny squares. These poor old afghans are now coming apart due to bad knots, wonky joins and of course heavy use.

In the last year or so, my crochet capacity has exploded! I can do all sorts of crazy things, and with the help of the internet, I can make my crocheted items look neater and last longer :) For today's blog post, here is a roundup of my 5 top Crochet Techniques and Tricks (in no particular order) that have made all the difference to my work over the last year!

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TOP 5 CROCHET TECHNIQUES AND TRICKS

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#1

Standing Stitches for Starting New Colours

Hate that "Join new colour, 3ch (counts as first dc)" instruction? Me too. Discovering the Standing Stitch technique has made my work so much neater and with fewer knots, and it can be adapted to ANY stitch! Need to start with a triple treble crochet? No problem! 

Here's an excellent tutorial from Moogly on how to do a standing dc stitch: 

http://www.mooglyblog.com/standing-double-crochet-joining/

#2

Invisible Join for Crochet in the Round

To me, the obvious "slip stitch into first dc, cut yarn and pull through" joining in work just looks so ugly now that I've learned how to do an invisible join. I still do that where a piece might come under strain (and when I'm too lazy to finish off ends properly and securely), but for anything on display? This is the way to go!

Dedri at Look What I Made has an excellent tutorial:

http://www.lookatwhatimade.net/crafts/yarn/crochet/crochet-tutorials/crochet-invisible-join-vs-slip-stitch-join/

#3

Invisible Decrease

I'm sensing a theme here... but the invisible decrease is just so wonderful for anything amigurumi (including the little giraffe ears and horns for my Heidi Bears animals)! No more weird stretchy holes for me!

For a fantastic tutorial (pictures, words, videos, right handed and left handed), head over to Planet June:

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/amigurumi-help/invisible-decrease/

#4

Zipped Ladder Stitch Join

If you're looking for a way to join squares for an afghan (or anything else really) where you want to almost pretend that they are joined by magic, this is the join to use! I use this for my Chunky Fitted Wristwarmers pattern, as it makes the join look so neat, and it's reversible! 

Linda Davie has an excellent free tutorial available on Ravelry, and it even covers how to cope with corners!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/zipped-ladder-stitch-tutorial---invisible-join-technique

#5

Chainless Foundation Stitches

I know this is my tutorial, but this way of starting a project was just such a revelation and improvement on trying to work in tiny chains, and managing tension, and blah blah blah. You can do any stitch using the same method, and even irregular starting rows such as for a ripple afghan!

I have a tutorial for half double crochet, but as I said above, the same technique can be used for any starting row stitch!

http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/tutorial-foundation-half-double-crochet.html

Do you have any crochet techniques that you just couldn't live without? Let us know in the comments!