Crochet Decreasing – PipsRainbow

Mr & Mrs Eggy

April 5, 2019 No Comments

Hello my lovely ones. How are we all? Are we all getting ready for Easter? Not long now. It definitely feels like it’s come around quickly this year. We’re all looking forward to having a break and a bit of a slower pace in our house, from the usual school run craziness!! I think I will get my daughter to make a mindmap of all the things she wants to do in the holidays again. It worked really well at half term. We had great fun, ticking them all off.

Hoping to start her off with some Grannie Squares this holiday too. Think the blanket might have to be put on hold for a bit. Bless her. Might have been a bit too ambitious with that one!! Whoops!!

So I reckon it’s time to introduce you guys to Mr & Mrs Eggy.

They seem to be sheltering under their umbrella from all this wind and rain at the moment. I don’t blame them. These two have been hiding in the playroom for the last month or so. They seem to spend most of their time snuggled up together. Bless. Everything I make at the minute seems to be in twos!! I don’t know why! I never seem to set out to make two, it just seems to happen!!! Funny!!

Right, so this is where my Using Up Year and Easter have joined forces to create these two lovely Eggs! They are the healthy alternative to any yummy chocolatey heavenly Easter Egg that you might be thinking about buying for your loved ones!! Haha! Only joking. These little guys would be a great accompaniment to any chocolatey egg and will be there to snuggle your little bods, when the sad day arrives when all the chocolate has been eaten. A sad day indeed…

Really hope you enjoy this pattern. It’s ever so simple and quick to whip up. They are created by using the ever so simple Treble Crochet stitch, so it gives a nice alternative to the normal double crochet Amigurumi patterns and also works up a lot quicker.

Ok so off we go…

Level – Easy

Supplies –

So for Mr & Mrs Eggy I have used soft double knit wool, but you can choose whatever yarn you would like. Now you are going to need a 3mm crochet hook. (The reason we use a smaller hook size to the yarn, is so that the weave is smaller, thus making sure no toy stuffing comes out.) So for the double knit yarn – you will need about 140g, but I used all my bits up, so up to you what you can find in your stash!!

Don’t forget you also need a bit of white and black yarn for the eyes and face. And also your scissors, toy stuffing and blunt ended tapestry needle. Oh and a pom pom! The best bit!!

Stitches –

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the loop. Insert your hook through the loop and grab the working yarn (long piece) and pull through the loop. Hold the tail and the working yarn and pull so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

Slip stitch (ss) – This is where there is no height to the stitch. It’s usually used to join rounds. So insert the hook into the front of the stitch you are joining to. This is usually the first stitch you made in that round/row. So yarn over hook and pull through that first stitch then also through the loop on your hook.

Chain (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Treble (tr) – To make a treble crochet, firstly yarn over your hook, insert through space/stitch, yarn over your hook, pull back through space/stitch. There should now be 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over hook and pull through the first two loops, yarn over hook and pull through the last two loops.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Decrease with treble (tr2tog) – ok so basically you need to crochet 2 stitches together, but still keep the height of a tr. So yarn over your hook and insert into stitch. Then yarn over hook and pull back through. This leaves you with 3 loops on your hook. Now yarn over your hook and pull through first 2 loops. This will leave you with 2 loops on your hook. Now yarn over hook and insert into the next stitch. Then yarn over your hook again and pull yarn back through. This leaves you with 4 loops on your hook. So yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then to finish, yarn over your hook and pull through the last 3 loops.

Double Treble Stitch (dtr) – A double treble is quite a tall stitch. So yarn over hook twice, insert hook through the stitch/space and then yarn over hook again. Now pull the yarn through the stitch. There will now be 4 loops on the hook. Now place the yarn over the hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then yarn over the hook again and pull through the next two loops. Haha, now place the yarn over the hook again and pull through the last 2 loops. Phew! It’s a bit of a long process, but a lovely stitch with the height that it gives.

Body –

Now as this is a great Using Up Project, you can either use lots of little bits of yarn for the body like Mrs Eggy or one ball of yarn like Mr Eggy. Depends what look you are going for or how much yarn you have of each colour. For Mr Eggy I used about half a ball of a colour changing yarn. He seemed to work up quite nicely in that.

1 – Right then, so first things first, make your magic ring and chain 3. (Remember if you’re unsure of how to do this, see the tutorial section. Just remember you are working a Treble Crochet Stitch into the magic ring.)

Now work 12tr stitches into the ring itself.

To make a Treble Crochet Stitch – firstly yarn over your hook, insert through space/stitch, yarn over your hook, pull back through space/stitch. There should now be 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over hook and pull through the first two loops, yarn over hook and pull through the last two loops.

Here’s your 12 treble Crochet stitches.

You can now pull the little tail to close the ring. (12)

2 – Work 2tr into each stitch. (24)

3 – Work 2tr into each stitch. (48)

4 – Work 1tr in each stitch. (48)

5 – Now work *7tr, then 2tr into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (54)

6 – 7 (2 rounds) Work 1tr into each stitch. (54)

8 – *8tr, then 2tr into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (60)

9 – *9tr, then 2tr into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (66)

10 – *10tr, then 2tr into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (72)

11 – 13 (3 rounds) Work 1tr into each stitch. (72)

14 – *11tr, then 2tr into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (78)

15 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (78)

16 – Now work *11tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (72)

Right then, so to work a tr2tog Stitch – Yarn over your hook and insert into stitch. Then yarn over hook and pull back through. This leaves you with 3 loops on your hook. Now yarn over your hook and pull through first 2 loops. This will leave you with 2 loops on your hook. Now yarn over hook and insert into the next stitch. Then yarn over your hook again and pull yarn back through. This leaves you with 4 loops on your hook. So yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then to finish, yarn over your hook and pull through the last 3 loops. And there you have your tr2tog.

17 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (72)

18 – Now work *10tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (66)

19 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (66)

20 – Now work *9tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (60)

21 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (60)

22 – Now work *8tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (54)

23 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (54)

24 – Now work *7tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (48)

25 – Work 1tr into each stitch. (48)

26 – Now work *6tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (42)

27 – Now work *5tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (36)

28 – Now work *4tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (30)

29 – Now work *3tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (24)

This would be a good time to stuff your body with stuffing.

30 – Now work *2tr stitches, then tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (18)

31 – Now work *tr2tog* repeat ** 6 times. (9)

Now slip stitch into the first stitch, sew up the hole and fasten off leaving a tail to sew the pom pom onto the top of the body later on.

Eyes – Make 2 using your white yarn.

Right so for the eyes you can either make two of the same or two different shaped ones. So I have included a round pattern and an oval pattern. So it’s totally up to you.

Eye 1 (The round one)

1 – Right then, so make your magic ring and chain 1. Now work 6dc stitches into the chain itself. You can now pull the little tail to close the ring. (6)

2 – *Now work 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (12)

3 – *Now work 1dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (18)

4 – *Now work 2dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (24)

Now slip stitch into the first stitch and fasten off leaving a tail to sew the eye onto the body.

Eye 2 (The Oval one)

1 – Right then, so make your magic ring and chain 1. Now work 6dc stitches into the chain itself. You can now pull the little tail to close the ring. (6)

2 – *Now work 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (12)

3 – Then work 2dc in the 3 next stitches, then 3dc stitches, followed by 2dc in the next 3 stitches. Then finish with 3dc stitches. (18)

4 – Ok so for the last round, it’s a bit of a concoction of stitches. So start by 1htr, then 1tr and 1dtr in the next stitch. Then 1dtr and 1tr in the next stitch. Follow this with 1htr in the next stitch and then 5dc stitches. Now work 1htr stitch and then 1tr and 1dtr in the next stitch. Then 1dtr and 1tr in the next stitch. Follow this with 1htr in the next stitch and finish with 5dc stitches. (Hope that all makes sense!!) (22)

(Remember if you are unsure of any stitches, just look above at the stitch section.)

Now slip stitch into the first stitch and fasten off leaving a tail to sew the eye onto the body.

Arms and Legs – Make 2 of each

Now you can use whatever combo of colours you fancy with these. I have paired up the arms and the legs, but it’s totally up to you what you do. They start off the same and then just change on the length. Just make sure you read the pattern careful, as in some parts you are going to switching between double and treble crochet stitches.

1 – Make a magic ring, chain 1, then work 6dc into the ring. (6)

2 – Now work 2dc into each stitch in the round. (12)

3 – *1dc, then 2dc in each stitch* Work ** 6 times. (18)

4 – *2dc, then 2dc in each stitch* Work ** 6 times. (24)

5 – 6 (2rounds) Now work 1tr in each stitch. (24)

7 – Work *2dc, 2dctog.* Work ** 6 times. (18)

8 – Work *1dc, 2dctog.* Work ** 6 times. (12)

For the legs (Make 2) –

9 – 27 (18 rows) Work 1dc for in each stitch in the round. (12)

For the arms (Make 2) –

9 – 28 (19 rows) Work 1dc in each stitch in the round. (12)

29 – *1dc, 2dctog* Work ** 4 times. (8)

Now make a slip stitch and fasten off. Now it’s time to stuff the legs and the arms if you want to. Now you can either leave the arms/legs empty or give them a little stuffing, but not too much. You don’t want them to stick out too much and not have any movement! For this pattern I like to keep the arms and hands completely free of stuffing, but stuff my feet and a little of the legs, but it really doesn’t matter either way.

Now you have 2 arms and 2 legs done. You’ll be able to tell the difference easily between the two, as the arms are a little longer and taper in at the top.

And there we have it. All body parts made…

Sewing Up –

Right then, so all we need to do now is sew it altogether and add the face and most importantly, the pom pom!!

So you are going to need your scissors and blunt ended needle to sew up your body parts and some black yarn for the face.

First things first, use the tail from the top of the arms to sew each arm on to the top of the body.

When you’re sewing on the arms and legs, make sure you sew the top of the arm/leg and the under side of it too.

Right now for those legs. You need to decide how you want them to lie, but this is the angle I tend to use.

Sew your legs on with the same kind of technique as the arms. You just need to make sure you keep checking the angle they are sitting at to each other.

Ok so now for the eyes. So to sew them on, grab the middle little tail and using your needle, just loosely sew the tail through to the other side and cut off the visible end. This will gently anchor the eye in place, which will make it easier for you to sew around the edges.

So the best way to sew them on is to work your way up and down in and out of each stitch. You can see in the picture below how I am coming back up through the next stitch. This will ensure the sewing on thread is hidden and will give a much neater finish to your project.

Once you have finished your first eye, I insert the needle through to the back of the body, where I make a simple knot and insert that back through to the side of the body. This will ensure that the eye is anchored properly. Now onto the second eye and sew on as before. Make sure that you keep checking the eyes are level and placed where you want them to be. Don’t be afraid to undo and start again, if it goes a little wonky!!

Ok, so now it’s time to finish the eyes and create the eyebrows. For the eye, start by threading your needle with black yarn and then knotting the end. Then thread it through from the back of the body, through the middle of the white part of the eye. The knot at the back should be small enough to fit through the middle of a stitch so that it is hidden, but be able to nestle in the stuffing to anchor the eye in place. Now finish your eyes by working little pupils on each eye, by sewing up and over a stitch. You can make these pupils as small or as big as you like. I seem to usually go over 2 stitches and usually sew it over about 4 times.

To work the eyebrows, you can carry on using the black yarn from the eyes. So come up where you want the eyebrow to start and then literally insert it back into the stitch where you want the eye brow to end. It’s pretty simple, but very effective. Don’t make it too big, as they can get caught and snag later on! Obviously you can make any expression you would like to, just by changing the angle of the eyebrows!

To make the smile, literally come up about two rounds under the first eye. Then over to the second eye in the same place. Now here’s the tricky part, find the middle of the smile and make a little stitch a few rounds underneath, but make sure your stitch goes over the smile.

This is to ensure the mouth is anchored down. Once again as before thread your black yarn to the back of the body, make a simple knot and then sew back through the body and cut off the end.

Right then, now it’s pom pom time!! Most pom poms have little loops. So use the thread from the top of the body, to sew on your pom pom!!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this pattern. I know they went down well in our household.

Please let me know if you get stuck, I will endeavour to help in anyway I can.

Thanks ever so much for following me.

Happy hooking!

🌈Xx

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)

Tutorials

Crocheting in the Round

March 31, 2019 No Comments

Well hello my lovely ones. Hope you are all having a wonderful Mother’s Day. I thought I’d bring you the second lesson in my Beginner Crochet Course. In the first tutorial, we looked at Slip Knots, Foundation Chains and Double Crochet Stitches. So for this lesson, we will be looking at Magic Rings, Slip Stiches, Crocheting in the Round, Stitch Markers, increasing and decreasing stitches.

So I have made a video tutorial as well as a photo tutorial for you. Hope you find them both useful and an easy guide into how to crochet in the round. Follow the link below for the video tutorial.

So let’s get started…

Crocheting Rounds – Amigurumi

Most of my patterns, will use the traditional increase method seen in many Amigurumi crochet projects. This is usually where your stitch count increases in 6’s. So 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 …

Amigurumi is a method of crocheting in spiral rounds. It was first found as an art form in Japan to create small stuffed yarn creatures, but became popular, further a field from 2003 onwards. It’s definitely a great technique to learn. And can produce some fantastic projects.

I always think of Amigurumi a bit like a Victoria Sponge Cake method, in the sense that it’s the same method that will create the same kind of an end product. But obviously, like a Victoria Sponge, you can vary it and change it to suit what you’d like to create. It’s such a lovely way to crochet and great fun to create new little creatures.

Conky the Conker is created using the Amigurumi method.

Here’s a few of my other little creations that have used the Amigurumi Method. All their free patterns can be found in the Pattern Section.

Magic Ring

In many patterns today, you will see the term magic ring. I remember thinking at the beginning what on earth is that. But actually it’s a really cool little method. Some crocheters don’t use it, but I seem to have adopted it for my projects & you will see it in most of my patterns where you are crocheting in the round/amigurumi method.

A magic ring (mr) is simply a slip knot, but instead of pulling the working yarn like normal, just leave it as a loop. You will then need to follow the pattern with how many stitches are required.

So create a magic ring. Make a loop by placing the tail over the top of the working yarn.

Now you are going to grab the middle of the tail with your fingers or hook and pull it partly through.

Then pull tight to make the magic ring. Remember you are only pulling through the middle of the tail. Pull the end of the tail and the working yarn together to tighten the knot and create the loop.

And there you have your magic ring.

Then you need to chain 1 into your magic ring. This will give you the height for double crocheting (dc.) If you were doing half trebles (htr) then you would chain 2 and trebles (tr), you would chain 3. It all depends on what stitch you are working into the ring, as to how many chains you work.

So insert your hook through the magic ring.

Yarn over hook and pull it through.

Then yarn over hook again and pull it through the loop on the hook to make the chain stitch. This is your first chain 1.

Now you are ready to do the amount of double crochet stitches required. So again in most normal crocheting in the round patterns, this will be 6dc.

Ok so *hook through the magic ring, yarn over hook.

Then pull back through.

Yarn over your hook again and then pull through the 2 loops on the hook.* This will create your first dc stitch in the magic ring.

See where the v is, that is your first dc stitch.

Now repeat ** this until you have 6dc into your magic ring.

(You may have a pattern that requires more into the magic ring or different stitches, but this is how many of the amigurumi patterns work.) Now pull the tail tight (the short piece of yarn) to create a ring of stitches.

And here is round 1.

Slip Stitch

Now slip stitch into the first stitch you made to close up the ring. To do this insert your hook into the first stitch.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through.

Then pull your hook through the loop on the hook. This creates a slip stitch. The way to remember what a slip stitch is, is that it doesn’t have any height. So here is your magic ring with 6 double crochets inside to make your first round.

Stitch Marker

The blue yarn you can see in the picture below is being used as a stitch marker. You can use any piece of yarn, as long as it’s a different colour to your project. A stitch marker tells you where one round finishes and the next round begins! It is extremely important to use one, as it allows you to keep your work accurate and give you a chance to check that each round is correct!!! If you are anything like me, you can easily have distractions from family members, where you will have to throw down your work to sort or do something.

So with a stitch marker you can check where you were and off you go again!! So all you do is lay the thread over the first stitch of your round and then continue crocheting into that first stitch and the rest of your round. When you have finished that round, just gently lay it back over again, thus giving you a consatena effect, and off you go again. See the pink yarn stitch marker in the picture below.

If you were crocheting in rows, for example a blanket or a piece of clothing. You can always use a little stitch marker clip. You can get these from most wool shops or online. This was on a tea cosy that I made for my sister in law. The stitch marker meant that I knew exactly where the centre of the row was. So when you’ve finished the project you can just remove the marker.

Crocheting in the Round Continued…

Ok, so now we can carry on crocheting in the round. So we are now starting round 2. So in round 2 you are going to increase from 6 to 12 dc stitches. To increase in crocheting, you work 2dc stitches in one stitch and you would do this a number of times to create an even increase. As I have said before the Amigurumi method goes up in 6’s. So 6, 12, 18, 24… But it depends on the pattern you are following as to how you work your rounds. Sometimes there might just be a round of 1dc stitches. If you are only working 1dc stitches, your work will start to bend up and give you an edge. You will see this in toy animals or crocheted pots.

So for round 2 you are going to work 2dc stitches in each stitch. This will give you an increase from 6 to 12dc stitches. So start by placing your stitch marker over the top of your first stitch and then working 1dc in the first stitch. Can you see how I am inserting the hook into the first stitch (through the V, which is both loops.)

Now yarn over your hook and pull back through.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops on your hook. That is your first dc stitch.

Now work 1 more dc stitch in the same stitch. You can see how there are 2 stitches there now by the 2 V’s.

Now work 2dc in the next 5 stitches. This will give you an increase from 6dc to 12dc stitches. And that completes round 2.

So here in your third round of increasing, you are going to increase from 12 to 18 dc stitches. To do this *1dc in the first stitch and then 2dc into the next stitch.*

Work this ** 6 times. You now have 18 stitches instead of 12.

So here in your fourth round of increasing, you are going to increase from 18 to 24 dc stitches. Now this is the one that sometimes confuses people. But it basically means you will work 1dc in one stitch, 1dc in the next stitch and then 2dc in the next stitch along.

So to do this work *2dc stitches and then 2dc into the next stitch.*

Work this ** 6 times. You now have 24 stitches instead of 18.

And that is how you increase in the round. With the Amigurumi method it will keep increasing to a certain point. So the next would be *3dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* This gives you 30dc stitches and then then next would be *4dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* This would give you 36dx stitches. And so on. Hope that all makes sense.

Once you have increased for so many rounds, your pattern may ask you to work 1dc Stitch in each stitch. This is what it would look like. See how it’s working up in a bowl shaped giving you an edge.

If you carried on increasing, it would stay flat.

Decreasing

So decreasing is also a really important technique to know. And with the Amigurumi method, just like increasing, you need to work it evenly. So it basically follows the same methodology, but in reverse. So we decrease in 6’s, so 36, 30, 24, 18, 12, 6. Obviously, a pattern may call for you to do it in a different way, but this is the most basic way.

So I have 24 stitches in my round, so I know I have worked 2dc then 2dc in the next stitch, to get 24dc. Ok so to decrease, we do the opposite. So work 2dc stitches and then with the next 2 stitches, work a 2dctog stitch. This is where we work 2dc stitches together to create one.

Start by working 2dc stitches. This is because the round before was 2dc then 2dc in the next stitch.

So insert your hook only into the front loop of the stitch.

Then again into the next front loop of the next stitch.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Then yarn over your hook again and pull through the 2 loops on your hook. And that completes your 2dctog stitch.

Now you are ready to repeat the process. Now sometimes it is a little tricky to figure out where the next stitch goes. But can you see from the picture below where the arrow is pointing. It’s basically the next full stitch, so where no yarn is being pulled from the 2dctog stitch.

So *work 2dc stitches, then 2dctog* and work 6 times in total in the round. This will give you a stitch count from 24 to 18. You would then use the same methodology for the next round from 18 to 12 and so on…

And there we have it, crocheting in the round/Amigurumi method.

I really hope these tutorials have helped you. Any problems or queries please do not hesitate to ask. And don’t forget you can find all this information again on my video. Just follow the link below.

Happy hooking.

🌈Xx