crochet
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Chainless Foundation Friendly Crochet Fantail Variations
HOWTO: Crochet Fantail Over Established Stitches. While designing a sampler (squares) afghan, one of the features I wanted was to make it chainless foundation friendly. (Pattern info here.) I found a ton of videos and tutorials for fantails, but all of them worked directly into a chain. They universally call for skipping 3 chain stitches… read more
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Lots of Loops — You can do it!
5 Tips for Crochet Puff Stitches About a month ago, I posted a tip about dealing with an issue specific to Jasmine stitch. I got some feedback that many people have trouble pulling through a lot of loops on hook for any stitch that requires it. As a big fan of puff stitches of all… read more
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Do not wash.
So, I’m making a summer hat (Fun!) using some regular (well extra pretty, but other than that regular) ribbon-type raffia. Which of course I verified that it could be washed before buying. The hat is starting to take shape, and I love the ribbon I’ve been working with. But I decided I’d like to do… read more
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The Trouble With Jasmine Stitch (and how to fix it)
Jasmine stitch is a beautiful crochet stitch. It’s not for beginners, but for an experienced crocheter, definitely worth having in your repertoire. This is not a tutorial. Just Google “Crochet Jasmine Stitch” and you’ll find all the tutorials you could want. I’ve perused any number of them (my favorite: CROCHET: JASMINE STITCH | Bella Coco Crochet.)… read more
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Cotton to the What?
You would think the name “Cotton to the Core” would mean cotton yarn, right? I wanted to make a decorative scarf for one of my girls (who, BTW, are actually women.) So I bought some cotton yarn that looked to be somewhere between your typical DK and worsted weights. At least, I thought it was… read more
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So Many Projects
I keep telling myself I’m going to take on fewer projects. Like none until I finish a couple I’ve got going on. Keep things reasonable so I don’t start to feel overwhelmed. But somehow, the list of ongoing projects seems to keep growing. Slowly creeping up, but always creeping up, never really down. There’s the… read more
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You’ve got to hand it to Pattern Testers
I’ve been working with testers for the sampler pattern I’ll be publishing soon, and what a learning experience it’s been (is being? Not done yet.) I walked into this project pretty green at actually writing patterns for other people. And I did it with a large pattern and lofty goals. How did I even get… read more
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Retirement Is So Great!
Last August I got laid off. I looked really really hard for a job. So many interviews. No offers. Then my son-in-law (who’s an accountant) told me I didn’t have to wait until 59 1/2 to draw from my IRA. Wait, what? It’s true. There are a couple of ways to do it, and you… read more
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Another Afghan (for my brother)
I’m not gonna lie — it’s absolutely beautiful. Remember when I signed up for that Annie’s Kit Club sampler? OK, probably not. It was quite a while ago. It was great back then when I had more money than time. They picked out the colors. They sent me the yarn. The patterns were well written.… read more
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Four down, 26 to go…
Or, maybe it’s going to be more than that. Now that I’ve put the four together and looked at them… of course there are things I want to change. Now here’s the boring part. Don’t bother to read. It really will be boring. Just look at the picture and be awed by my talent. Or… read more
Rachel Sunshine's Creations 