New Bernat Crochetalong - did you see this?

[imanurse55]

I went out and bought yarn today. You all caught me, lol. I've been stopping by every day to see how everyone is doing, and I love all the pictures. I started working on the first clue, and will post that when I'm done. I hope I can catch up!

Glad you are joining in on the fun!

[imanurse55]

And what I have so far from my second afghan

 

I still have to do the 8 from clue 4, plus clue 5, I have two more to make from clue 3.

Love the bright colors!!! They are so happy looking!!!!

[jennyh]

I went out and bought yarn today. You all caught me, lol. I've been stopping by every day to see how everyone is doing, and I love all the pictures. I started working on the first clue, and will post that when I'm done. I hope I can catch up!

 

yay! we're together!! I'm almost finished with only clue #2--someone's gotta lead the back, right??

 

I've been finding it helpful to go back and skim/read the comments from when most everyone else was on the clue i'm on...both here and on the bernat blog.

 

bonus: we share the same name!

 

[PiscesCrocheter]

I thought I would work on clue 3 for afghan # 2, I figured out something easy for tonight. I had 2 hours to work on it, and I couldn't get it to work out at all, I frogged and :2frog:frog, I lost track of how many times, I've made all eight of mine for ghan # 1 I guess it means I wasn't supposed to work on it tonight I'll try again tomorrow

[Makinofastar]

yay! we're together!! I'm almost finished with only clue #2--someone's gotta lead the back, right??

 

I've been finding it helpful to go back and skim/read the comments from when most everyone else was on the clue i'm on...both here and on the bernat blog.

 

bonus: we share the same name!

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip!

[bigfunfam]

Everyone's progress is great!

I am so glad that I am not the only straggler. I was originally going to use my stash for this and then discovered that I only had a couple colors that I thought would work so I had to wait for funds to buy the other colors. Which I did last night.

 

And coming from far behind, I was able to crochet 12 squares last night which brings me up to clue #5. So, I look at the clue for 5 and see that it's 16 squares! Oh my! Well, I guess I'll be behind for a little while longer, lol. I have a couple birthday gifts I need to work so I have to set this aside for a little while again

[imanurse55]

Everyone's progress is great!

I am so glad that I am not the only straggler. I was originally going to use my stash for this and then discovered that I only had a couple colors that I thought would work so I had to wait for funds to buy the other colors. Which I did last night.

 

And coming from far behind, I was able to crochet 12 squares last night which brings me up to clue #5. So, I look at the clue for 5 and see that it's 16 squares! Oh my! Well, I guess I'll be behind for a little while longer, lol. I have a couple birthday gifts I need to work so I have to set this aside for a little while again

Wow- you are really on a roll!:cheer

[bigfunfam]

I am so stinkin' excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually made a square mitered square. So here's how I did it -

 

1. I really over exaggerated how loose I made the sc3tog. I mean, seriously loose to the point that I couldn't make it any looser.

 

2. I made the sc on the edges (beginning of each round) very loose also.

 

3. As I worked, I gradually loosened up all of my stitches.

 

4. I made the square from big to small. I'm going to try later to do the square small to big, but I almost don't want to jinx it since it worked.

 

Here's a picture of my "square" square!

 

[ATTACH]29273[/ATTACH]

 

:clap:clap Beautiful!

 

I have made two this morning and both are wonky. The second was much better, but still icky. The perfectionist in my is having a really hard time with this, lol. I'm going to try your tips next and see if I can get something I think is acceptable

[imanurse55]

I'm going to meet up with marpan79 (Marisa) in about 1/2 hour and we're going to work on our squares together!!! I'm so excited!!!

[jennyh]

And coming from far behind, I was able to crochet 12 squares last night which brings me up to clue #5.

 

dang! i can only work like one square a day--two if I'm lucky! I'm working on other stuff too, so maybe that's it, but my hands get tired!! i think I started to overdo it lately (come to think of it, my general arm/hand discomfort kinda started around the time I joined c'ville....hmmmmm...) 12 of these squares in a night is some power crochet for sure! You should start a video crochet-workout web-series...

 

I'm going to meet up with marpan79 (Marisa) in about 1/2 hour and we're going to work on our squares together!!! I'm so excited!!!

 

that sounds like it oughta be fun--

[cshell]

This is what gave me my most square square. I went from small to large, but came to the conclusion that there was a problem with my starting smallest section, so i changed how I did that. Here is what I did that worked for me:

Ch 4, then join into a ring. ch2 (counts as a SC), then do 2 more SC into the ring. Then ch2 (counts as a SC), 3 SC in next SC, then SC into last SC. The pattern is pretty much the same from there. I used the ch 2 counting as a SC throughout the square.

My square isn't absolutely perfect, but it is much more square than other methods I tried. I still ended up adding an extra row to get to 8 inches. Here is a pic

 

 

Looking real good! Colors are great as well.

[cshell]

And what I have so far from my second afghan

 

I still have to do the 8 from clue 4, plus clue 5, I have two more to make from clue 3.

 

 

You'll get there Rene just keep plugging away. Your colors are so different, both 'ghans are going to be fantastic.

[cshell]

Well--an update from the legions here bringing up the rear...

 

I finished clues 1 and [almost]2 (though I'm considering reworking clue 1 now that i've discovered the amazingness of changing hook sizes mid-pattern).

 

For the granny (my first granny square this size), it took me a long time to get it working for 8" I ended up using a 3.75mm for rnds 1-3, a 4mm for round 4, and a 5mm for rnds 5-6...but it measures 8" and it looks nice. For the second one, I paid special attention to where I was putting each stitch so that i wouldn't get that twist effect that I noticed with my first square.

 

^ Which has inspired me to try something out for this project and that is: stick to the pattern and the guage...switch hooks like crazy if you have to.

 

Loving the discovery of new small patterns and how I work them...

 

 

 

You will probably "sprint" ahead of all of us at the end.

 

It is interesting to see how many methods we all use to complete the same square.

[cshell]

I went out and bought yarn today. You all caught me, lol. I've been stopping by every day to see how everyone is doing, and I love all the pictures. I started working on the first clue, and will post that when I'm done. I hope I can catch up!

 

Welcome aboard. You CAN catch up.

 

Don't forget to post your pics, you may inspire someone else to jump on in.

[cshell]

I'm going to meet up with marpan79 (Marisa) in about 1/2 hour and we're going to work on our squares together!!! I'm so excited!!!

 

 

That sounds like a lot of fun. Hope you two had a great afternoon.

[jennyh]

 

You will probably "sprint" ahead of all of us at the end.

 

It is interesting to see how many methods we all use to complete the same square.

 

haha, that's a story I like...

 

this time, I'm here to ask a question...I think

 

Getting a bit frustrated with gauge and having to swatch all the time. I guess it's not the doing and redoing that's bothering me necessarily--it's that nothing seems to be doing what I want it to do with clue #3--the v-stitch squares. My first one, I just deiced to go ahead and "go with it" and use the J hook. The width is alright for the first 2-3 rows, then it narrows--I was trying to get my rows to be shorter, and so I think that's what made it get narrower.

 

My question is more general I guess--to verify that if my width is okay but my height is tall--then I just use more tension, right? But then what if it is still too tall even if I'm pulling the first loop up exactly the girth of the hook? The next logical step seems to go down a hook size and ease the tension back to normal, right?

 

I guess you'll all probably say that it doesn't really matter how many rows or V's I have as long as it's 8 inches, but I'd like to try to get 12 rows and 8 V's if I can...just to see and try and practice.

 

Even a 4mm hook's rows are too tall--but then the width is way too narrow--even when I coax it to stretch a bit.....thoughts?

[imanurse55]

Had a nice visit with Marisa and we each got 2 squares done! We're both doing the squares using the increase method, instead of the decrease method.

 

Jenny- the important thing is that the squares be 8X8- and remember this is FUN! Not supposed to be stressful!! I only did ch3 on the V stitch squares for each row instead of ch 4 as the pattern stated.

 

I know I won't have all 16 done by this Wednesday- but they did say it wouldn't matter if we were done by this week. I'm guessing next clue we'll only be making 2 squares (or at least I hope) so we can all catch up with these 16!

[jennyh]

Thanks Joanne--

 

I'm trying to find the balance between fun and the tedium of accuracy...it helps to take breaks

[Gardener]

I have 8 clue 5 squares done now, and 4 of them are nice and square. I'm not redoing the wonky ones though. By the time I get 16 of these squares made, I will have had enough of them!

[jennyh]

okay--

 

just finished second V-stitch square with an H hook...8 Vs x 12 rows, and I had to stretch it just a little (1/2 inch at the most?) to get the right width.

 

Used the overhand method or knife hold. i've started calling them overhand and underhand because the way I hold a knife or a pencil is pretty much nothing like the way I hold a crochet hook, lol.

 

Hope it doesn't bother anyone that I'm behind/blurting out...I feel a little bit like a weirdo being 3 weeks behind the conversation...

 

Anyway, I think I'll try my next square with an I hook and the overhand hold (i find it to be a bit tighter than the underhand)...let's see how this goes...!!

 

[marpan79]

Hey everyone

 

I was away for the weekend, but now am back!!!! That being said, I didn't have much time to work on my squares I have 3 done....1 I finished before the weekend and the other 2 I just finished tonight when I met up with Joanne We had a great relaxing time just crocheting and chatting We tried to colaborate on some ideas to get a square square So 3 down, and 13 to go But I'm not worried

 

Need to finish unpacking and then I'll try to get another one done before bed

 

And Jenny, I think I had 9 V's for clue 3 and 11 rows. But if you really want the 12 rows, you'd have to pull your stitch tighter in the height, but not the width since you're not having a problem there.

[paulam01]

I been trying to clue 5 i did it twice and it still didnt come out right, I did the big to the small then I did the small to the big. It seems that I am crocheting to tight

[jennyh]

just finished another V-stitch square with an I hook, and again--height good, had to stretch it a tiny bit to get the width--and it doesn't look like it stresses the fabric..I think it's just making the stitches lie flatter. Which tells me blocking should definitely perfect these squares.

 

hm... actually now since I've been typing this--the square isn't able to hold its width--maybe I'll try it with a J hook and try to keep a decent tension on the yarn--I'm finding that these work up so quickly that I don't really mind re-doing them.

 

i figure for me, each clue is going to have about a day's worth of toying around before i can get to cruising through the squares--makes sense I suppose. It took me about a week to get comfortable with my other afghan pattern...

[jennyh]

 

And Jenny, I think I had 9 V's for clue 3 and 11 rows. But if you really want the 12 rows, you'd have to pull your stitch tighter in the height, but not the width since you're not having a problem there.

 

glad you had a good time meeting up!

 

It certainly is a head-scratcher for me...never bothered much with gauge. oh I've made gauge swatches--aplenty! but I never really measured them well or adjusted anything....now I'm taking the time to care about it...

 

I've worked the square three times now, and on the second and thrid squares, the height is pretty good--actually--I just re-measured both, and they have shrunk! in both height and width!

 

oh learning!!

 

I think I'll shift to another project while I'm still feeling pretty good about this one--so I don't get too far into it and frustrate myself again.

 

jack skellington ami, here I come! (right after my PB & J!!)

[paulam01]

I am going crazy with clue 5 i redo it about too times and It doesn't coming out right