Sophie's Universe CAL Clue 4

Finished Clue 4 of Sophie's Universe CAL today with the optional flowers.  I'm surprised that I retained the crochet stitches since I haven't touched this in a few months or more (I don't really know, Clue 3 was completed a year ago).  At this point, the only thing I have to review are standing stitches - used in lieu of joining yarn with a sl stitch and chaining sts, its seamless and looks just like the other stitches.  

I am very pleased with it - BUT - I remembered quickly why it sits for a while ... a few hours into work this afternoon my wrist/hand started to hurt and I was wondering what I did.  Did I whack it off the counter, did I bend it back the wrong way?!?!  Oh yeah ... I crocheted a lot this morning before work ...

A little crochet

I've been working on my crochet skills a bit recently.  I was happy to find that I now remember all the different stitch terms (and can work them) and I am beginning to see how crochet works (forming corners for example).  Being a knitter - sorry, Knitter - crochet didn't make a whole lot of sense to me and I don't always understand the patterns (especially if its not SPELLED out).  Now I am beginning to be able to work it, see its not right, study the finished item photo and go, ah ha ... that's what that meant,

Pattern: Vintage Linen Coasters by Amy Polcyn

Yarn: Schachenmayr Original Catania Solids, Mercerized Cotton, color Lavender

Really nice little pattern, great yarn.  I think I'd like to make some of these up as gifts (I'm guessing in my house they will end up as cat toys if we use them as coasters ....)

Pattern: Flower Garden Granny Square by Hiromi Widerquist

Yarn: Miscellaneous Peaches & Cream and Sugar & Cream

Awesome pattern, great for beginners.  I am thinking of making up many squares in purple, pink, blue and orange and making a blanket ... but its cotton, so I am still on the fence on this one, I'm not sure how functional it would be as a blanket in 100% cotton ... but it sure would be pretty.

Pattern: Vintage Hankie Washcloth by Julie Tarsha

Yarn: Phildar Phil Coton 3

This is a REALLY nice cotton yarn.  It has aloe in it, its super soft and really nice to work with.  If cotton didn't stretch and pill and make for not so great garments,  I would totally make a sweater out of this!  I would like to make up a set of wash cloths using the same 3 colors in different sections for each cloth.  Its a nice pattern, but I had trouble following the edging and ended up winging it to work out (it didn't quite make sense as written or line up with the photo of the finished item).

Sophie's Universe CAL Clue 3

I completed Clue 3 today.  Technically I completed it the other day, but 1) I learned that when the instructions say, if using the same color, chain 1 and sc in the same stitch does not mean in the same stitch you just made a stitch in, it means in the same stitch you just made ... there is a difference, LOL! 2) I had originally not done the optional crab stitch round and moved on to clue 4 because it said that this made the piece wonky, but blocking would fix that ... well this is 100% acrylic yarn, blocking is not going to fix that.  Then as I was perusing other projects on Ravelry someone else had made one in this very yarn and had done the optional round ... so when I went to fix #1, I did the optional round on the redo (and its not actually that wonky)

At this rate I am completing a clue a month and the rounds get bigger and bigger so I am not sure how long this is going to go.  I also am doing a clue a month because I tend to hurt my wrist crocheting and have to take frequent breaks.  

I am amazed at how much I have learned, at this point I can count stitches, see when something went wrong or something was skipped and I'm actually remembering the different stitches now!

So far in this piece have done:

Single Crochet

Half Double Crochet

Double Crochet

Treble Crochet

Double Treble Crochet

Popcorn Stitch 

Cluster Stitches

Front Post stitches

Crab Stitch

Next clue is back post stitches!

Sophie's Universe CAL Clue 2

Sophie's Universe Clue 2 completed.  I'm not sure I worked all of the stitches correctly ... or better yet, into the correct stitches, but the whole point of this project was a learning experience.  And learning I am!

I'm not sure I am loving the colors ... I pretty much picked very similar colors to what was called for in the pattern (I substituted yarn).  I also think that the designer had the right idea with a cotton or cotton blend yarn, the stitch definition is much better in the samples for the pattern ... but I was going for cost effective in case this did't work out, LOL!  

Clearly the design still shows fine, but this is 100% acrylic ... so not much I can do about blocking when its done.

Sophie's Universe CAL Clue 1

This is Clue 1 completed for Sophie's Universe CAL 2015.  I'm really loving this crochet.  Its a great pattern with really excellent photo tutorials and tips and hints throughout ... great for the not so experienced crocheter like me.

When I started I had to look up single crochet, double crochet and half double crochet.  Since I don't crochet often, I usually can't remember which one has how many yarn overs and how many loops to pull through at a time.

This clue also had front and back post work and a magic circle start.  I've learned a ton already and its only clue 1!!

Crochet-A-Long

I've been wanting to advance my crochet skills for some time.  I found a Mystery CAL that also includes great photo tutorials for each section.

Sophie's Universe CAL

I am a little behind because I found it after it started on January 18th.  I had to order yarn and I ordered a nice wooden hook ...

I started today, I am hoping to catch up quickly, but either way I am enjoying it and learning quite a bit.  I found it funny that the designer said for round 4 she had to frog it a few times, pay attention to what stitches are going where.  I finished round 4 after this photo and thought, hhmmm that wasn't too bad.  Well when I went to round 5 ... then I noticed I did indeed missed some stitches on round 4, LOL!!

So back to round 4 ...