The Art of Crochet - Subscriber Special Evening Scarf

Oh TAoC how do I dislike thee. A scarf that is meant to go around our bare necks and you give us a yarn that couldn't be used on non stick cookware. Brilliant thoughts guys. Even after doing a few rows the resulting fabric is kitchen dish washing worthy.

The Art of Crochet - Square Fifteen

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Fifteen

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Treble square with man motif

General Pattern: Treble square with different embroidery stuff

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: The square itself went fine as was expect. The embroidery on the other hand. Every embroidery bit I have to do the more I'm certain that the two do not go along. I was only supposed to have six 'legs' but I ended up with eight.

Here are the front and back photos:

The Art of Crochet - Square Fourteen

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Fourteen

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Two-Color Diagonal Square

General Pattern: Treble stitch with increasing one color and decreasing another to create a diagonal line.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: I was surprised at how easy this square went. I suspected it would be more difficult. This is more closely intarsa work.  I put a stitch marker to mark the right side of the work. Though the square looks dirty because of the color of the yarn.




Here are the front and back photos:

The Art of Crochet - Square Thirteen

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Thirteen

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Treble square with aubergine cross stitch diamond.

General Pattern: Same as square four

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: This one was pretty boring. Though I did improve the cross stitch a bit. Unless it was I didn't care about it any more. I think I've got more of these squares in my future as well.


Here are the front and back photos the photo is on it's side:

The Art of Crochet - Square Twelve

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Twelve

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Turquoise Granny Square

General Pattern: Standard granny square like square three. First and last rounds are trebles and other rounds are half trebles

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: Now that I know more about how to do a granny square this one was faster and better. Still a bit of confusion about the slip stitch to the next 2 ch space but I decided if I was at a 2 ch space then I was good and it looks pretty good. The colors work well together.

Here is the photo.

The Art of Crochet - Square Eleven

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Eleven

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Double Crochet Square with Color Blocks

General Pattern: All double crochet just after about 3 or 4 rows you double crochet five stitches in red then in one of the colors for 4 double crochets then 5 red then 4 in another color then five.  Do this for 4 rows then 4 rows of red then repeat with different color blocks.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: Had to remember stranding technique but I think I managed it I thought it would be more intarsa but really it's not it's more stranding. Looks like I need more work on my row counts. It's very difficult to make those stitch markers go in for double crochet. I'd rather have color work rather than stitching.


Here are the front and back photos:

The Art of Crochet - Square Ten

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Ten

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Mesh Pattern Square

General Pattern: Chains joined with Double Crochet.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: The yarn is called lavender but it's more in the blue side than the purple side of the family. This square took maybe two hours, it went that fast. Simple and very open. I could see maybe using it for string bags for gym gear or something.


Here is the photo.

The Art of Crochet - Square Nine

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Nine

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Half Treble Square with Aztec Embroidery

General Pattern: Half Treble Square with Red Currant and Turquoise cross stitching

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: Okay This is probably the best half treble square I've done so far again with the stitch markers at the start and end of the rows. Guess I'm going to keep up with that trick for a while. I'm using more of that icky maize yarn. Must be from the same dye lot it hasn't improved in color and combined with the red and turquoise it's just blech. The cross stitch on this one wasn't too bad. Everything almost matched up. So I'm guessing that half trebles are less stressful. I'm very pleased about that. It might help in the future some how. Here are the photos.

The Art of Crochet - Square Eight

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Eight

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Colored Bobbles Square

General Pattern: Treble stitches with rows of bobbles in leftover colors

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: Love the purple color this time. The making of the bobbles took a bit of time to get around. I'm starting to worry about the levels of my red currant yarn as from the preview of issue 9 I see that I'll need to use the red currant yarn for some more cross stitch (groan) I'm wondering just how much of the red yarn they think they gave us Squares 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9 all use it 1, 3, and 8 use a fair amount. My bobbles didn't come out exactly like the photo but they came out pretty darn close so I'm happy.


Here are the photos front and back:

The Art of Crochet - Square Seven

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Seven

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Half treble square with star motif

General Pattern: Half treble square with (more) stitching on it

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: Well thanks to using stitch markers at the start and end of the row and counting obsessively I was able to get an almost correct square. I'm not sure I like that process. Though the counting wasn't as necessary when using the stitch markers. However I am still disliking the whole cross stitch on the finished square.

Here is the photo:
(Front)

(Back)

The Art of Crochet - Square Six

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Six

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Ribbed Pattern Square

General Pattern: You end up doing trebles (yay) and working around the posts. Front post working was easier than back post.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it:
Yet again let down by the color of the yarn. This is supposed 'maize' colored it's a horrid yellow green puke type color.

The making of the square was nice. I was pleased to know a way to create a ribbed effect. I wasn't sure when I started making it but after a few rows it started sorting itself out.

Here are the photos. Photo is on it's side I'm too lazy to rotate it.

Front:

The Art of Crochet - Square Five

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Five

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Treble Square with large cross.

General Pattern: Same as square four just another new color of yarn that I'm willing to give on for color Turquoise. After you have finished the treble square you have to cross stitch nine X's in a X pattern. More cross stitch yay....not!

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: I now hate hate hate cross stitching on my crochet. I want another option. I still love doing treble stitch though. I was and am tempted to use the intarsa method to put the color in. With the two squares that have a defined 'wrong side' I can see that this throw isn't going to be a very comfy one if you don't weave your ends in correctly.

Front and back photos:

The Art of Crochet - Square Four

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Four

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: Treble square with cross stitch diamond

General Pattern: Simple treble stitch square in the vanilla yarn (they couldn't mess that one up) then you take the left over yarn from issue two and cross stitch a diamond on it.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: I loved doing the treble square. Treble stitch is my all time favorite stitch of the moment and I love cross stitch, you would think this would be a fun and favorite square. Think again. Cross stitching over crochet stitches is difficult, especially with the now expected lack of guidance from the magazine. No where did I find in 15 issues how to cross stitch on the square. I was just told count up x rows and over x stitches and cross stitch. Huh?! Okay how? Is the X centered on the stitch...tried that no. I was able to divine that it covers the post of the treble and kinda fiddles into the base and top of the post of the treble. It's not and will never be even.
Here is the front of the square:

 

And here is the reverse:

The Art of Crochet - Square Three

The Art of Crochet Throw Square Three

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology

Square title:Granny Square

General Pattern: It's a traditional pattern. Six rounds of stitches in a distinctive pattern. The twist with this was that the first and last rounds were trebles while the other rounds were half trebles (new stitch), joining yarn with and using slip stitches (new techniques)

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it:
Reading through the pattern was a bit off putting. They started using much more of knitting/crochet abbreviations and repeat symbols. I only used knitting since as a knitter the * and [ don't really throw me that much. So getting used to them in a crochet reference was a bit of work. Joining of the yarn with the slip stitch was problematic and I know now that I didn't get it right. The square still looked good so I didn't fuss too much. At least this yarn matched what was pictured in the magazine much much better.

One lack of planning moment from the magazine. They had a section in their issue 5 stitch library about granny squares and how to do them. Umm shouldn't that have been in issue 3? I had to do extra research in order to figure out on my own how to manage this. Lesson learned.

The Art of Crochet - Square Two

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology

 

Square title: Scallop Lace Square

General Pattern:  It's a very pretty fan/shell style stitch. It's a three row pattern, with a foundation row. Which you are establishing the shape of the square, via V stitches then next rows then alternating making the scallops and the V's

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it: 

I would use it, this pattern, for a shawl in another yarn. We had to learn to make this V stitch so I was slightly impressed that they kept building on skills. We worked this with trebles. I like trebles they are fun and fast. I think I was able to do this square in an evening. 

I'm becoming unimpressed with the colorways they have selected. I was willing to let the not Redcurrant pass (in the issue it was red the yarn was dull and a purple red) But the purpleish clover pink when in the magazine it shows real pink is really starting to frustrate me and making me all the more, willing is the word I'm looking for I guess,  to source my own yarns for this throw. I hold out hope that this is just a dye issue and will work out as issues progress.

The Art of Crochet - Square One

All crochet terms are expressed in UK terminology
 
Square title: 'Simple Textured Square'

General Pattern:
It is a square made up of a double crochet row then a row with alternating double crochet with treble crochet.

My thoughts and views on this square and/or the experience of crocheting it:
After getting used to the horrid quality of the acrylic yarn, and how much it just split on me.
I found with this square that I enjoyed the double crochet rows more than the alternating double and treble crochet rows because of trying to remember what stitch I was on. Also just the general theory of counting the stitches. If I had to put my work down I was screwed! Trying to find that last stitch of the row was a pain. I started to wonder just why people did this for fun if the end of these 23 stitches you had to figure out where to put your hook for that stitch.

The resulting fabric was so stiff that it would give cardboard a run for it's money. If the yarn continues to be of this stiffness and poor quality this throw is not going to be used by me on my bed. Perhaps camping or picnicking.

Below is a photo. As you can see the edges are very snake like.

The Art of Crochet - Overview

Okay so way back in January I started subscribing to a partworks series called The Art of Crochet. It's a weekly series that I was getting 4 issues every 4 weeks, given that I'm usually up to 10 issues behind based on what ppl are getting in the shops I'm switching to the shops. Customer service for this partwork is poor based on my experience. The subscribers have been subject to consistent supply and delivery issues. One would think that for a magazine that publishes weekly that sending a pack of four to someone would be a regular thing...it's not.

So reason for this post is that I will be journaling my squares so far I'm part way through square 15 which is all I have at the moment.