Achieve Mindfulness in 7 Easy Crochet Steps

October 2, 2012

If you’re a super-regular reader of this blog, you may know that I adore yoga. I love the physical difficulty paired with working on increasing my flexibility. But let me tell you. . . I’m not so good at the meditation & ‘quieting the mind’ part.

I’ve read about all of the great meditation research that’s going on: quieting your mind lowers blood pressure, gives you more energy and makes you smarter. But it’s hard!

So, when I read about an easy way to practice mindfulness using crochet. . . I knew I needed to share! I stumbled across the technique in Kathryn Vercillo’s Crochet Saved my Life… and guess what? Kathryn has been sweet enough to come over and share it with everyone!

Thanks, Kathryn!

Crocheting is Relaxing

A core reason that many of us crochet is because it helps us to relax. One of the reasons crochet is so relaxing is because it allows us to achieve mindfulness, the state of being in which we are fully immersed in the present moment.

photo of crocheting hands - use crochet to help achieve mindfulness

This gives the mind a much-needed break from worries about the past and future, allowing the brain and body to both rejuvenate themselves.

More About Mindfulness

Mindfulness was originally an Eastern spiritual concept but has become widely used by psychologists and other professionals in the Western world. Its popularity is due to the fact that it is widely helpful for people dealing with a diverse array of situations ranging from every day stress to chronic debilitating illness.

meditation by candlelight - achieving mindfulness

Mindfulness just means that you let go of all of your worries, judgments and fears and focus on the fact that you are okay, right here, right now, in the present moment.

Why Practice Mindfulness?

It is not healthy for our minds to constantly chase down our thoughts about the past and future. Doing so often creates stress, worry and anxiety. This can lead to a stress response in the body that can have any number of physical symptoms including headaches, muscle pain, fatigue and high blood pressure.

The brain may also whirl wildly in what is called a “cycle of rumination”, which can be both a hallmark of and an exacerbation to mental illness including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.

Practicing mindfulness teaches the brain and body to relax. It brings peace and helps both prevent and alleviate myriad stress-related health problems.

Seven Crochet Steps to Mindfulness

Crocheters can practice mindfulness using this easy seven-step exercise:

  1. Select your favorite crochet hook and a really cozy easy-to-work-with yarn.
  2. Sit comfortably in a quiet space with your work.
  3. Begin to crochet a foundation chain, one slow loop at a time, counting each chain as you go. Do not allow yourself to think about anything except creating the chain.
  4. Focus on the details of creating the chain. Notice how the yarn feels against your skin. Pay attention to the detailed hues of the yarn and hook. See if you can mentally be aware of each micro-movement that makes the loop.
  5. Your mind will naturally begin to drift to thoughts of other things, like the bills that are due or a conversation you had earlier in the day. Each time that happens, frog the chain.
  6. Take a deep breath after frogging the chain and start over with chain one.
  7. Repeat the process until you are able to complete a full foundation chain of ten loops without having to frog it because of extraneous thoughts.

That’s it! You may only be able to get to four or five loops at first because your mind is running rampant. Be gentle with yourself and just keep practicing. As time goes on, you may be able to make longer chains of mindfulness. Do this regularly to infuse your life with the rest and relaxation that we each need and deserve.

This is a guest post by Kathryn Vercillo from the blog Crochet Concupiscence. She discusses crochet for mindfulness in her book Crochet Saved My Life. Check out my review of Crochet Saved My Life.

Add a sweater to (almost) any crocheted animal!

September 25, 2012
Sweet teddy bear that looks like he's wearing a crocheted sweater - tutorial explains how to make this pattern adaptation

Today, I’m sharing a tip that Mariana (from Chile!) came up with while taking my Amigurumi Woodland Animals Class on Craftsy. Is it a pattern for a crocheted sweater?

Nope… it’s way more clever than that! It’s a way of making your animal look like he’s wearing a sweater, by following the pattern and just adding in some color changes!

There’s a tutorial here show how to make clean color changes with single crochet.

Sweet teddy bear that looks like he's wearing a crocheted sweater - tutorial explains how to make this pattern adaptation

Isn’t this guy adorable?

To get this look, you just need to make a few simple modifications to the Teddy the Bear pattern.

  • Pick a contrasting color of yarn (in the same thickness as your main ‘bear’ color) to be the crocheted sweater. The yardage will be about 40% of the total main color yardage specified in the pattern.
  • Crochet the body using your sweater color.
  • For the arms, crochet the first 6 rounds in the main color (as in the pattern), but then switch to your sweater color for the remaining rounds.
  • Sew a few buttons down the front of the body before stuffing it.

You can add a crocheted sweater to a whole variety of animal patterns! Instead of using the body color for the first six rounds of the arms, just use your best judgement to decide where the hands end and the crocheted sweater begins.

Now you’ve got a cute teddy bear wearing a cozy crocheted sweater!

Isn’t this a fabulous idea? And isn’t it great how you can modify a pattern, and come up with something that looks totally different?

If you want a pattern with the color-changes already included, try Byron the Bear.

Byron Bear - a cute teddy bear wearing a crocheted sweater

Instead of a crocheted sweater, how about a hoodie? Try the Finley the Frog pattern.

Finley the Frog - a cute crocheted frog wearing a cozy hoodie

Thank you so much, Mariana, for sharing your adorable bear and technique with us all!

Save yourself a knot by working your yarn from both ends of the skein!

September 18, 2012

Has this ever happened to you: you’re crocheting along, but discover that you need to use your yarn for another piece? Do you have to cut the yarn? Not if you know this little trick! This one will work for both crocheting & knitting.

As you can see here, I’ve been crocheting with the yarn from the center of the skein of yarn. And here’s the thing that’ll help you: every ball of yarn has 2 ends!

You can use this second end of the yarn to start your new item… while leaving the existing piece in tact! To do this, you’ll want to pull out your crochet hook:

And fasten a safety pin into your loop to keep it from unraveling (if you’re knitting, you’ll want to use a stitch marker as you pull out your needle):

With your previous work secured, you can pick up the second end of the yarn and make a new piece!

Once you’ve completed your urgent 2nd project, you’re free to return back to your first project… and all without needing to cut your yarn!

How’s that for a handy trick?

This is particularly helpful if you have a slow-moving project happening on a very lovely skein of yarn!

Finishing amigurumi: keeping stuffing out of your crochet stitches

September 11, 2012

Yay! We’re almost finished crocheting our dragons! How’s yours coming along?

Today, I’ll show you two ways to keep stuffing out of those final stitches of your dragon bottom.

Use your non-dominant hand

The easiest way to keep stuffing out of your stitches for the last few rounds is to use the index finger of your non-hook-holding hand to push the stuffing out of the way of your hook as you crochet. You don’t need any extra tools, but it can make the final rounds slow-going.

Insert a piece of white felt

Another way to keep stuffing out of the way of your stitches is to cut a circle of white felt, and insert it into your work. I tuck the felt circle in at around the 3rd-to-last round. The felt will hold the stuffing on the inside, giving you a clear path to crocheting those last rounds!

Which is your fave?

It doesn’t matter which technique you choose… as long as it works for you!

How to Crochet the Bottom Side of a Foundation Chain

September 4, 2012
How to Crochet the Bottom Side of a Foundation Chain - a video tutorial

Today, I’m going to talk about an instruction that can be confusing the first time you see it. Rotate your piece to work the bottom of the foundation chain.

What does that mean? I’ll show you both in photos and in video how to do it! It’s a great technique for achieving an oval shape in your crochet work (what I’m showing in this demo) but you’ll find it in lots of other irregular shapes as well.

We used it on the wings in this Mix & Match Dragons pattern.

We also used it to get the really odd shapes in the Lovely Leaves pattern. . .

Lovely Leaves - crochet amigurumi pattern

. . . and this totally unique snowflake pattern!

Sally Snowflake crochet pattern

Crocheting into the both sides of a foundation chain lets you create all kinds of shapes!

Photo Tutorial

Okay, so you’ve crocheted your first row, and your piece looks like this:

One row of crochet completed - lavender yarn and blue hook

Now, you encounter the instruction to ‘work the bottom of the foundation chain’. What does that mean? First, rotate the piece 180 degrees clockwise so that the row you just crocheted is on the bottom:

First row of crochet turned upside down so you can crochet into the bottom side of the foundation chain

Now, crochet along the bottom loops of the foundation row (working from right to left), just as if you were working a regular row!

crocheting into the bottom of a foundation chain

Once you’ve finished the row, you’ll have a lovely oval piece!

crocheted oval - lavender yarn - with blue hook and orange stitch marker still attached

If you want more info about how to crochet ovals with different proportions, there’s a separate post for that here.

Video Tutorial

Want to see it in action? Check out this video!

So, think you’re ready to crochet into the bottom of a foundation chain? Give it a try!

Here are handy links to all the posts about crocheting more advanced shapes. . .

Return to the main table of contents for Let’s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the posts about troubleshooting common problems.

Happy stitching!

Stranding yarn in color changes in amigurumi, part 2

August 30, 2012

Want to learn how to make adorable crocheted stuffed animals with an easy online workshop – totally free?

Sign up for Let’s Make Amigurumi here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make an easy amigurumi from start to finish using simple crochet stitches.

It’s a fun, inexpensive, and totally portable craft. You can do it!


Before I start chatting about today’s tip, I want to thank everyone for making the FreshStitches Celebration Sale such a success! Deals were had far and wide… and the most popular pattern snagged was… you guessed it! The Choose Your Own Dragon Adventure pattern! Looks like we might have some more folks joining in on the CAL… yay!

Okay, back to the business at hand. On Tuesday, I talked about how to strand your yarn as you changed colors for long color changes (like for the dragon’s tummy).

Have you done that, yet? Good! Now, we can’t just leave it like that for two reasons. One, the stranding prevents the fabric on the tummy from stretching when you stuff the body, so you won’t get a nice, plush look. Two, the looseness of the stranding has probably left you with some goosey looking color changes:

Look familiar? We’d like those to look a little neater. So, what we’re going to do is cut the strands down the center:

Now you can see why it was important to make those strands at least 3″ long, right?

For the next step, we’re going to tie together (using a simple square not) each color-change pair: one MC tail and one CC tail:

When you’ve tied off all of the tails, the inside of your dragon will look like this:

And the outside will be beautiful and tidy!

Yay!

Happy stitching!

Changing colors and stranding yarn in crochet colorwork

August 28, 2012

Crocheting the dragon’s tummy

This dragon sports a differently colored tummy, which may seem hard, but is actually quite easy once I show you some helpful tips. There are two important pieces to getting a nice looking tummy:

  1. Changing colors cleanly so that you have a nice edge along the sides of the tummy.
  2. Managing the not-in-use color of yarn so that you don’t end up with a mess.

I’ll show you how to do both today, so that you can finish crocheting your dragon’s body! On Thursday, I’ll show you a third part, how to snip and knot the ends so that you can stuff your dragon nicely.

Do you want to know how to change colors?

Of course you do!

So, I made this little video of me doing the first color change: (click on the square icon in the lower right corner of the video to view it in full screen)

Not so hard, is it?

How to carry your yarn

There are lots of ways to manage your yarn when you’re doing color changes, but the technique I’m going to recommend is stranding your yarn, and then cutting and knotting it. The advantage to this technique is that it’s comfortable for crocheting (i.e., you aren’t interrupted by cutting the yarn twice every round) and it achieves the desired look.

If you’ve crocheted Nelson the owl, then you’re probably familiar with the technique. But, I’m going to review it, here… because the dragon adds in some complicating factors!

When you get to a color change, you want to carry the unused color of yarn along the back. But, since we’re going to cut this yarn later on… you need to make sure you have at least 3″ carried along the back. See how loose my pink strand is?

If you pull the yarn tightly, you won’t have enough yarn to cut and tie the ends, later!

So, keep doing this (carrying the unused color of yarn across the back of the work) every color change. You’ll start to get lots of strands:

By the end… you’ll have a lot!

In this post I show you how to snip & tie off these ends – including why you don’t want to just leave them as is!

Frequently asked questions

My stitches on the edges look very loose and icky. What did I do wrong?

Nothing went wrong! That’s normal. It’s just because we’re doing the strands so loosely… we’ll clean them all up tomorrow!

The dragon’s tummy looks crooked, what gives?

When you work in the round, the crochet stitches always bias a little bit to the right (if you’re right-handed). This actually happens all the time, but you don’t really notice until there’s a color change to show it off. There are some ways to fix it, but honestly, they’re a bit of a pain. I like to think of the curving tummy as a feature… it gives the dragon some sassy character!

This color change thing is really annoying.

That’s not a question! Anyway, yeah, I know. There’s no shame in crocheting the dragon’s body all in one color, and skipping the color changes. In fact, I’ve already spotted some finished dragons in our Ravelry group that did just that… and they look fantastic! Your crochet shouldn’t annoy you – do what works for you!

How to attach a folded ear to amigurumi

August 23, 2012
How to Attach a Folded Ear to Amigurumi - a tutorial from FreshStitches and Shiny Happy World

Today I’m going to show you how to attach a folded ear when making amigurumi. There are two kinds of folds you’ll see a lot.

You can fold the ear in half, like you see here on Jackie the cow. . .

close-up shot of the face of a crocheted cow, made with the Jackie the Cow pattern

. . . and also here on Roosevelt the Monster.

I also really like ears that fold from the side into the center. You can see both sides folded to the center here on Boone Bunny. . .

. . . and also just one side folded in to the center on this Maxwell Monster.

green crocheted monster head with hairy ears

However you decide to do it, folded ear is a great technique. It looks complicated, but it’s all about the attaching.

Okay, let’s assume that you’ve crocheted the ear as instructed.

Whipstitch the opening of the ear closed

Press the opening of the ear flat, and using the long tail and a tapestry needle, whipstitch the opening closed. I stitch through one stitch on the top of the opening, then one stitch on the bottom of the opening, until I’m the whole way across.

It’ll look like this when you’re finished.

Don’t cut the tail… you’re still going to use it!

Fold the ear

Just like it sounds! Fold the ear however the pattern, along the edge you just whipstitched. This is an ear from the Mix & Match Dragon pattern and I’m folding it in half.

Remember that tail you have? It should be on one corner of the ear. I like to run the tail (with tapestry needle) through the other corner, so that the fold stays closed.

Attach the ear to the head

Now, just attach the folded ear to the head using whipstitches all around. Take one stitch in the ear, then one in the head. Repeat, working your way all the way around the base of the ear.

If the piece seems to get away from you, I recommend using locking stitch markers to hold it in place while attaching.

Once the ear is attached, tie a knot, and you’re done!

This method makes a fairly floppy ear. If you want an ear that stands up more, take a look at this tutorial showing how to attach a folded ear to two rounds of the head.

Attaching an ear that’s folded may look complicated, but it’s just a few simple steps, and gives a really cute result!

Here are handy links to all the posts about attaching parts. . .

Return to the main table of contents for Let’s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the lessons about faces and details.

Happy stitching!

How to position the snout on your dragon

August 21, 2012

One of the trickiest parts of crocheting this dragon is positioning his snout so that it lines up with the color changes on his tummy… since there’s a temptation to attach the snout before you’ve crocheted the color changes on the body. How do you know where to put it?

I have three possible solutions… and I’ll tell them all to you, since different ones might work for different people.

Option 1: Attach the snout after crocheting the color changes on the body

This is my favorite option. If you look closely at the progress photos in the pattern, you might be able to spot that this is what I did when crocheting the original sample:

The downside to this technique is that you’ll need to squeeze your hand into the tiny neck. However, you only need to get inside the head for tying the knot to secure the snout… since the rest of the attaching is done from the outside.

The advantage of this method is that you’ll know exactly where to position the snout, since you’ll be able to see the color changes. Also, I find the crocheting of the body easier without lots of heavy head features attached… but that might just be me!

Option 2: Visualize the color changes

I’ll be honest: this blog post was going to be about how to use your locking stitch marker to mark the end of round and visualize where the color changes would be so that you can attach your snout properly.

I took all of the nice step-by-step photos…

And then I realized that I visualized the color changes as being on the wrong side! Gah!

So, here’s the theory: the color changes for the tummy happen on the first 1/3 of the stitches after the end of round marker. If you’re good at spatial orientation, then it’ll be a snap for you to look at the stitch marker and picture where the snout should go.

But if you’re not… well, this option is going to be frustrating. Move onto option 3 (which is what I ended up doing to fix the photo-shoot!)

Option 3: Move the end of round

For the spatially-challenged (like me), this option is by far the easiest!

Attach all of the features to the head. Your end of round marker (the point where your round begins/ends) could be anywhere… it doesn’t matter. You’re going to move it!

Once you have the head attached, continue crocheting until you get to the round with the color changes. Instead of changing colors where you are (which may be at the back of his body), keep crocheting with the main color until you’re up to the snout.

Move your marker, and that’s you’re new start of the round! Continue following the pattern like nothing happened. In the grand scheme of things, the extra 10 or so stitches you’ve added won’t matter… and your tummy will be in the right place!

Do what works for you!

One of these options will work for you (sorry, I can’t tell you which one will be your favorite)! Hopefully, attaching the snout in the right place (after reading this post) will be no problem!

Choosing color combinations

August 20, 2012

One of the most exciting parts of starting a project is picking out your yarn colors, right? Even though the pattern shows the item made up in a sample color (or maybe even a range of sample colors), you don’t have to follow the pattern!

Today, we’ll pick out some amazing colors for our dragons as we crochet-a-long!

Raid your stash

Selecting yarns for a project is a balancing act… you want to come up with a great color combination, but also use up yarns that you have in your stash, if you can!

If using up yarn that you already have is one of your goals for this project… then you’re going to have to drag your yarn out and look at it! If you’ve cataloged your yarn using Ravelry’s Stash Feature, then you can look at all of your yarn virtually, and not make a big mess on your living room floor.

Pull together any yarns that are the weight/fiber that you want to use. Eliminate any balls of yarn that aren’t enough yardage for the project (read this post on how to determine yardage by weighing the ball) and then you’re down to your options!

Pick a great color combo

Now that you know what you’re working with, you can plan your colors! The Choose Your Own Adventure pattern that we’re using only calls for 2 colors… but you don’t need to follow those rules! Do you want different colored wings? (or, do you want to use up a tiny ball of yarn?) Then go for it!

Here are some color palettes that I’ve put together that I think would make fabulous dragons:

Sometimes (when you’re trying to use up stash yarn), you might find that you have a fabulous color palette in mind, but need to buy a skein of yarn to make it all work… and that’s okay! If you’re buying the yarn for your project all at once, you might find it helpful to stick to one line of yarn: colors for a line are often developed so that they coordinate well together!

So, what’s your palette?

I’ve decided to go with using 3 colors: blue, pink and purple. Here’s my sketch:

What’s your combo?

If you’re not crocheting along with us yet, it’s not too late to start! Click here for details on the crochet-a-long. All month long, I’ll be posting helpful tips on how to crochet your dragon, so if you’re feeling a little nervous about crocheting an animal, this is a great time to get lots of help & support!