Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Beautiful long crochet stitch

I'll have to do a post on a lovely afghan crochet pattern that a sweet elderly lady gave to me perhaps thirty years ago. An element included has been one which has stuck with me is what I'm going to describe in a word or two.


You can see the stitch in my little birdie pattern above (it's on my etsy pattern store ) if you're interested. The crochet stitch which covers the body of the little bird with those threads reaching down into the middle is what I call a "long single crochet" stitch, a single crochet stitch in which you insert your hook NOT into the top of the stitch right below it, but INSTEAD reach your hook way down into a previous round and, adjusting the tension of your working thread to accomodate this extra bulk, finish up your single crochet as usual (yarning over etc). Here's my youtube video showing how this is done.

When you're working in thread, it seems especially fun, transforming nubby little rows of knotty looking stitches into a more baskety, thready-looking textile. Yay! 

My dad burst out laughing when he saw this little bird, he said it looked like a pair of lips. So please don't repeat that to me, I much prefer the little bird interpretation, ha!

Check out my patterns on my etsy pattern store
OR the same patterns on Amazon, ready to download on your Kindle!



3 comments:

  1. I have so many of your patterns that I would like to make, but I have yet to take the time to perfect my long crochet stitch. When I did try it, mine looked too sloppy to suit me, and I had a hard time fitting all the stitches in there. Maybe one of these days I'll have the time to sit down and get it right. :)

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  2. Oh, it's just a matter of keeping tension on your yarn or thread, just like you have to do with any stitch...it just feels strange for the first 10 or 20 times. I hope you get to where you enjoy it, I love what it adds to a row of crochet. : ) Best wishes, Susan

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  3. Thanks, Susan. I'm hoping that one of these days I have the time to perfect it. :)

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