Three day weekend, towels, and the rest of the rows.

So, had a coworker not said "see ya Tuesday" and me replied "Tuesday? where am I gonna be Monday?"... I would have been the only bus driver at the school on Monday! I can see me standing there in front of the locked gate wondering where everyone was at... yep, I had no idea that we didn't have school Monday! I forgot about that little perk of living in the Middle of Nowhere Michigan - The First Day of Deer Season is like a Holiday, and we don't have school on holidays!!!



Seeing as how I just posted yesterday, you'd think my "what I'm working on" would be the same as yesterday... well, you'd be wrong :)

I'm a person with many interests, and being such, I bore easily! While I used to crochet with the mentality that I start one project - I finish one project, then I start another project, it doesn't work for me anymore! At any given time, I may have anywhere from one project to 10 projects going... like I said, I bore easily.

So, I still have 3 Landon's Blankies for Molly Bears hooked, and I haven't worked on them in the last couple of days, I also still have my neck warmer on my needles, but I have been working on that... and here's my progress since yesterday!

Starting to take on a pretty nice shape, if I do say so myself! Now, I do have to admit... I've already said that I kinda suck at knitting, that's a given! But I also realized that I have NO clue as to how to change yarn while knitting. This neck warmer has an area that I need to stop knitting, and I need to start knitting in another area... clueless, that's me. So, do I call grandma? No, she could show me, but probably wouldn't be so great at telling me. Do I google it? Do I youtube it? Nope, I figure it out on my own, like I did with crochet! Trial and error - that's my motto!

I also have a couple more crochet projects :) I made a couple of crochet-top towels! I have actually made some of these a couple of weeks ago... I had no pattern, I just did my own thing and through trial and error I have decided on the exact look I like, and then, in true go-getter fashion, I made like 20 towels! Well, then I looked around the kitchen and realized that I don't have any handles to hang them on... I have knobs. Great. So, I fashioned another towel! Here is my creation... perfect for knobs, don't you think?? Granted, it is the first two I've done, so I'll probably tweek them a bit more, but pretty cool, I think anyway!


And I've bought a couple more towels to practice on :)



And now, back to you... ready to do another row??? Great, but how do I go from this...


to this...

Simple! You are still working in single stitches, so your turning chain will be 1. That's right, you need to simply chain 1. You know how to do this, just wrap the yarn around the hook and pull it through the loop!

Now turn your work and you are ready to start the next row! When turning your work, I like to always turn it the same... hold the left side of your work steady, and flip the right side away from you and back around to the other side... viola, you have turned your work!

For all the rest of our rows, we will now work in two loops of our previous row. If you are working on a pattern and you are not supposed to work in two loops, it will say 'working in back loop only' or 'working in front loop only' - we will learn about these later. If you hold your crochet like this, you will be able to see the loops easier.


For our projects, we are going to always count the turning chains as the first stitch! Yes, I said always! And when I'm following a pattern that says not to, I adjust the pattern! Your crochet will look much neater if you do this, you just have to know how to adjust your patterns.


Our second stitch (remember, we always count our turning chain as our first stitch, cuz we're crochet snobs) our second stitch will go here.







You need to put your crochet hook through both loops, like this...






Now simply wrap the yarn around your hook from back to front, turn the hook toward the ground, and pull through those loops, wrap it around again, and pull through both loops... just like we learned in our last lesson :) second stitch made!

Repeat this to the second to last stitch.

For the last stitch, in the row, you are actually inserting your hook into your "chain 1" from the previous row... this will make a much cleaner line in your finished project, which is why I always count this as the first stitch, it won't look so "knotty", and we all know how I like clean lines!



Double check your work by counting your stitches... got 15? good! No? :) frog it and start over!

Want to do another row? Easy! Chain 1, turn, and start over, count the stitches to verify you have 15 and BAMMO - you're crocheting! Now practice, practice, practice... and stay tuned for the next lesson, where you'll finally learn MY WAY for starting the yarn in your skein, and how to finish the last row!