Corner to corner crochet
I'm writing a blogpost about crochet! I know!!! How long has that *^+&ing been? Ages. Too long my dear friends. You will be pleased to hear that I am determined to make all things in my life work and after last week's rainy day thoughts I decided to be a little more chipper. The sun heard me and decided to come out (even if a storm is brewing for this evening) and has helped me regain some energy. So onward and on to a new crochet technique I finally tried: corner to corner crochet or C2C as it is referred to in short hand.
It was Frank's birthday in March and I decided that as loads of our cushions were falling apart and he loved his Avenger's logo cushion from last year that I'd bring to life another of his favourite super hero characters...well logos. And Batman it was. the decision was easy really as he's always saying to the kids: "Do you know why? Because I'm Batman!" in a silly, growly imitation of the Lego Batman. The kids love it. So we made his birthday Batman themed and like a boy a quarter of his age, he loved it!
I started this project as I often do - with a search on Pinterest. I found many a Batman logo but by fair my favourite was this one from Pixel Perfect Crochet. It's great. Nice and clear and has a graph as well as written instructions. Now you must remember that I'd never done C2C crochet before so was a little lost as how to start. I looked up the link in the pattern to the tutorial....nope, no clearer. I looked up another on Pinterest...nope, no clearer. So I looked up another on Pinterest, this time a video thinking maybe I'd misunderstood something....nope, no clearer. This was becoming tiresome. I didn't know how to start and some of these tutorials seemed to assume you already knew the method, or at least that's how they came across. How frustrating! Finally I found a tutorial that made sense and the blocks I made actually looked like the pictures I'd seen. It was from Heart, hook and home and was lovely and clear. There was a video as well as written instructions and finally all was well and I could begin in earnest. Hallelujah! We have a winner.
So I began and as I was new to the technique I decided to begin with the back. I'd already decided the back had to be black to compliment Batman. I thought he would approve. I set to work with some yarn from my stash, in fact all of the yarn I used was in my stash as I had a huge amount of black and grey, I'm not sure why! The back shaped nicely and I could even crochet it in front of Frank as it gave nothing away as to the final nature of the piece! I was pleased. What do you think? I'm quite chuffed I got the squares to line up right and it all looked as it should do. Not bad for a first attempt eh?
So on to the front. This was a little more tricky as there several strands of yarn used. This meant you didn't have to carry over the yarn and therefore try and hide it. However, I found it difficult and did end up carrying some yarn as I was getting tied in knots with all the different strands. See in order to get the right thickness I had to double up some of my yarn so I had almost twice as many strands as was used to make the pattern. I got in a right pickle once or twice I don't mind telling you. In the pattern bobbins are recommended but I was feeling lazy so I didn't use them...until I nearly turned myself into a giant cat's cradle. After that bobbins were employed and most definitely will be again in the future!
So I have one messy side unfortunately but I wasn't bothered by that as I knew I was making a cushion and could hide it! As you can see from the close-up the strands don't show through and all was well. Black could have really shone out behind yellow but the nature of the stitch meant it was hidden well.
So there you are! Not the most exciting foray into C2C crochet but it did the job. The thing I'm most chuffed about is that the final product really does look like the picture. You can see straight away that it looks like the Batman symbol. There's one part where one square of black annoyingly jumps out slightly apart from the yellow in a couple of places but that's the only part I'm really bothered about. I don't know why as I went over the pattern to check I'd done right. Can you spot them?
That's one great thing about C2C is that when you go wrong you can see it a mile away, especially if you're working in different colours as it really stands out.
I decided to join my cushion using buttons and an inner from Ikea. I chose one that was actually too big and it gives a really full effect. I also simply added some triple stitches along the top of the Batman side in the grey so it's not to obvious from the front. I added four rows with some button holes and hey presto there was the finished article.
One thing I've discovered is that I love corner to corner crochet. I love the possibilities it gives and how you can easily create shapes as long as you have the squares all worked out. I shall definitely do it again some day, after alll we need more cushions!
Bye for now.
Josie and her Batman. Xxx
It was Frank's birthday in March and I decided that as loads of our cushions were falling apart and he loved his Avenger's logo cushion from last year that I'd bring to life another of his favourite super hero characters...well logos. And Batman it was. the decision was easy really as he's always saying to the kids: "Do you know why? Because I'm Batman!" in a silly, growly imitation of the Lego Batman. The kids love it. So we made his birthday Batman themed and like a boy a quarter of his age, he loved it!
I started this project as I often do - with a search on Pinterest. I found many a Batman logo but by fair my favourite was this one from Pixel Perfect Crochet. It's great. Nice and clear and has a graph as well as written instructions. Now you must remember that I'd never done C2C crochet before so was a little lost as how to start. I looked up the link in the pattern to the tutorial....nope, no clearer. I looked up another on Pinterest...nope, no clearer. So I looked up another on Pinterest, this time a video thinking maybe I'd misunderstood something....nope, no clearer. This was becoming tiresome. I didn't know how to start and some of these tutorials seemed to assume you already knew the method, or at least that's how they came across. How frustrating! Finally I found a tutorial that made sense and the blocks I made actually looked like the pictures I'd seen. It was from Heart, hook and home and was lovely and clear. There was a video as well as written instructions and finally all was well and I could begin in earnest. Hallelujah! We have a winner.
So I began and as I was new to the technique I decided to begin with the back. I'd already decided the back had to be black to compliment Batman. I thought he would approve. I set to work with some yarn from my stash, in fact all of the yarn I used was in my stash as I had a huge amount of black and grey, I'm not sure why! The back shaped nicely and I could even crochet it in front of Frank as it gave nothing away as to the final nature of the piece! I was pleased. What do you think? I'm quite chuffed I got the squares to line up right and it all looked as it should do. Not bad for a first attempt eh?
So on to the front. This was a little more tricky as there several strands of yarn used. This meant you didn't have to carry over the yarn and therefore try and hide it. However, I found it difficult and did end up carrying some yarn as I was getting tied in knots with all the different strands. See in order to get the right thickness I had to double up some of my yarn so I had almost twice as many strands as was used to make the pattern. I got in a right pickle once or twice I don't mind telling you. In the pattern bobbins are recommended but I was feeling lazy so I didn't use them...until I nearly turned myself into a giant cat's cradle. After that bobbins were employed and most definitely will be again in the future!
So I have one messy side unfortunately but I wasn't bothered by that as I knew I was making a cushion and could hide it! As you can see from the close-up the strands don't show through and all was well. Black could have really shone out behind yellow but the nature of the stitch meant it was hidden well.
So there you are! Not the most exciting foray into C2C crochet but it did the job. The thing I'm most chuffed about is that the final product really does look like the picture. You can see straight away that it looks like the Batman symbol. There's one part where one square of black annoyingly jumps out slightly apart from the yellow in a couple of places but that's the only part I'm really bothered about. I don't know why as I went over the pattern to check I'd done right. Can you spot them?
That's one great thing about C2C is that when you go wrong you can see it a mile away, especially if you're working in different colours as it really stands out.
I decided to join my cushion using buttons and an inner from Ikea. I chose one that was actually too big and it gives a really full effect. I also simply added some triple stitches along the top of the Batman side in the grey so it's not to obvious from the front. I added four rows with some button holes and hey presto there was the finished article.
One thing I've discovered is that I love corner to corner crochet. I love the possibilities it gives and how you can easily create shapes as long as you have the squares all worked out. I shall definitely do it again some day, after alll we need more cushions!
Bye for now.
Josie and her Batman. Xxx
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