crochet along Study of Determination Hosted by The Crochet Crowd skill level: intermediate CROCHET Class is in session! Welcome to the Study of Determination Crochet Along, hosted by The Crochet Crowd. Join us for a colorful 4-week adventure filled with criss-cross stitch patterns, bold shades, new skills and the unique texture work Mikey is best known for. Follow along each week with written lessons, tips and tutorial videos as Mikey teaches us how to create this stunning project. Don't forget to share your progress photos on the Yarnspirations Stitch Squad Facebook group tag @Yarnspirations on Instagram and tag your posts with BOLD #Yarnspo. get supplies lesson by week select lesson Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 lesson 1 Are you ready to get started? This pattern is worked from the center. Build your floral motif with popcorn, post and treble stitches to create a textured center. Beginning with a ring, create a series of double crochets in the round. This will create the center of your flower motif. Add depth in your second row with popcorn stitches in a new shade. Row 4 brings the Large VST (double crochet v stitch) to give a fun alternating v-shape to the petals. At the end of this week, you will have transitioned to a square, like a picture frame for your lovely bloom! Download Lesson 1 TIP This pattern advises doing your color changes at the corner through a slip stitch and join with a chain two, but if you prefer to continue the shade for another round you can do a half double crochet join. This will allow you to finish directly in the center of the corner. lesson 2 Welcome back for lesson 2! This week's tutorial is all about the criss cross stitch patterns that make this afghan shine but features plenty of repeating rows to give you a break. The long cross-overs with extended double crochet stitches start in row 15, where we'll dip into the bottom piece of our double crochets from the 12th row and run the cross-over along the surface of the stitches. Download Lesson 2 TIP Make sure to give your extended double crochets some additional slack. You may want to practice this a few times to get your tension perfect. lesson 3 Calling all treble makers! We're back for another week of summertime stitching. For our third lesson we'll be exploring the crossing bridge stitch, a technique Mikey developed that floats above the framework to provide rich texture. The fun begins in row 27, where we'll create an airy layer of loops in a chain 3, skip 3 stitch pattern. The next row is where things get twisty. Working in the chain 3 spaces we made in our last row, we'll be skipping a space and making two treble crochets, then back-tracking and making another two trebles in the space we just skipped. This back-and-forth technique creates the criss-crossing effect in the front. By the end of this week you'll have 5 layers of criss-crossing bridges to give your blanket a three dimensional pop. Download Lesson 3 TIP Make sure to pay close attention to the diagram this week, as there are some stitches highlighted in red. Towards the end of row 27 we'll only be skipping two stitches before the corner rather than 3. lesson 4 Are you ready for our final week? In this lesson we’ll continue our criss-cross formation with plenty of repeats and some interesting techniques before finishing up with a lovely border. Row 41 kicks off our repeats, with a unique treble front post cross stitch Mikey developed that makes our criss cross three dimensional in one direction and flat in the other. We'll also explore the single cross stitch, a technique where one single crochet buries another in a cross formation for a dense material that gives your project some pop. Download Lesson 4 TIP When creating the treble front post cross stitch in row 41, make sure to work behind the last stitch made. Working from the front will hide the criss cross effect you've just created.
