Lessons

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Lisa Solomon: Crochet a Snowflake Doily

I'm really thrilled to welcome lisa to creative life this afternoon lisa's actually got her b a very local here in our practice from uc berkeley which is just across the bridge from where we are right now she also got an mba from milk college a few years ago in two thousand three she's actually very interested in the idea of hybridization using mixed media media works and they revolved thematically around domesticity craft and masculine and feminine triggers I'm going to be asking her more about that when she's on stage she regularly teaches art of various colleges throughout the bay area on greece is also a member of the cultural sorry the q wrecked oriole board of the richmond art center which used a from two thousand six two thousand eight I'm so thrilled to welcome to creative life least solomon nice to meet you it's a real pleasure najid unit this fabulous holiday sweater responsible for all the bad christmas sweaters around world when we actually had worse I don't think this is t...

oo bad yeah I saw the one with the move could have memories and actually we'll move to this side you get sorted out so what are we going to learning this afternoon so today we are going to crash a some stuff likes so we'll start out with this it's a pretty easy pattern I don't know if you guys have cruciate before you could say before a little bit, okay so the first thing that I usually like to do is just kind of go over a few basics, especially if you've never country before I want to go over some of the material so you kind of understand what they do and then you can make choices so like this is this type of yarn this weight yarn so if you go to michael's or joan's our yarn store, you're going to be overwhelmed with your young choices I always say pick the yarn that you really like when that's really pretty or color that you write. So in thinking about snowflakes from my own personal yarn stash, I just brought a bunch of whites and blues because I thought that they would be really pretty but I also fell in love with these little lion urine bombs that come in fluorescent colors, which I think a really fun and I think you guys can is that too so traditionally crush a is done with like this kind of thread. So this is a really small this is actually forty size forty the numbers are kind of opposite intuitively. So as the numbers go out, the threat gets skinnier. So as example, this is like a ten for twenty and this is a forty so there's a difference in size and when you use thread that this size you'll end up with teeny tiny um snowflakes like this size um, and then when you use thicker garden like this is kind of ah, medium weight yarn or you can use, have your way or you'll end up with netflix that are more like this size. So really one of the first things you want to do is pick the size yarn that you want because that will determine how big the stuff like is going to be and how thick the snow flake is going be. So then the second thing you need to do is pick out for shea hook that you're going to hear, so I just brought a whole array of chris she hooks from my stash on dso teeny teeny tiny at you probably can't even see this but there's the's teeny tiny ones. This is a one point one five millimeter kershaw hook, which is what I would use to do something with this weight threat so smaller thread smaller cochet hook. Then we've got, you know this size, which is a four or two millimeter so I would use like this weight crush a hook with this size bread and then the thicker the thread, the bigger the hockey going years, eh? So they start out with numbers one through ten or millimeters and then they end up using letters, at least in the american system there's also a u case system so if you're ever in doubt, go by the millimeter because they all have millimeter markings to now, it's also is the sickness of the young, but is there a specific one you would use if you're a real beginning for this or that doesn't play into it? I think if you're a real began, I would stay away from the teeny tiny the teeny tiny actually isn't any harder, but when you're starting out trying to figure out how to make change and get the tension right in the beginning, smaller is going to be more difficult. So I would definitely start with a bigger wait yarn, so maybe we'll we'll use the fluorescence today for u beginner chris shares at that. So then these hooks I'll have letters on them like this is an h s o for today with our lion urine bombs were going to use a deed that's, what you have in front of you, um, so I won't keep going into this because it gets really boring in technical. But just remember small fred, small hook, bighead, big cook, andi have lost of options there spent the hooks and plastic cooks and there's this a million off and deposited not familiar to our rick rochet, how does this differ from meeting meeting isa to needle system? Right? So getting used to needles and you yarn over and pull the neil's together appreciate a is a one needle system so you're holding the yarn in your hand and you're just using one hook instead of two needles on and there's a little hook knitting doesn't have this cute little hook on the end of it the question okay, so the first thing I'm gonna have you guys do is pick out what color you want so pick out a color that excites you and if you want one that's appearing throw it down to you and I should have said that she when we started with those of you who weren't but this this morning we do have it's always a wonderful team of students with us they were one of their making crowns this morning and now they're going to get into coaching the softer than we got four wonderful ladies welcome back, shammari how the chapmans doing oh, they're great, you know we're just welcoming some new people into the conversation so just getting to know them I think and I asked, you know, what level are you? So I'm waiting for some responses bank okay, so I'm going to start off this story lee I purposefully chose a doily that only really has two stitches in it, so the pattern that you get for this story lee comes both with the diagram and then I wrote it out for you and this comes from a japanese craft look um I'm in love with japanese they're great um so it's the diagram makes it kind of easier to follow I think, but some people like to use the language or some people get confused by the language so I'm just going to try and walk it threw it in the pattern any circle is a chain stitch and the ex is a single crow shea a little dot is a slip stitch which is basically attaching steps and then the little t that you see is a double crush a so the first thing I'm going to do before I even make the doily for you is just go over kind of what a chain stitches and I'm going to recommend that you guys just practice that a little bit first just to kind of get comfortable with it so the way to start off is you want to tie your thread around the hook and you went to the tail it doesn't need to be super long, but you know you a little bit of a tail um for beginners, I often suggest that you actually tied this often and not so you're not worried about it coming undone so I'm going to go ahead and tie that and you're not so now I've got a little bit right that my hook is hanging out okay, so the thing that you really have to develop with cachet is sort of the way that you're going to hold stuff, and everybody does it a little bit differently, so I will demo the way I do it, but if you find a way that is more comfortable for you, particularly if you're left handed because I'm right handed, some of you may be left handed, so that may be a bit of a challenge, the thing that you want to worry about, a sort of the tension here between the thread and the hook, so you'll see what I do is I place the thread sort of in my hand, and I wrap it around my index finger, ok? That makes sense, yeah, and then you kind of close your fingers so that the threat is kind of falling down, and you want to get kind of close to the hook that you don't have a whole bunch of thread here, because that makes it harder. And then I like to kind of grab onto the tail, at least in the beginning, because it helps with the tension. So one of the things that you're thinking about when you're crushing is trying to make even stitches, right? And so as I work, I'm moving my fingers up, so in the beginning, I was holding that. The tail and then as I start to stitch, I move my fingers up and I start holding the change that I'm making, so what you do is you put the yarn over your hook and then you pull it with the little hook through the loop and that's it that is your basic chain stitch, so you're going to want to do that a few times just to get comfortable, and as you get comfortable, you'll get faster and you'll notice if you leave the yard really loose, I'll do a couple of you get bigger loops, and if you hold really tight and tighten the yard, you can get very small so let's see if we can kind of see the difference and I'll make a few super large try to do super low so you can see the difference. Okay, now I know emitting because I was I did this myself this morning. The tension is actually very, very key to how how they actually turns out is that the same rule for crisis is the same. So basically what I always tell beginning students is if you're goingto loosely crush a, then loosely crashing through the whole thing so that all your chains are kind of big and kind of evenly big, and then if you are going to tightly christa, you want to do the type all the way so that they're the same, so it doesn't really matter. I mean, some people start getting really freaked out oh my god, I hate this studio I made this too tight and I can't pull the urine through if you can't pull the urine through with a little too tight, but otherwise it doesn't really matter. I think it's just consistency, especially in the beginning and then the tension will come more naturally. I can now sit and crucially, while I'm watching tv and I don't even have to look at what I'm doing and my body just naturally makes the same tension, so that will come with practice and how long have you actually been crashing? You want me to admit how old I know justices going around because I know you're only twenty two? Yeah, so I've been pushing for two years no let's see, how long have I been? My grandmother taught me to christian when I was a little girl and the night forgot, and then she re taught me again when I was in high school, I think it actually is one of those crosses in it that's passed through generations that grandmothers teach their daughters thank my mom also cruciate enter them when I started redoing it, I would go and ask her how I don't know what I'm doing now I have to say you made that look incredibly easy when you just you're just fingers through that even though you were doing a number of different stitches have got going I'm left handed and she you never can I go down there e like that would be more oh so okay so you want this to wrap around kind of hang out under your hand and you want to pull this with your finger you want this before that yeah okay and pull that time yeah okay and so then you've got a loop here well, that is just your first not with a little bit to hate okay, okay drag it through so you go back and forth okay you got it down like there's two left handers you that never happened like where you are speaking in part on so I hold it like that okay right okay so you're gonna hold it that way what do you want to do and this way okay right ok and then pull this with your finger and then hold the hook like that yarn over pull that threw up did I hear like both go okay yeah yeah ee oh yeah there goes your time well don't you got your first action there so changed its people fairly comfortable with the chain stitch ok, we've got it down mrs fancy christine well done that's what have you done this before? Christine I'm a uniter I appreciate a while ago but I don't it's sort of coming back okay, so the next thing I want to show you is a double cross I really actually should show you the single cochet ok so do wish single chris hey, I like this actually three stitches okay, so to do a single cliche which is the x mark on the pattern you are goingto yarn over your hook um so when you're questioning we often talk about skipping a stitch to give yourself space to work so this is just a total practice thing so it doesn't really matter where you do this since we're not doing a pattern so you're gonna yarn over and go into one of the change that you just made so you'll see that I've got one three loops on my hook ok got it everybody with me okay then you're going to you're in over one more time and you're gonna pull that through all three lips one, two, three that is a single pressure I would be happy to, you know, like if you only get two of them is it easy to undo and christian yes, you just pull hair wet if you ever make a mistake just go backwards, you just pull, pull it out, go backers and try again, okay? Yeah we'll definitely ok so single cochet you're in over before I go into a chain stitch go into one of the chain's urine over again so I've I've got the three and then I'm going to go on over and pull through all three so one so a natural to do this while standing I have to say to they single crash a one more time you're in over insert into the chain stitch so I've got three loops on my hook you're in over one more time so now I've got four but I'm actually gonna pull that fourth win through the three when tio day I know I'm going to regret this but I'm gonna have to go I'm going to regret this trouble you're going to regret this trip what color do you think oh let's go with something festive to evergreen let's go to the green that would go a long time ago of the holy spirit you kind of made me it's really hard to get my yarn through the my lips are really tight on my needle so you can listen your attention a little bit okay yeah that's definitely one of those things you have to figure out what's comfortable for you some people end up making loops that are so tight because they think it looks really good but then it's hard to push the hook back through so you definitely need to find a balance between too tight twice just like a little knot okay, yeah then so can I hold the first one's cards like that and you're gonna pull through your turn? You have done three already. Okay, how you guys doing? E okay got yarn over. Okay, now you got three. Yeah, well, clearly I wasn't paying very close attention here, summary you may have to rescue me this late drunk so I may actually cut off the circulation to my finger. I haven't actually done anything. This is this gregory thing, so don't leave me again. So shea nine one one button way wrapping around no, obviously no hole, right crap. Oh, ok, so hold it kind of helps there. Yeah, hold that, you know? Well, that a little closer there, okay, so you don't want it to take because you won't be able to get through wrapped in a little bit more and then pull that crap, but you want to keep your other hand, they're actually just did what I just told you want to keep your other hand kind of clips so that you can actually you don't have to go. So you're doing is you're ending up way over here and make sense of sort in the wrist action everything always there's actually, you get there, you go fabulous. You keep trying, okay, okay. Comfortable with the single crash a says you want to do it lucy and I just want to hold the threat a little looser and then when you pull the loop through you just kind of pulled through more gently ok so leave this leave more space between the wearing it see what a great teacher you off now listen you know I didn't do that anybody can do that all right I see how easy it is ok yeah ok so make this letter yeah, I have to go around this up this morning I need love there may be some clothe okay get it? I just know you got it okay, you hold it like this and you want to get a little bit closer to the work yeah, okay, so you're in over around stick it through one of those chain holding it like that there you go on over again and pull through those three names well having got to competent having done one two is obviously we're stretched too far or stitch to forage remember j k o you can always go backward so that's true you can pull it which is actually the story of my life so I don't know blown it by claiming that I invented this myself just so hasn't ended it wasn't you was at least who wasn't I thought it was you know, that's what I'm doing, I'm getting you some booty right here you're just pulling what I'm saying because our students are really doing great stuff oh yeah christina conserve throw me a line at this point I e need help okay let me get a pen that heather does too yeah yeah but I got the chain to progress for me and into a chain with the loop on there you go you know and then you and over again and pull through the okay okay okay seventeen but you know her into retain which way to go in this way yeah you never pull through all those lips one two three oh you keep doing it that's where I lose it so go and then I on over huh and then they got they got it one to one well ok, that looks years I really tightening on yeah yeah you're gonna have a hard time because there really is it easier to use is acrylic yarn tricky because it splits no, I think they're all ok ok yeah, I know back ok and culture okay. Okay, well I think we may have a problem here lisa or multiple problems actually, you know that thing that cannot be undone almost anything can be entering you say anything because these are very ready for jean marie you stalking you might have a problem that I can't okay so now I'm going to move on to the ocean to see you guys know what that is and really I mean I really recommend if you've never heard shade before, the first thing to do is just practice the stitches don't try and think about making anything in the beginning all run through the whole pattern to the people who already know how to crush. I can kind of get through the whole pattern, but for people who were beginning, you really just want to practice the chain and practice the single and double cochet, so it gets really comfortable free, and then once you're comfortable, the pattern will be a piece of cake for you, even for me. And the pattern is actually part of the down low that's a vote of yes, the pattern is part of the download, so once you get the class, you can watch the video card, you could watch me in a million times you could the pattern comes with it, and then it will be it'll it'll make it clear. Ok, so I mean it's, you teo a double cochet, so it's basically the same thing that you start with the single crushing, so you're going to yarn over first and you're going to insert one of the questions that christina had that I thought was really interesting was whether she should go from the back side or the front side, so when you're holding the work the what I consider the front side is the side that's kind of facing you I always go into the front side of the work so I'm going into the chain so I've got three loops now on my hook in a yarn over and go through just the first two and then I'm going to go on over and go through the last two so that's a double crucial so there's one extra step in the double cross yes of course no I'm sorry you'll just have to watch the video you're in over and you insert the hook with two groups into the chain and you're gonna yarn over again and pull through two of the lip apps so I end up still with two groups on my hook then a yarn over again and pull through those two groups so if you can see the double cochet is a little bit taller than the single crash a so I've got two single chris shays over here and then two double koshis over here so it's just more height in terms of the yarn and the pattern that makes sense okay so I think you mean to go through the pattern now you guys can keep practicing if you want that change in a single in the double cross and then I swear you can you can each take one of these if you want as a samples you can have it sometimes I find it it's nice to have a sample to follow too okay, you know I could do this with you probably no it's coming on the factor I'm really I mean I think all the stitches I've got on my hook here you actually did for me so I know you did it least way well I'm so impressed thiss week start that with a chain six so that's the very center of this new flick so we just changed six one clock counting and crush a two, three, four, five, six and then tow make the little loop you're going to close so you insert your hook I was a you hear he'll do that again I did a little fast so here I am at the end of my six chains I'm going to insert the hook into the very first chain that I made so I'm making a little loop you can see how it's going to form here and then you and then to slip stitch I'm just going to pull through those two lips so you'll see now I have this very cute a little circle and that is the start of my questioning okay? So then what? I'm going to d'oh to get to the next row we talk about croce and really being in rows so this is, I think a three row doily so now we're gonna work on basically the first row um so I'm going to crush a three just change three and it's really interesting because this first chain is actually pretending to the double crow shea um so it's a chain but in the pattern all the rest of these air going to be a double cross shape but you start out with the three chain to get to that area then I'm going to change too so if you look at the pattern I'm right here I just did those three chains and I just did those two chains and now I'm about to do my first double crush a to start the little extensions of the stuff like so yarn over and you just go directly into the little hole I've got the three loops yarn over go through two yard over go through two and that's double crush a so now I'm going to chain teo and I'm gonna do it again you are never go into the whole flow through to pour through too so you see now how it's starting to build so what I like to do is as I'm kind of working on the pattern it think how many of these I need to do so I checked my pattern there's one, two, three, four, five six that I'm going to end up with right now I've got three so I need to change because there's always two chainz between these double chris shays yarn over do me next civil cochet you'll see that I just grabbed the tail with my endicott cruciate in here that's fine because usually what you do in the end is you end up leaving that in so I'm just kind of naturally leaving it in going to do two more change one two three four on number five two more chains last one shane too so you get to the end so now I want to slip stitch into the third chain of that first chain three year old with me you're like no I can't believe how quickly you did that just amazing I later out here yeah we need to talk you into one of the scientific ones with all the extra buttons but let me ask you a question you know you were just counting the stitches you had do you ever write out the numbers I don't you can like that you could write it out next to the pattern to like keep yourself straight I usually just once you start like now I know they're six there's always six but I'm not going to change for especially for a snowflake for adroitly right? Because it's really even so there's always going to be six but you can definitely anything you wanted to write little notes to like remind yourself what's going on I think that's great and even if you change course along the way let's say you want to make a larger and scale here oh now I feel like making something larger yes if you know what you're doing you can start adding so instead of changing six in the beginning to make the little loop you didn't make eight or ten and you can increase what you're making definitely cool. Great question okay, okay, so remember when I started this row I changed three in order to get up into the row so I'm going to slip stitch this last chain to that they did into the top of the chain three so to find it one, two, three that's the little loop that I want I'm gonna insert my hook into that loop and simply pull yarn through both those lips so now you'll see that I've closed my little guy up and I've got a nice little circle forming cut so I'm going to move on to the next row so if I'm following the pattern I need to change three and then also change so it's the same thing that I did last time one, two, three, one, two and then I'm going to teo a double curuchet and you're going to do the double chris shays in the top loops of each of the last couple crashes so the last double chris shays right here I just came out of the top loop I'm going to go ahead and insert my hook and double curuchet into that and I've got the first you'll see in the pattern there's the's like little v's so I've got the first v made now I'm going to change three in order to get to the next v and now I'm going to double cochet into the very top loop of the double cliche in the last row change to and double cachet again into that same loop so these air going into the same loop okay ten three groups look, I lost a stitch when two three and if that happens it's clearly just easy to pick it up yeah, that is the beautiful thing about kersh eh? You can fix almost anything as long as you count so I'm just going to get to the end of this row two three double cachet into the top the last room when two one more that's the two who knew I would be counting out loud so much today when two like pre school too and two three okay, so I'm at the end of my row so I'm going to slip stitch again into the top of the chain three of the first thing that they did come fall so I'll come through for you that's incredible so quickly there was anybody street is trying that all this they still doing chance christianity access you're president you know see this good good just practice practice is good watch the video a million I don't need to do the cell of this point e going ok, now we're going todo this is actually the last row and this is the road that's kind of it's a little bit tricky in order to make these guys happen, it looks like it's complicated it's not actually that complicated you just have to again pay attention and count and do math, so I just need to chain one to give myself some space because it's really hard to get back into something if I don't have a little bit of room on my hook. So you, jane one to make a little bit of space and we're gonna single crow shea into the little v from the last row, so you're over. This is the one where I pull through all three limbs instead of dividing it so single cochet into there and now I need to change three, one, two, three and we're making this teeny little loop that you see here on the doing me so to make that loop, I just go right back into the first chain that I changed and I slip stitch it closed so that's where I just attached the two groups, now I'm going to chain one, two, three, four to get up into this area, so one, two, three, four and I put my finger right there because I'm going to need to come back there to make a loop so I leave my thumb there so I know exactly where that four is now I'm going to chain eleven so one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine, ten I lost my but that's okay, so then I'm going to make a loop so I need to go back to that for one two three for so there's the four and I'm going to slip my hook into there and make a little slip stitch okay, so there's this little loop I just made that little new and this is going to help me because I'm going to keep going back into this whole you'll see it gets a little bit bigger and it will be easy to spot now that I've done that ok so now I'm gonna change three one two three that's this part right here then I'm gonna chain eleven again then one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and then they need to go to the top of that three so now we're making this little loop that's up here so I'm gonna count from the first loop I'm going to count up three one two, three and make a loop so I'm just doing a slip stitch which is inserting the hook and pulling the yard through I changed three tow match up with the other side because snow flakes are perfect mirrors. You go into that nice big little loop that I already made before chain eleven has gone over there. It's going well, this as a setting, the privatised might be ready by easter or even fourth of july. Just never maybe next bet on it. Come on, you can do it. Okay, so just chained eleven and went back in here and slip stitch. And now I'm training for to match up with the four on the other side. Now I'm going to do the slips that in the little bee right here. Actually, this single cachet so yarn over pull through all three loops and then do chain three to make that final that a loop and insert into the first chain. Okay, so I've made one of the arms of snuff and you've made a knot. How have I was going to say these don't look very similar? No, but I'm going to go with the old and here's what I made earlier. Okay, I'm gonna stop distracting you, you know, distract me. I mean, a demo. One more arms, kind of slowly so that you can see it so that we can maybe see what to do with these guys. They're all finished because that's part of the deal is what the heck do you do with these once you have them right? Okay, so to get from this arm to the next storm I need to change five so one, two, three, four, five and I'm getting into this speech space that's where the next little snowflake arm goes so here we're going to do a single crash a you're in over answer into the you're in over pulls through all these chain three and into the first chain of that making our little decorative loop now I'm going to change for okay, so that's this part of the r and I'm going to chain eleven hi and insert into the top of the four we changed three and another eleven okay, so we need to find the top of the three to make our little top loop of the snowflake care chain three cups two, three k into the big loop here. So the one thing that you really want to keep in mind is you really have to think about this being a mirror. So what happens on one side haps toe happen on the other side of the ways you'll end up with the lopsided snowflake, which could be fine as long as they're all lopsided right right now are all chat rooms following along with this we have many people who actually, we I'm having a conversation with becca, and we talked about scaling up to make a larger snowflake. Is there a way to attach these snowflakes together and maybe make a blanket out of them? Yeah, yeah. All right. Awesome. We will talk about that. Okay? And how are we doing? You know, kristin, and that looks really good. You're making a far? Yeah, you're making about that's good, but essentially that's the starting point for this is, well, definitely got practiced in that it is easy to move on. I think that people feel like they get stuck on that first step. Like, oh, I can't make the chain or oh, I can't dio and in a situation like this it's really hard, because if I was with you one on one, I could just sit there and make sure that year getting it christian, how are you doing? Stop and just keeping redoing it. I'll get back your butt. Okay? I left my place twenty three foot note to my heart. However, you got quite a change going on our team. Wow, that's really good holly just given up. I just stopped. And you like this. But that's exactly how I am, even if I'm learning howto cook something actually have toe watch the videos maybe once or twice and then I will attend the deed while watching the video yeah, so it sounds like we think similar I need I need to see it and then start doing yeah did you see something like this? Would you? Is this the sort of thing you started to him when you first started crashing? This is really something this's good for beginners you really just need to learn these three stitches and then you're often running some patterns have a hole, a bunch of stitches or stitches that are much more complicated. So this is definitely a really doable beginning stitch it really is just like taking an afternoon and sitting down and doing chain stitches for you know, a good hour and just getting really comfortable with it practicing and then taking another afternoon and doing you know, the single car shea and then taking one more afternoon you just do it step by step and once you get really comfortable with it it will make sense on where to crush a actually come from me as the name suggests it's french but probably not think I never his let's make something you shouldn't propped me for that can you go? I can actually I think camilla parker bowles invented croshere she throw shade a ll the costumes for downtown abbey herself by hand just think if she can actually should have