Crochet tips your mother never told you

7 Comments for Crochet tips your mother never told you

• 1. Stylopath  |  October 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 am

  Great Tips! I have only recently learned to crochet so these are timely. Rolling the skein into a ball and the pen and paper on hand when creating new ideas is priceless, thank you.

• 2. Gail  |  October 6th, 2009 at 8:03 am

  Rolling your yarn into balls is something I wish I had discovered long ago! I, too, have been crocheting “forever”, and having a tangled mess coming out of the center of a skein of yarn, or worse, when you can’t find the center-pull end, having to use it from the outside of the skein, is enough to make the whole task seem too daunting sometimes.

  I discovered that rolling my skeins into “cakes” before starting a project is the best way to go! I searched online and found several places that sell “yarn ball winders” or “yarn cake winders”. They run approx. $27 to start, and go up from there. Get one that clamps to a table (slightly more in cost) and you will KICK yourself for not getting one sooner! That was the BEST $35 I have EVER spent! You can wind an entire “super sized” skein into 3 or 4 cakes in just about ten minutes! The cakes pull from the center, are tangle free, and the best part is, I can have several cakes of different colors in a small basket that sits on my lap when I work, while the rest of the cakes are safely in jumbo zipper bags, neat, tidy and dust free. If you like to work “on the go”, what better way to do it than to just grab a yarn cake and hook, drop them in your bag, and GO! No trying to figure out what to do with an enormous, tangled skein, EVER AGAIN!

  I only wish I had invented the thing.

• 3. carol  |  October 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

  when winding your yarn in balls don’t wind to tight it will stretch your yarn.

• 4. Sandy Williams  |  October 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pm

  What is a yarn cake?

• 5. Sharla  |  October 7th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

  These are great tips. I have one too…save the little zippered bags that sheets (and other things)come in, they are great for thread crochet because they are usually big enough to hold your pattern and the ball of thread so that it won’t get dirty or dusty if you start a project and don’t get it finished right away. I find myself starting things and getting side-tracked. I just put the pattern, thread and hook all in the bag….zip it up and it’s ready to go.

  The larger bags like comforter’s come in are great to store yarn in…you can usually get all the yarn for one project, like an afghan, in one bag and won’t misplace any of the skeins. I get frustrated when I know I’ve bought enough yarn for a project and then can’t find one of them.

  I’ve been crocheting for over 40 years. My grandmother taught me with a wooden needle (carved by her father) and rug yarn…making oval and round rugs. I love to crochet when I watch TV at night…my favorite thing is to make doilies. Kind of old fashioned but I love to watch the way a pattern evolves.

• 6. Ginny  |  December 30th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

  I always weigh my yarn, even before I start and am using a new skein.I have a weight watchers scale that is in ounces. After I finish a project, I weigh the yarn and put a piece if tape on it with the amt. Then when I go to start a project, I know wheher I will have enough yarn to do it. My frineds laugh, but can’t tell you the number of times they call and say they are short of yarn and do I have any that will match what they are doing. I also use a tarn winder to do my yarn. They are terrific!!!

• 7. Val  |  December 30th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

  I have been crocheting for 43 years, since my grandmother taught me how when I was 6. A funny story is that she always just crocheted granny square afghans of different weights depending on whether it was for a baby or adult. When I was older, I crocheted a lace border on a nightgown for my mother. My grandmother asked where I learned how to do that. When I told her she had taught me, she denied it, not realizing that crochet stitches could be used in so many different ways!!

  Anyway, my tips are: when you find a pattern in a book or magazine you would like to use, photocopy or scan it into a larger size so that it is easier to read, and you can also write any notes you need to make on it to remember if you use it again.

  I also keep the hook that I am using with that project until it is complete, even if I am working on others in between, because individual hooks seem to have their own different quirks.

  Also, if I have used a pattern and I like the outcome, I often tape a sample of the yarn to the pattern so I know what I used for next time.

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