Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hey, everyone, My name's Berna. I'm the one woman team behind Little Raven Fire Arts. In this class, I'll be sharing how to make these cute little ah McGary be balls. A quick project that the fun introduction to some basic Croce skills or, if you're already familiar, just a finding quick project to do with me. Fun fact about me. I'm a self top stitcher. I started crushing when I was 12 and I started designing patterns when I was 13 also the year I opened my Etsy shop. I've taught countless friends and family how to crow Shea as well, some stuck with it, and now I'm excited to share my favorite hobby with you two. Here's what you need to get started. - First up will be covering the basics like holding the kirsch, a hook, making a slip knot chaining and the single Cochet. And then we'll jump right into the first couple of rounds of the Be so we can put those skills to use. Like I said, if you already familiar, you can just go ahead and skip the next lesson and I'll see you on the other side. Thanks for joining me. Lets get crafting. Lets get crafting
2. The Basics: in the interest of visibility, I'm going to be using this gigantic hook and this very thick yarn. Let's start with the most fundamental skilled Lee slip knot. To make a slipknot. You're just going to cross the yarn over itself, and you want the short tail to cross underneath the long tail that's connected to the yarn and then pinch the cross and pull a loop of the yarn and through pull it snug and put it on your hook. We're ready to go, so let's talk about holding the hook. The hook is a tool, just like a pencil or a spoon, and the way that you hold it is going to be the way that feels the most natural to you. I don't think there's a wrong way to do it. I tend to hold my hook one of two ways. Depending on what's most comfortable. There is the pencil hold, and there is the spoon hold. But really, you should hold the hook the way that feels the most natural to you, and you really get a feel for this once you start making chains, so let's get into it all right to make a chain We're going to bring the yarn around the back of the hook and then pull it through the loop. One chain made. Now, this could be deceptively tricky. Did your yarn do this? The trick to this is keeping the short tail anchored while you move the hook through the loop. Bring the yarn around the back of the hook, past the short tail to your yarn canned so that your other hand is free to maneuver the hook. And then we can pass the short tail back to the hook hands. If you're holding your hook like this, just find a new way to anchor it. You just want to make sure that it is secure so that it isn't flipping around the hook. This back and forth maneuver can take hot minute to get used to, so I recommend making a really long chain as long as you need. Until the motion, the back and forth starts to feel natural. You don't have to keep this chain. It doesn't have to be a beautiful chain. It might be lumpy. It might have tight stitches in my head, loose stitches. The whole idea here is practiced, and if at any point, you lose your loop. Don't panic. He can slip it right back on the hook. If you don't want to keep your chain, it's Azizi as pulling on the yarn end and ripping it back. But if you do want to keep your chain, just snip the yarn, pull the tail through and pull snug, and then you have your chains. Aid. Now that we know are based chain. Let's get into the single crushing When making a base chain that we're going toe work into , we're always going to make at least one more chain than we think we need and I'll show you why the chain immediately below the active loop on your hook, you can't work into this one. It's where the yarn is originating, and if we try to pull the yarn through to build a stitch, it won't do it. It just won't just won't do it. It's gonna twist around your hook. It's going to do all sorts of tricks, but it won't make a stitch, so we'll pull this chain a little bit snug, and then we'll skip it and work into the next one. So to make a single crow Shea. We're going to pull up a loop in this chain so that we have two loops on the hook. Then we're gonna yarn over and pull through two of the loops on the hook, and that is a single Cochet. And now I'm gonna show you how to make a circle keeping our first single. Cochet. We are going to continue putting stitches in this chain space, pull up a loop in that chain space yarn over and pull through two loops. And so we've got three single crow shays in that same chain space, and you see how it's starting to build 1/2 circle. In order to complete the circle, we will put three more single crow shays in this same chain space yarn over. Pull through the chain space yarn over. Pull through two loops that's five through the chain space yarn over. Pull up a loop yarn over. Pull through to loop and that IHS six single crow Shays 12 3456 See how the stitches build a sort of Mandela building single Kirsch A's on top of single Kirsch A's is different than building single car shares on top of a base chain. So let's get into that. When you start working single crow Shays onto a base chain, you just work into one top loop like this. These spaces right here. But when building a single Cochet on top of a single crow Shea, we work into both of these two loops right here. So let's place our marker to mark the beginning of a new round. And now we will build a single kirsch a on top of this single Cochet to start a new round that spirals. So just like before except her two loops in a yarn over pull up a loop So we have two loops on the hook yarn over and pull through to and there it iss the beginning of a new round. I read everyone. I think we're well equipped with the skills that we need to start on the be. So I will see you over at part one
3. The BEEginning - Part I: These are the colors of your and I listed in your materials, and you can see you don't need a whole lot of each color. But for the purposes of this video demonstration, I'm going to substitute Gray for Black, or we won't be able to see my stitches to begin. We'll set these colors aside and focus on the great in your case, black. Let's make ourselves a classic slipknot and, as I prefer to do when starting to Kirsch A. In the round, I'm going to change, too. Now we've got our Baselitz work. Six single Crow Shays into the second chain from the hook. Great 123 for 56 to mark the end of a full round in the start of a new one. I like to use a scrap of yarn just laid over the stitches, so I'll place that now the b A small, but we still wanted to be a bit wider, so we'll accomplish that through a series of increase rounds to make an increase. Will start with a single Cochet in this first space, and we'll finish it with a single Cochet in that same first space to create two stitches, where there was only one for Round two. We want to repeat this increase all the way around, so we go from 6 to 12 stitches. We'll move our stitch marker out of the wave and let's take a look at what we've got so far. If you think of each single kirsch A as a V shape and increase looks like a W. Let's count to make sure we got them all. 12 34 five, six, seven, 89 10 10 11 12 We're good. If you're missing some, you can carefully pull on the active yarn to rip it back as many stitches as you need to correct it. Round three is another increase round, but we only want to increase by the number of stitches we started with in round one That was six. So, like last round will start with an increase. But this round will alternate with single stitches in between 12 one. We're going to repeat this all the way around, so we end up with 18 stitches. When we get to the last stitch. However, we're only going to complete half of it because we're going to change from this color to yellow so that we can make our first Streit's. We'll take our yellow move, our stitch marker out of the way. We already know this is the end of the round. Then we'll take our new color like this and catch it in the hook. Pull the new color through the two loops of the old color, and now our new active loop is yellow. Let's pull the old color a bit more snug and on we go to make the first stripe of the B. When I change colors, I like to help secure the tail end by crashing over them. I just lay them over the tops of the stitches like this as I work a single crow. Shea. This just gives some extra security. Now we Kentucky's bits to the back and we're going toe work this round even. It's just one single kirsch A in every stitch around. I realized I didn't place my stitch marker at the beginning of this round, but we started it with a new colors, so we'll still be able to see where we are. Place are stitch marker. See how just this one round without increases has started the polar flat circle into kind of a bowl shape. Also, you'll notice I didn't cut the old color when we switched this stripes or only two rounds tall. So when we go to color change again, I could just bring this up the back. If you did cut the yarn when we color change, don't panic. Don't worry, they will just be some extra yarn ends inside your be just like the last round will do one single kirsch a in each single crow she around. This is the last round of our yellow stripes. So when we get to the last single Kirsch A of the round, we're only going to complete half of the stitch and yellow, then will bring the first color back, catch it on the hook and pull through to complete the color changing single crow. Shay's see how it stretches up the back, snugged down the yellow a bit and run to the next stripes again. We're just working and even round so, well, moat around through it. Thing is, the last round of this stripe again worked even, and at the end we'll get ready to color change again. All right, here we are at the end of around seven, and at the end of part one, we'll go ahead and set up the next round by changing to yellow and roll on into Part two. Where will complete our little ball with decreased stitches, some stuffing and some yarn needle action?
4. The Bee - Part II: when we left off, we had just completed round seven and color change to yellow. Round eight is easy peasy. Nothing new, just our last even round before we start decreasing. So let's breeze right on through. Okay? Time to shake things up a bit. Here's what we got so far, a tiny be basket around it at one end and open at the other to turn it into the ball shape . We want to round off this side, too, So here we used increases to add stitches. Now will mirror these rounds with decreases to subtract. Stitches will place our stitch marker to start a single Kirsch. A decrease will make half a single crow Shea. But instead of yearning over and pulling through two loops, we're going to pull up another loop in the next space. So we have three loops on the hook. Now. We'll yarn over and pull through all three. This takes two stitches and turns them into one. Much like around three. Our final increased around. We're going to alternate with single crow shays between the altering stitches. Decrease single crow Shea. Then we'll repeat, starting with another decrease. Decrease single kirsch. A decrease and a single crow Shea. And then we will repeat this sequence around. This is also the last round of our final yellow stripes. So when we come to the last single crow, Shay will do a color change. All right, we know the drill. Half a single car shape. Bring the new color up and complete the single Cochet at the end of this road, and we should be back down to 12. Stitches decreased from the 18 we've been working with since. This is the last time we'll color change. Let's secure the yellow yarn by working the first ege a decrease over it again. Pullup loop like you're making a single Cochet, but then pull up another loop in the next it, then the yarn over and pull through all three loops. Now we can cut the yellow and tuck the tail inside before we take any more stitches away. With decreases. Now is a good time to add our stuffing, which will fill out the ball shape and keep it from collapsing. Let's make it uncrackable. So let's put this in here. Here we go. R B has gone from all belong to Spiric ALS. Let's finish our decrease round to close that stuffing inside. So we've already got one decrease. Now we're going to repeat it around, taking our 12 stitches down to six as we work. Just press the stuffing down away from the stitches so it doesn't pull up with your active loops. We're at the last decrease of the round, but before we close up, I wanted to add a little bit more stuffing because it feels a little flat on the end here. All right, I think that's good. Add more or less as you like. It's your happy little B. All right, time to close up. I'm going to work the last decrease of the round and then one additional decrease just to make the whole smaller done. Now we can trim the yarn and to finish off. Just pull that active loop until the tail comes through. So we still have a bit of a gap here that we want to close up time to break out the yarn needle. This is my weapon of choice. It's actually called a tapestry needle. I prefer it because it has a better reach and the eye is lower profile than some yarn needles like this. I do own your needles like this, but it's a terrible ordeal when I can't find my trusty tapestry needle. So I definitely recommend Let's get that yarn end threaded to close this. We're just going to weave through these stitches in a criss crossing pattern. - When we've gone through all of the stitches. Just pull it snug and viola. The whole is gone. When I make things that are stuffed, I like to secure the tail and by quote unquote losing it in the stuffing inside, as opposed to weaving it through the individual stitches. But one important thing with this is to make sure you're not catching the yarn on your needle. You want to go through clean between stitches. Pull the end snug but not so tight that it dimples to continue losing the yarn end. We're going to go back through exactly where we came out again. Be careful not to catch on the stitches, or we're going to end up denting the shape. Come out between stitches. We're good, no dense, and now we're going to repeat this many times throughout the body come up and random places , but always go back through the same space you came out of. What we're trying to do is tangle yarn around itself and the stuffing inside, creating a sort of Web, not insides of the yarn end won't ever pull free. Once we have repeated it at least five times, we can cut the yarn end and then squeeze to make it disappear, or you can poke it in. We're in the homestretch now, folks. All that's left are the little wing, so I'll see you at Part three. Where will finish Arby's?
5. Bee End - Part III: our little bees air looking fantastic. Now let's give them the gift of flight. Enter our white yard. The wings are just too little half circles that will so on to the body. So like we did when we started the be body were going to make a slipknot and chain, too. Now we're going to put five single Crow Shays in the second chain from the hook, but we're going to crowd them together so they stay above the not from our slip knot instead of forming a circle. So here's four. We'll just make a little room and fit the 5th 1 in like that. That's literally it. The wing is done. We'll trim the yarn. And remember, we're going to use this to so the wing on so will air on the long side and pull up on the active loop to finish off. You'll notice we've got to yarn ends to deal with one from the Slipknot and one that we're going to use for assembly. I'm going to show you a little trick I like to do when making the wings. That takes care of that slip, not yard while we work so we can just trim it away as soon as we finish off. No securing or yarn and weaving required. Same was before slip knot and chained to will work our first single, kirsch A into the second chain from the hook. Now, like we did when we finished a color change, we're going toe hold this tale and over the stitches. Or in this case, it's the chain and Crow Shea over it. I believe a bit of the loop like this, so we still have something to hold onto when we're done with our five single Koshis will pull this until the loop disappears in the end will be secure without waving it in. And five. Let's finish off, cut the yarn and pull it through, and now we get to do a fund it. Grab that little tail end and pull it until the loop threads itself all the way under the stitches. That's secure. And now we can snippet sneak. We still have a tail and on this other wing, so I'll use it to show you how to weave in the yarn end with a yarn needle to secure it. I haven't left myself a very substantial tail though, So I will leave the needle through the stitches first. If you could see your yarn needle on the other side of the stitches, it hasn't gone through the middle. You want to make sure you are in stitches, then we'll thread this and tug it through. Pull the tail snug, and then we can snippet. Now that we've got our wings made, let's attach them. You see this offset line in our stripes created by our color changes. We're going to hide this under one of the wings. I've got my tapestry needle threaded with the yarn end of one wing. So we're just going to whip. Stitch it onto the body over the color changes you'll notice. After I went through the wing, I went back through the body in the same place I came up. This makes the stitch very small, almost invisible. One more step. - We've done it Now the wing is on, and it's hard to see those offset stitches. And now we can lose the yarn tail in the body of the Be like we did at the end of part two . Remember, careful not to snag any stitches and make sure to repeat this at least five times. Cut the yarn, Poke it away! Now let's attach the 2nd 1 I like to space my wings about four single kirsch A stitches apart so we can count the little These 123 for And then we'll go under this 5th 1 here, just like before will whip stitch it in place along the body and then lose the yarn end inside the beef. And with that, my friends, my students, my lovelies, we've done it. We've crow shade a little B.
6. Final Thoughts: All right, everyone. That's gonna do it for this class. Thank you for joining me. I hope you had fun. I hope you learned a lot. And I hope you will continue Crow saying, let me know if you enjoyed this class. Leave a comment down below. What you like washing. Maybe didn't like. And don't forget to post your finished bees in the project gallery down below and leave some likes and comments on your classmates projects as well. Thank you for joining me until next time. Happy crocheting.
Brenna Eaves, Professional Yarn Tangler
