Transcripts
1. Modern Crochet: Cluster Stitch Blanket: You know that feeling you
get when you hand over a gift that you made with
your very own hands, that you spent so much time, love, and attention to? That joy your story is
filling? You know the one. This class today
will give you all of that and so much more. Hey friend, I'm Jessica and I'm the owner and maker
behind But First Crochet. But First Crochet is like But First Coffee,
except for yarn. I enjoy designing and creating patterns for
children and babies, and more specifically,
preemie babies. Today I'm here to teach you
how to make the blanket. This particular stitch that
hooked me on the crochet. I made this blanket several
times for my children, for friends, for
baby shower gifts, and it is my go-to pattern. It's the first stitch and the first project that
I ever completed. Now, this blanket
has been really well-loved by my
three-year-old but I have some examples
of what it looks like when it is in new form. We're going to dive
in how to make this beautiful cluster stitch and I'm going to walk
you through how to do that in today's class. This class is absolutely
perfect for beginners because you will get to practice all the most basic
crochet stitches. However, all experience levels are welcomed and are encouraged. After watching the lessons
and a little practice, you will learn how to make a mini blanket that
can be used for a special cause that I'll tell you about at the end of class. I've included a
detailed PDF pattern that is yours to keep for
taking this class today. The pattern is a written
tutorial with plenty of photos, so you can make this pattern anywhere as many
times as you like. I've also included a
chart to help guide you into making a blanket
in almost any size. Now, before you go tackling
a king-size blanket, we're going to learn the
cluster stitch by making a practice square and that's
going to be today's project. This practice square
will serve you well to learn about
gauge and how to create a blanket
in any size from preemie to king size if you
really want to dive in deep. For today's class, you'll
need a few materials. You'll need a five-millimeter
crochet hook, two different colored
skeins of yarn, scissors, a yarn needle, and a tape measure or ruler. Grab your copy and hook and let's jump straight
into the first lesson. But first, be sure to follow
me on Skillshare so you can stay up-to-date on my latest
simple crochet classes. All right, let's get started.
2. Materials: Hello, hello and welcome to
today's Skillshare class. I'm Jessica, your
crochet teacher. Today we're gonna learn
how to make a cluster stitch that will make the most beautiful baby blanket or throw blanket whatever
size you'd like. In today's class you're
going to learn how to make a simple swatch that looks
something like this. These can be used for something special too and we'll talk about that a little bit more
as the class goes on. The materials you're
going to need for today include two different
color yarns. One for the main color and a
color to make your border. If you're only making
the small square, which I would recommend doing as practice before you
tackle a larger, full-size project, you only need a little bit,
just scrap amounts. Just head to your
local yarn store and grab just one scheme, each color and that will be
plenty to get you going. You will need a 5.0
millimeter H crochet hook. I'm going to be using my clover, a more hook today. They are my favorite. Some scissors, a yarn needle. A yarn needle is a needle that has plenty of space to get the yarn through
and it has a blunt end. Finally, you will need
a tape measure just to measure and make sure your gauge is
consistent with mine. If you're not
concerned about gauge, which is how you match your tension and your
stitch size to mine. If that's not important
to you for today's class, then the tape
measure is optional, but otherwise it's good
to have one handy, a tape measure or ruler
without further ado. Let's get going.
3. Getting Started: All right, friends, we're
going to get started here and if you haven't already, I would strongly recommend
going to the resources for today's class and have your
PDF of the pattern handy. You can print it
or leave it up on your computer screen or
your iPad so that you can follow along reading
the pattern as we move through
our project today. Looking at the pattern, we went over the
materials already. There are some abbreviations
we're going to be using today that includes CH which stands
for Chain Cluster, which is our cluster stitch, which is our special stitch
that we're going to do today. Which is great for practicing the most commonly used
crochet stitches, which include the
double crochets, the half double crochet, and the single crochet, finish off and stitch. We're going to be working
in US crochet terms today. Our skill level is a beginner, but it is for all
experience levels, but it is beginner friendly. To make this pattern
in any size, you will make your starting
chain in a multiple of three plus two additional chains that will serve as
your turning chain. To make our sample, we're going to start
out by chaining 20, which is 18, 18 's are multiple of three plus our
additional two stitches. Grab your hook and grab
your main color of yarn. We're going to start out
making our slip knot. Take your yarn end, and there are many ways
to make a slip knot. I will show you how I make mine. You're going to wrap
the yarn around your index finger and
gently pull the loop off. Then your working yarn, you're going to put that
through the middle of your loop and just gently pull. There's your slip knot.
Take your yarn hook, place it through
your slip knot and pull to tighten and you don't
want to make it too tight. It still needs to be able to go freely up and down your hook. I hold my hook like this. This is the knife hold, like you're spreading
peanut butter or buttering some toast. You might play around
with the pencil hold. Both are acceptable. You might find something
else that works for you, but these are the
two most common ways to hold your crochet hook, play around and see what feels more comfortable and
natural for you. I prefer this type of hook, this Clover Amour hook, which I consider
a hybrid version between an inline
and a tapered hook. For me that just lets me work a little faster,
smoother, easier. If you find that you're
really struggling with working through the
yarn, through the stitches. If your work's getting caught, you might try a different hook. Something I wish I knew when I began was that there are
different types of hooks. When I went to the
store at first I ended up with a
hook like this. This is what they call a tapered hook and
it is made by Boye, and very common for
crocheters to use this hook. The other type of hook
is an inline hook. The difference really lies right here where the
yarn is grabbed. This is more tapered. This has a sharper line in there to help you grab the
yarn and pull it through. You might find that one suits
you better than the other. Both, you will end up
with the same result, but for me, I prefer
the inline hook. Ultimately I prefer these
Clover Amour hooks. They can be a
little more pricey, but if you have a coupon, you can usually get it for like 40 percent offer at
Joey and fabrics, which is where I got all of
mine and eventually just built up a collection
of them and I got them all for
about half off. Hot tip. Holding your yarn also, again, you want to
do what feels good. I take my working yarn and
I wrap it around my pinky. Then I fold my hand over
and then put my yarn between my index finger
and my middle finger, and I find this helps
me control my tension. I can control it here and
I can control it here. If I need my tension to
be a little bit tighter, I might wrap the yarn once, twice, and that makes things
a little bit tighter here. You can see there's a
little more resistance when I try to pull that through my fingers versus when
I just do it one time, it goes through a
little bit smoother. If you don't like having
your pinky wrapped, if that feels awkward, just place it through these
two fingers and you can control your attention with how tightly you keep
your fingers closed. There's all different
ways to hold yarn. You can wrap it here, drape it up here, whatever
feels comfortable. There's no right,
there's no wrong as long as you're happy, not frustrated and comfortable. I'm going to wrap
mine around here and through here and
let's get going.
4. Foundation Row: If we look at row 1, we're going to start
by chaining 20. Our multiple of 3 is 18 plus our two extra chains for our turning chain to
equal 20 stitches. To start chaining, you want
to wrap your yarn around your hook and then grab your yarn and pull it
through the slipknot. That was one chain. Repeat that, yarn over, pull through, two. Yarn over, pull through, three. Yarn over, pull through four, five. Not too tight. You still want to
make sure your work can move freely
up and down here. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Keep going until you get to 20. There we go. We have 20. The next thing we're going
to do is single crochet in the third chain from the hook. If we look at our work, there is a chain on the hook. This is the first chain, this is the second chain, third, and so on. We're going to place
our first stitch in the third chain
from the hook. Insert your hook in
the third chain. We're going to make
a single crochet. Yarn over, pull
through one loop, yarn over, pull through two. That is your first
single crochet. We're going to repeat single crochets all
the way to the end. Insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull
through two loops. That's two single crochets. Repeat. As you practice and get faster, it's just like muscle memory, and it just glides and becomes
a fluid in smooth motion. I'll meet you at
the end of the row. Don't feel like you have
to keep up with me. You pause when you
need to pause, take a break when you
need to take a break. Speed up if you
need to speed up, whatever you need, this
is supposed to be fun. I'm at the last chain. Now, if we count our
single crochets, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. We have 18 stitches and here is our chain 2
at the beginning. The next step is
to turn our work. To turn our work, we're going to add height. We're going to chain two
at the end, one, two. Like flipping a
page in the book, turn your work over. Now we're working on what
we call the wrong side.
5. Cluster Stitch: We're going to make our first cluster stitch in the same
stitch as our chain 2. That would be right here. Here is your chain 2, it's connected to this stitch. That is where we're
going to place our hook to make our first
cluster stitch. Our cluster stitch is going to be one
single crochet, one half double crochet, and one double crochet
all in this stitch. I'm going to insert my
hook through both loops, front loop, back loop. Yarn over, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull
through both loops. That's your single crochet. Next, we're going to make
a half double crochet. Yarn over, insert your hook, yarn over, pull up your loop. You should have three
loops on your hook. Yarn over again, and pull through
all three loops. That's your half double crochet. Finally, we're going to make a double crochet into
the same stitch. To start out a double crochet, you yarn over first, like we did with the
half double crochet, insert your hook back into that very same stitch
we've been working in, yarn over, pull up a loop. Three loops are on the hook. Yarn over, pull through the first two loops,
two loops remain. You yarn over again and pull through the
remaining two loops. That is our first cluster. We've got a single crochet, a half double crochet, and a double crochet. The next step is to skip two stitches and then
make another cluster. We're going to skip this
stitch and this stitch. We're going to make our next
cluster in this stitch. Skip two, go in into
that third stitch there. Skip this one, skip this one, insert your hook
through both loops, yarn over, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull
through two loops. Let's make our half
double crochet. Yarn over, insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through
all three loops. There's your half
double crochet. Finally, we're going to
make our double crochet. Yarn over, insert back into
the same stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through the
first two loops, yarn over, pull through
the remaining two loops. There is your second cluster. We're going repeat that again. Skip the next two stitches
going into this one. We'll make our single crochet, our half double crochet, and our double crochet,
three cluster groups. Skip two stitches, single crochet, half double
crochet in the same stitch, and double crochet
into the same stitch. Repeat it again. Skip two stitches, insert your hook making sure
you go through both loops. When I was a
beginner in crochet, YouTube wasn't a thing, video tutorials weren't a thing. I was trying to follow
written patterns, and I always thought you just
inserted your hook here. This is the front loop. That is wrong. For years, I had no idea that
unless you are told, otherwise, you insert your hook through both the front
loop and the back loop. Skip two. We are ready to make
our final cluster. Right now, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 clusters. We're going to end with seven. We're going to skip
these two stitches, and our last cluster
is going to go in this chain 2 at the beginning. Not this one, not this one, but this. It's here on the side. Insert. This can be
a little bit tricky. Make your single crochet, half double, and double. You should have seven clusters, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. We are ready to turn our work. If you're not ready yet, just pause the video. Even more helpful, it might
help just to even watch the video the first time before you even
pick up your hook. There's no rush. This is not supposed
to be frustrating, you have to have patience, and you have to practice. That is my biggest tip. So many times I got
mad and put it away. It will come, and it will come with practice. Don't expect it to be
perfect on the first try. Let's turn our work. Again, we are now on row 3. We're going to turn, and then we're going
to be on row 3. Chain 2, one, two. Turn your work, like flipping
that page in the book, and we're back on
the right side. You can see this has a little more texture
when you're working on the right side versus
the wrong side.
6. Row 3: We're going to skip
the first two stitches and we're going to start our cluster in this
third stitch here. Not the one on the
chain to the next one, but the third one. Your cluster is
always going to go in your single crochet
from the previous row. Insert your hook
here, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, and pull through two and you've just made
your single crochet. Let's make our half-double
crochet by yarning over. Insert your hook, grab
your loop and pull it up. Yarn over, pull
through all three, and double crochet, yarn over. Insert your hook into
the same stitch. Grab your yarn and pull it up. Three loops around your hook. Yarn over, pull through
the first two loops. Yarn over, pull through
the last two loops. Repeat that process
all the way across. We're going to skip
our two stitches, so one, two, looking at it from
this way, one, two, we're going to make our
stitch into this one here, which is our single
crochet from the last row. Insert, yarn over, pull up your loop. Yarn over, pull through
two, half-double crochet. Double crochet. Repeat. Skip two stitches. Insert your hook, yarn over. Make your single crochet. Make your half double crochet in the same stitch and your double crochet
in the same stitch. Skip two, one, two, insert your hook. Yarn over. Pull up the loop. Yarn over, pull
through both loops. There is your single crochet, half double crochet,
yarn over first. Insert your hook back
into the same stitch, grabbing your yarn
and pulling it up, so there are three
loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull
through all three loops. There's your half-double crochet and you can see how
the height goes up with each progressing stitch. Our double crochet, yarn over. Insert your hook into
the same stitch, grabbing that yarn
and pulling it up. Yarn over. Pull through the first two. Yarn over, pull through
the remaining two. See how it gets taller and that makes such
a pretty texture. Skip two stitches. Now I'm at the end of my row, we've got one more
cluster to make. We're going to skip
these two and then our last cluster is
going to go right here. Skip those and right in
there, insert your hook. Make your single crochet, half double crochet
in the same stitch, and double crochet
into the same stitch. You should have seven clusters, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. We're going to repeat row
3 until we get to row 15. We're going to keep
repeating the same pattern, so one, two, chain two, turn your page. Now we're on the
wrong side again. Skip with the first
two stitches. Single crochet into
that single crochet from the previous row, half double crochet
into the same stitch, and double crochet
into the same stitch. Skip two and repeat single, half double, double. Once you get the hang of it, grab yourself a cup of coffee, some tea, some water, some wine, whatever you want, and relax and enjoy. Light a candle, play some music, turn on some Netflix, and just get lost. It's so therapeutic. Once you really practice
and get the hang of it. Then you'll be blaming
me for your yarn habit. I don't think there's
a weekend that goes by that I'm not buying yarn. I just can't help it. Let's count here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Chain two and turn. Keep going friends and I will meet you at the end of row 14. Just keep count of your rows. This is our first row where you see these single crochets. Then you just count
your clusters, so that was row 1, row 2, row 3, row 4. Now I'm on row 5. Do that until you get 14 rows or until you have
what looks like a square. If I measure this, it's about six inches
across, give or take. If yours is measuring a lot
bigger or a lot smaller, you can meet my
gauge by sizing up. Go up to a larger hook, like an I or a J hook, if your work is a lot
smaller than mine. If your work is a lot
larger than mine, you may need to size down, so maybe a G hook or a F hook. Or you might need to tighten or loosen how you're
holding your yarn. If you're meeting my
gauge, which again, it does not have to be
perfect unless you are making something that
somebody is wearing, like a hat or a sweater. In my humble opinion, a gauge is not that important
when it comes to making blankets or things that
people don't have to physically wear that
has to match the size. But mine is measuring about
six inches approximately. Once you've got a height
of about six inches, stop, and for me, that was about 14 rows. I'm going to keep
going and join back up with you once we
have reached row 14. If you need to go back
and re-watch slower, or repeat, or watch it first before you even start
with your crochet hook. I encourage you to do that. There's no right or
wrong way to do this. If you have a question, drop it in the discussion, I will get back to you and I will meet you at
my end of row 14.
7. Check In: Half way there: All right, just checking
in about halfway through, see how everyone is doing my
works coming along nicely. One tip I want to
be sure to tell you is after each row or after
every couple of rows, make sure you still
have seven clusters. You can see your clusters, they're all in one stitch there. It can get a little confusing
when you see the end, the cluster from
the previous row can trippy up a little bit. Just make sure you're
always ending with seven clusters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, so this doesn't count, that's in the row before. Always make sure you have seven. It looks a little tricky sometimes when you're
finishing your row, you're like, "Oh do I
need a stitch more?" But no, not if you
have seven clusters. Let's do another row together. I'm turning my work. I'm working on the
wrong side here. I'm going to skip
my 1st two stitches and I'm going to come in
that first single crochet. Make my single crochet. Make my half double crochet
and then my double crochet. That's my first cluster. It looks like I
already have two, but I don't, I just have one. That's one cluster, two clusters, three clusters, four, five, six, and seven which again
can look really strange. Skip your two stitches. You're going in
this stitch here. I don't want to call it a mess, but this jumbled up a
bunch of stitches is your cluster from the
previous row so ignore that. One, 2 you're making your
last one in number 3 here. This is the 7th cluster. [inaudible] 2 , turn your work. Keep going.
8. Final Row: I've just completed row 14, and it looks like
I'm going to have to add a couple more rows to make my swatch look
more like a square, because I'm measuring six
inches this way and I'm measuring about five-and-a-half
inches this way. I'm going to go on
to make a 15th row. If you would like to
join me, please do. I'm going to chain up too, and I'm going to turn my work. Skip those first two stitches
and I'm going to cluster in the single crochet
from the previous row, and in each single crochet from the previous row to have
seven clusters across. That is 15 rows. That looks very
square if you ask me. That looks pretty good. I think if I add another row, it might be a little
bit too tall, so I'm going to stop there
and call it at 15 rows. Go ahead and make your 15 rows or 14. See, I used different yarn when I made this swatch and it only took me 14 rows
to get my square. This one took me 15 rows. That is why many patterns request that you make
a gauge swatch first, because a lot of it depends
on the yarn you're using. These are two different
brands of yarn and it does make a difference. Make sure you measure and I've
got my six by six square. I don't think it matters, again, with gauge
too much when you're not wearing a hat or a sweater, something that is made
specifically to a person's size. But for this project, I do want it to be a square, so you want both the
lateral sides and the vertical sides to be
equal, but still approximate. I know I'm contradicting myself because we don't have to
strive for perfection, but this looks like a square. Finish when yours looks
like a square and we will fasten off and then
start our border. To finish off or
fasten off your work, you are going to simply chain
one at the end of the row, and leave a little bit of a tail so you can weave it in or incorporate it
into the border. I'm going to snip this here. Then to fasten off, you just pull your hook out. Just give that a little tug and that'll secure the
work in place. You have completed your
cluster stitch swatch, say that five times fast. Cluster stitch swatch,
cluster stitch swatch. Good job. Mine's about
six inches by six inches. Next we're going to make
a simple border around. Borders are fun. You can get really fancy, but we're going
to be simple here just so that you
know the basics of how to put a border on
your work, on a blanket. I know this looks
like a pot holder, but this is what we're going
to call a snuggle square. I'm going to tell you at
the end what you can do with these for a terrific cause. We are ready to move
on to the border.
9. Border 1: If you have made it this far, I am so proud of you. You should have approximate
six-inch by six-inch, five-inch by five-inch, depending on the type of
yarn that you're using; square that we're going
to add a border to. If you've made it
this far, awesome, I would love it very much if
you snapped a photo of it and added it to the
project gallery for today's class so I can sing your praises and give you
some positive feedback. Do that for me. I am going to come back over
here with my main color. Come in there, pull your yarn
through and chain 1, and make your single
crochets along the rough edges evenly spaced. The best way I feel like you can evenly crochet is
just to get into a rhythm and just memorize where you placed
your hook before and just punch your hook in the same distance as the previous one, if
that makes sense. It's better, instead of
starting and stopping, just get in a rhythm
and go with it. I'm back in my corner again. I'm going to come in here and put my three
single crochets; 1, 2, and 3, to make my turn. Bring my tail with
me to blend it in. Crochet over top of that. You don't have to. If find that too tricky or you don't like
how that looks, you can weave it in at
the end with your needle. But I am just
crocheting over top of it so that it blends in here and I don't
have to leave it in later. Can I drop it off now? This does look a little funky. There is no real defined corner. I'm going to just pick a spot right there in the middle and make three single crochets; 1, 2, and 3, turning again. We're going to be working
back down our rough edge, evenly spacing our single crochets, the best you can. If you have your stitches
too close together, you'll notice that things
will start to ruffle. That means you have
too many stitches. If you feel like it's
starting to stretch, that means you
don't have enough. When you lay things down, it should lay flat and you should still
have what somewhat resembles your perfectly
imperfect square. I'm going to keep going here. We're back in our corner
and we're going to make our three single crochets. Making our turn and we're at
the part with the stitches, so you just have
to stitch across here in each stitch that's
already defined for you. I'm at the last corner here, and also my last tail, which I'm going to, of
course, weave in here. Three single crochets
in this last stitch; 1, 2, and 3, turn, and I just have a
little bit to go until I reach the beginning. Get one more in there. Let that tail fire away. You've stitched all
the way around. Hopefully, it's
lying pretty flat. You don't see any ruffles
or any puckering. We're going to join to
this chain 1 that we made. We're going to join to that. Stick your hook in the chain 1. We're going to make a
slip stitch, yarn over, pull through the chain, and then pull through again. We're going to chain 1 to fasten off that. You'll have that tail. I'm also going to
flip my work over and trim these tails that I wove in. Just get as close to the edge, but not too close that you cut your working part
and then just stretch it, and then boom, hidden. Magic.
10. Border 2: That looks much cleaner when
you do that first round in the same color as
your main color. The first round of the
border in the same color as the main blankets watch square. Now, we are going to
attach my white again. I'm going to pick another
spot to attach it, not in the same spot
that this guy is. I'm going to come over here
to another random spot, just close your
eyes and pick one. There we go. Go in here. Pull your yarn up. This time we are
going to chain 2. This time we're going to double crochet in each stitch all
the way around our border, placing three double crochets
in each corner stitch, which is the middle stitch of the cluster of three that
you made in each corner. There's our chain 2. We're going to yarn over and we're going to insert
into the next stitch. Through both the front loop and the back loop, yarn over, pull up the loop, yarn over, pull through two, yarn
over, pull through two. Here's your first
double crochet. Now repeat that again. Double crochet. If you're new to double crochet, I'm going to do a
slow stitch again in case you're not
doing this all on the same day and you're out
of rhythm and you're like, oh, how many yarn overs
and pull throughs? It is this. Yarn over. Insert your hook through the
front and the back loop. Yarn over again. Pull up a loop. Three
loops on your hook. Yarn over, pull through
the first two loops. Yarn over, pull through
the remaining two loops. That is your double crochet. I'm almost to the first corner. I've got one more stitch
and this is my corner. In this stitch,
we're going to place three double crochets
in that same stitch. There is one yarn
over and go back into the same stitch for two, and back into the same
stitch for three. This is also called a cluster. Anytime you have multiple
stitches in the same stitch, we can call that
a cluster stitch. Let's turn and
we're going to work our double crochets
across this side. You're going to repeat
the same process, double crochet in each stitch, placing three double crochets in the same stitch of
your corner stitches. I'll do one more
corner with you. Remember, go at your own pace. Pause, speed up, take a break. I try not to count too
much when I'm making these videos because if you're counting and I'm counting and we're not on the same number, you're going to start
saying bad words to me, so I won't count. We are almost to our corner. Now we're going
to do our cluster of three double crochets
in this corner stitch. There is two. There
is my last one. You can see there's
three in that corner. We've made the turn here. Keep going. Same process, one double
crochet in each stitch, three in your corner, and then I'll meet you
at the bottom and we'll join the round and show you what to do for the
final round of the border.
11. Border 3 and Outro: Friends, we are on the
home stretch here. Couple more stitches. I've double crocheted
in all my stitches and now I need to
join the round, and I'm going to join
the round at the top of my chain here. I'm going to insert my hook, and I'm going to make
another slip stitch. This time I'm going
to chain one, and we're just going to
put a single crochet in each of these stitches for a
nice little finishing touch. You can see, you can really
get creative with borders, with different stitches, the key is having a nice clean finish
and making the turns, which usually consists of
three stitches in the corner. Again, we're going to place three single crochets in
the very corner stitch. Placing three in this corner, and then turn, single crochet all the
way down this side. You could even do
another round of double crochets if you
wanted half double crochets. This is where the creativity
part comes in and you get to have fun with it
playing around with different stitches,
different textures, whether you're crocheting in the front loop or the back loop, that will change the textured
look of things as well. Back in the corner, so three single crochets
in this corner. One thing that took me
a long time to learn is the crochet police
are not going to come and get you because
there is no such things. Sometimes people want to tell you what hook size
you need to use or how to do a
certain technique, I say if the outcome is
the way you want it, then it's your choice. It's your creativity, you choose your hook size, you choose ways to
make it your own. You don't have to follow
something verbatim, you can change it up a little bit to put
your unique mark in it. I promise you, the crochet police will
not come and get you. Don't let fear of
imperfection stop you from finishing a
project. Keep going. You're going to learn from it, you're going to know what
to do better next time, and you might have a
happy accident and create something really cool and new that is better than what you originally
intended to go after. Don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid if
it's not perfect. My corners, so I'm putting my three single crochets
in this corner, and I'm turning and I'm
headed down the home stretch. Feel like you're going
on a race track, making another left turn, going to the finish line. Really bad corny jokes, I'll be here all day. No, I won't because we
are about finished. Here we go, we're at the
last couple of stitches. This can get a
little bit tricky, so if I stop here and
show you a few things, this is our brad,
our last stitch right here because
here's our stitch and then the loop we go for
is right in front of it. We're going to go in there, and then we are going to join to our first
stitch which is here. Skip this, this is the
slip stitch we made. We want to go in here and
make another slip stitch, so let's slow this down. We're going to
skip over this guy and we're going to come in here. We're going to yarn over, pull through, and then
pull through again. Then we're going to chain
on to finish off our work, leaving a little bit
of a tail because this one we will actually
have to leave in, so snip off that, pull out your hook
and tighten that, and we're going to weave in this end and our swatch
will be complete. There's a way we can hide how
this is sticking up there, so thread your needle. I'm going to try
to blend this in. I'm going to put my
needle in through here, and then back through here, makes like another stitch
and it hides everything. Then I'm going to
weave in my end on the wrong side or the backside. I want to find a place
where I can seamlessly thread my yarn back and
forth about three times, so I'm going to come,
this looks good. We're going to go one, and then back through, but not exactly the same route, or you'll just
undo what you did, so try to pick up in some
random different places. That's two, and then one
more time to make sure everything is secured, three. You can remove the needle. Oh look, I have another
end to even snip that. We got to weave, this
one I weaved in already, I'm going to snip that one off. I just got to weave in this end. Back on the right side, here we go, you did it. Here is your practice watch
to make a gorgeous blanket. This blanket I have made in
a normal baby blanket size, multiple times for my daughter, for my best friend's baby, for another friend's baby, and it is the first
blanket that I ever made. It is the first
crochet project that I ever actually finished. It's beautiful, it's
simple, it's classic. I encourage you to try to
make one in a larger size but the cool thing
you can do with these for our course like I talked
about in the beginning is, this is the perfect size for what they call bonding squares. I like to call them snuggle squares because I
like the word snuggle better than bonding square. Make two, so if you
make them in pairs, and you can donate these to your local hospital and they
can use these in the NICU. These help mom and dad or family
caregiver bond with baby, when they can't be with baby. One of my main missions and reasons why I crochet is to
help babies in the NICU. My triplets were in the NICU, for a little over a month
and it can be really hard and anything
you can do to make the experience a
little bit easier, comforting, I'm all about that. What happens is baby gets one, this goes in the isolate, baby snuggles with it, baby's scent gets on here, and then mom or dad
takes this home, put it under your pillow or
snuggle it under your chin, mom or dad scent
gets on this one. Then when they go back to the hospital, I
bumped my camera. When they go back
to the hospital, they swap so now baby gets
this one that mom had, and baby can pick up on
mom and dad's scent. Mom gets baby's scent and
this helps boost lactation, this helps with bonding, this helps comfort the
parents that have to go home without their
baby and know that a little piece of their
babies here with them, and one of the most
developed senses in premature infants is scent. This is a really cool way
to use up your scraps, so if you have a lot of
scrap yarn lying around, rather than throw it away, make it into a square. I would say five inches
by five inches minimum, but if you make it six
inches by six inches, make some squares, learn some new stitches. Use your cluster stitch or single crochet,
whatever you want, make it into a square and use your scraps as pairs
and donate them to the hospital and the families
will surely appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed this class. I want to see your finished snuggle
squares/gauge swatches, and I hope that you post
those in the project gallery. I hope you consider donating
your finished swatches to the NICU and I want to see
your finished blankets. You can tag me on Instagram
at butfirstcrochet, to let me take a look at what
you've been up to there, and I also would love
it if you posted in the project gallery and if you would follow me
here on Skillshare. Feel free to start
a discussion of what you would like to see more of as far
as crochet classes go, and I will hope to see you
in the yarn aisle friends, until next time, take care.
Jessica S., Crochet Made Simple
