Technique - Joining

One of the neatest tricks in crochet is joining. When done right it is nice and neat; when done wrong it gets a little lumpy. It is very easy to do and those patterns that say to join with a sc may be better off if you use this little trick instead.

1. drop loop from your hook…
2. insert hook in the intended st or sp from right to left…
3. pick up loop just dropped and…
4. pull through and make a sl st…
5. finish the chain loop.

The piece in the photo is for the lace overskirt to Miss July 1998. I am doing it in size 20 thread and a #8 crochet hook.

Miniature Heart-shaped Pillow

This little pillow is done in Herrschner’s afghan yarn. It is just a little over 2 inches.

Materials

• Herrschner's afghan yarn
• Size E hook

Notes

1. Do not join rnds and follow carefully rnd 3 as this pillow's shape can be ruined if you don't follow exactly.

1. I am using htr st as a smooth transitional between tr sts and dc sts. A htr is [yo twice, yo and pull through 2 loops, yo, pull through 3 loops. Voila!

1. When you make you 6 sc in the 2nd ch st make sure you have inserted the hook under two strands of the three. Otherwise you will have a hole that is too large.

1. You can make this pillow in thicker yarn but use a crochet hook at about 2 sizes smaller

Instructions

Ch 2
Rnd 1: 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook,
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc {12 sc}
Rnd 3: sc in next sc, dc in next sc, [htr, 2 tr] in next sc, [1 tr, 1 htr] in next sc, 2 dc in next sc, [dc, 1 htr] in next sc, [htr, tr, htr] in next sc (this forms the bottom point), [htr, dc] in next sc, 2 dc in next sc, [ dc, htr] in next sc, [2 tr, 1 htr] in next sc, dc in next sc, sl st join to first sc.
Make another one and with same or contrasting color make the edging joining the two sides. Stuff with a small cotton ball before all the way closed and make sc in back lps, ch 2 and repeat half way around with a sl st (no ch 2 before or after) in the sc at top of pillow.

The Ballerina Finished

Finished!

The tulle skirt is finished, hand sewn to the under side of the crocheted skirt. The pattern has been re-vised to include the tulle underskirt and if you have already downloaded this pattern you may want to do so again. Ballet Tutu
The Tulle is not as nice as I wanted but I was using what I had on hand. This had bee purchased from Walmart long time ago; it is rather stiff. However it worked. If using softer tulle you may want to use more layers. I used one piece, folded in half lengthwise which made 2 layers.

Maybe someday i will take it off and replace it with really nice Tulle. The links section have a couple of places where you can purchase tulle, please check them out.

The Ballerina's dance...

When i started the bodice (shown in prev post) i really hadn't thought about what to put with it. But then when the neckline was properly styled immediately I saw a Ballerina's outfit in the making. So, i put on the skirt. This made it right for photo taking and no one could see that her underwear wasn't there yet and also re-confirmed that this would be perfect for a ballerina's dance outfit. I did the panties yesterday and put the final 2 rows for the skirt and have yet to do the tulle under skirt. Since I have it this far I thought you guys should see it, though i don't know how long it is going to be before the tulle underskirt gets done.

The pattern, thus far, is here: B1_Tutu1.pdf

While Working on…

the Millinea Mint project, I pulled out the pattern i had that has that really beautiful bodice and the really very incorrect pattern for same bodice and decided to give it another try. I will not say how many times i have tried to get this pattern correct but I did manage to do it this time!!!! I did it Saturday and today I am going back over it to make the corrections that always seem to need to be done so that you can have a copy of the pattern for the bodice if you are interested.

This is the bodice before the last row that goes on around the neckline. While working on this i decided that it was just too good not to pass it up, to make this into a ballerina outfit. It will have layers of gathered tulle for the under skirt and panties.From there gold thread can be used to make trim around the edges, feathers or other trim can be added and any ballerina outfit will appear from the crocheter’s imagination.

I neglected one thing when i posted "the Next Installment of Millinea Mint"; that link to the pattern. So, here it is...
MillineaMint.pdf
Sorry about that. I didn't mean to forget the link.

I have some really good links for doing makeovers in case anyone is interested.

The first one is for restoring Barbie’s hair.

http://www.rebeccachulew.com/ezine/hairrescue.html

i that doesn’t work then you might want to try re-rooting….

http://www.wideeyedgirls.com/rerootinstruction.html

In either case you may need some styling help….

http://members.fortunecity.com/customdolls/hair1_page.htm

But then, if all goes wrong there is always this one

http://www.rebeccachulew.com/ezine/moldedhair.html

and then there are some other tips that may come in handy…

http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/Mall/3309/customizingtips.htm

In any event these pages have been up for a long time and who knows how much longer they will still be up. So, if you are interested, now would be the time to collect this information and store it on your computer.