Crochet Colorwork 101: Exploring Multiple Techniques

Hi, everybody. Welcome to our live event. My name is Brenda K.B. Anderson, and I am a crochet colorwork fanatic, you guys. I've had some questions, a couple of questions from, or suggestions really, from people, for learning about different styles of colorwork.

And so I wanted to do a live event where I just basically talk about the different styles of colorwork in crochet, and kind of like w- why you would use one versus another, or what they're both What they're good at, what they're the best at achieving, or if there's any drawbacks or things you should watch out for. So this is not gonna be my usual kinda tutorial style live event. I will be showing you little bits of things just so that you can kind of see the difference between how the, the different styles of colorwork actually work, but we're not going in depth on any of these things. This is by no means a tutorial on, like, you know, how to mosaic colorwork or how to tapestry crochet. but it's more like a little dipping your toe in the water of all these techniques and kinda understanding the difference between them.

And, so that way if you're w- wanting to work on a project, you can kind of say, "Oh, this might work well in this style of colorwork," or, or, "I wanna try this. This looks really interesting to me." You know, this is more of kind of like a, just a overall general, A, you know, just a general overview of the different styles. Okay? So, first of all, I wanna thank you guys for your patience. I know we've had to reschedule this live event twice, because I've been sick.

I'm feeling much better, and I appreciate you guys being patient about, about, having to delay it, you know, two times now. But I'm very excited to talk about this. This is something that I'm really passionate about. I, I love color. I love, you know, getting imagery into my projects.

I love patterns. so this is something that's very near and dear to my heart. I actually wrote a book a couple of years ago. It's called The Hooktionary. I actually have a copy of it here.

The Hooktionary, and this is a stitch pattern dictionary, with a bunch of different styles of, of tapestry crochet shown in that. So we're gonna start out this by talking about the tapestry crochet aspect of colorwork, okay? There's, there's many, many different ways of using two different colors in your projects. you know, everything from just the very basic, like stripes or, you know, patches of different colors, up to something that's more intricate, like where you have an actual pattern or you're following a chart, and you're using, you know, two colors as you work across one row. Sometimes you're only using one color at a time.

You know, there's lots of, lots and lots of different techniques that you can use. but I wanna start out by talking about tapestry crochet. So when I first wrote this book or started writ- writing this book, this book was a long time in coming, actually. It took me a very long time to finish it up and get it out there into the world. but when I had started on that, at the time, there wa- there weren't really that many people doing colorwork in crochet.

It wa- it, it really seemed like it was really hard to find projects or patterns or books about it. this was kind of When I had first started that book, it was sort of bef- before this whole, like, mosaic boom that happened. I, I, I like to think of it that way. There was this huge, like, just, you know, explosion of popularity all of a sudden in crochet colorwork, and I think it's because people realized, oh, this isn't just a knitting thing. Like, you can use crochet to make all these cool things.

but when I was working on that book, at the time, the definition for tapestry crochet was that you were working it in the round, and you were using, switching back and forth between your colors. You know, you'd be using two colors per round usually. You can use more, per round. But it was something that was, like, generally understood that you were working it in the round. Now, when I look at people who are describing their, their crochet colorwork as tapestry crochet, I've seen it, people describe their, their projects, their designs as tapestry crochet, it looks to me like people are using that term a little differently now and, using that to just describe, like, creating an image in crochet while you're making a tapestry or something like that, where you may be working back and forth in turn rows or you might be working in the round.

So there's ta- the words in crochet, like, the word tapestry crochet to me, has changed a lot over the last few years, and people are using it to describe different things. So I'm gonna talk about tapestry crochet as the way that I first learned, which is when you're working in the round, you're using more than one color at a time. You're just kinda switching back and forth between the colors. So in my book I talk about this, that the, the different stitches that you use to create tapestry crochet, 'cause you could use single crochets. You could use double crochets.

You could use, what I really, really love is extended single crochets. If you guys have watched a lot of my live events, you know that that's one of my favorite stitches of all time for lots of reasons. But it makes excellent stitch definition in tapestry crochet. So you could be using You know, you're g- you're gonna be working in the round in tapestry crochet, and you could be using one of m- many, you know, one of a large handful of different stitches to actually create your colorwork. So I wanna show you what I mean by that.

so here are some samples. These are all what I would consider tapestry crochet. and they're all worked as like a tube in the round. You can see this is this circular thing, and you're working it with the right side facing you all of the time, and you have two different colors. So I'm just gonna do a few stitches so that you guys can see, what is happening here.

So this particular sample, this is single crochet worked in the back loop.And so I'm just working it underneath the back loop and making a single crochet while I'm crocheting over the color that I'm not using and using, you know, this color right here to create the stitch and when I wanna switch to the other color, I'm gonna drop the color I'm using, pick up the unused color and finish that stitch with the next color because every time we make a stitch, when you change from one color to the next, you're actually making the top of the next stitch before you make the next stitch. So here's the little hat that we're gonna put on the next stitch, and as we create that next stitch, I'm gonna be crocheting over this strand of unused yarn to encase it and making my stitch here. Okay? So this is one version of tapestry crochet. We're working single crochet into the back loop and just working around and around and you're s- so you can see how I'm switching back and forth between those two colors and I am crocheting over the color that's not in use.

Now, s- you can do tapestry crochet where you just kind of let it strand across the back of your work, and then you will see these little strands on the back. They're called floats. You can also do that. This is a little bit more common to trap those floats so that you don't have those strands hanging out on the back of your work. Okay, so I'll show you one more color change here.

And now we're working with the green. Okay? So you can see that, you know, I'm just switching back and forth between using these two colors. They're going around with me as I stitch. When I'm not using it, I'm just crocheting over it and continuing on my way.

So this is a single crochet worked through the back loop, that's the stick, the stitch pattern I used for this particular tapestry crochet. This one is an extended single crochet. I believe it is Yeah, it's a split extended single crochet. It's okay if you don't know that, that term of the stitch, or if you don't even know what an extended single crochet is either. That's okay.

I actually have a suggestion for you in a minute about learning extended single crochet but So you can see how the stitch, the p- the texture of it looks a little different, just the way that the, like, the edges of where one color meets the next color, they just look a little different. It's because I'm using a different stitch. This is a, a split extended single crochet. This one is a front post double crochet, so these are post stitches, and let me just do a couple of them here. So you would work around the post of the stitch and you can't actually trap your float, so they just hang, hang out on the back for this particular style of color work.

I'm gonna switch back to the blue to complete my stitch, just like that. Okay, and you can see on the back of the work there are these little strands here. These are called the floats where, where they're just going from one section of color to the next. Okay, and this particular fabric is, is a little bit stretchier, it's squishy, it's very warm. it just has a very different feel to it than the, the others because this is made with post stitches.

It's just a different, the anatomy of each stitch is just different. The way that the loops are made are just different. This is a split single crochet, also known as center single crochet, also known as the waistcoat stitch. Some people call this the knit stitch, but it's basically like a single crochet that's worked a little bit further down into the stitch, instead of underneath the top two loops. Like, instead of right here, you would work it down in between the, the, like, the two legs of the V like that to create the stitch.

So these, you know, choosing the stitch pattern that you're using, that'll affect how clean your color work is, like if it has lots of kind of s- if it looks really pixelated and it doesn't look like it's forming a solid image, you may wanna try, using a different stitch. You know, using the split single crochet or a waistcoat stitch or using an extended single crochet, which is what this one is. you know, there's, there's so many different styles of this and so that'll affect not only what the, the color looks like, like how much the colors bleed into each other or stay separate and nice and crisp, that'll affect that, but it'll also affect the hand of your fabric, the drape and the feel of your fabric, so it might be really Like this particular stitch, it looks super clear, but it, it is not, does not have as much drape. It's a very compact stitch and it generally doesn't have a whole lot of stretch and you can, you know, go up hook sizes and things like that to affect the drape and all that. But, but just know, I just want you to know that there are all sorts of different versions just within this version of crochet, just within tapestry crochet, just depending on what stitch y- you know, what the anatomy of the stitch is, what the actual stitches you're using are to create the motif.

You know, that's gonna affect your fabric, it's gonna affect how it looks and all that. So, if you guys wanna know a little bit more about this style of crochet, this tapestry crochet, I do have numerous projects actually on the Creative Crochet Corner website. Let me see. I'm gonna grab those. we've got this.

This is actually comes from a class. This is front, Mastering Front Post Double Crochet. This is on Craftsy. It's also on the Creative Crochet Corner website, and here I am using that, that post stitch crochet because it's nice and stretchy and it's super warm and it makes really nice, really nice graphic designs. Like, it really looks clean and clear.

It really looks good. It looks similar to knitting, but it's thicker and warmer, and it has, like-More stretch. You can see it's, it's stretchy. So this one I really love, so that, that, that is from a class that I did for the Creative Crochet Corner website. Also, let's see, we've got this one.

This is called the All That, Bag. And, so this one is using the single crochet through the back loop. That is a free pattern download on the Creative Crochet Corner website. There should be links to all of these also in the description, so if you're looking for these projects, there should be links to these different projects I'm kinda highlighting here so you guys have access to these. So this is tapestry crochet again.

You single crochet, work through the back loop. This one I believe is a premium or you have to be a gold mem- gold member. This is the knit stitch or the, split single crochet, also known as the waistcoat stitch, made This is actually made in the round. it's a tube, and it's stitched together at the top and the bottom, so it makes a very thick, really nice pot holder. and it's kinda meant for holiday season, so it's a little bit of a snowflake there.

And then this project was made in the same stitch, split single crochet or center single crochet or waistcoat stitch, knit stitch. and I chose this particular stitch because it was nice and stiff, and I was making this little, elephant purse, and I wanted it to have a little bit of structure, without actually having to line it. So that, that stitch pattern is nice, can, can be nice and stitch- stiff if you stitch it up at a fairly firm gauge. Let's see. All right.

And then also, so we've got the, I think this is called the Tannenbaum Hat, and this was a project that I did. I did a live event, and also you have access to the free pattern for the Tannenbaum Hat. and this one was done in extended single crochet, tapestry crochet again. These are all tapestry crochet so far. And this one, this is, like, the download of the day.

We have a link to this. This is, a checkered bucket hat, and this was made in i- my favorite, the extended single crochet stitch. The thing I love about this stitch, and I really wanted to highlight it here, is you get these very crisp edges. So if you're making anything that's a square and you really want the sides to be very clear, and you're doing it in color work, I recommend for sure using extended single crochet to create that stitch pattern, and we do have a tutorial on this as well. So this is a fun cotton hat for the summertime.

All right. So we've got, That's all our tapestry crochet. One Two more things I wanna say, actually, just one more thing I wanna say about the tapestry crochet, is that because you have to work this style of crochet in the round, so you always have the right side facing, you're not working it back and forth or turn rows, you're basically creating things that are going to be a tube. So if you're thinking, "Well, I can't So then I can't make a cardigan. I can't You know, that seems limiting," you can actually do those things.

You just have to create a steek, which is like a planned area of a certain type of stitching that you plan to actually cut through with your scissors. I know it sounds totally nuts, but knitters do it, and I started exploring this, you know, a number of years ago 'cause I had d- been doing some knitting projects that were steeked, and I'm like, "Why doesn't Why don't crocheters ever do this? I never see this in crochet." and so I developed a method of making planned steeks in crochet, and you could do it just as easily in crochet as in knitting. So this is a little section. This is just a little swatch.

This was crocheted in a tube in tapestry crochet, and then I made a little steek and cut it open. and I do have a whole class on this if you guys are interested in this technique and being able to cut through your tapestry crochet and have it not fall apart on you. I have lots of different methods of keeping that, you know, keeping anything from raveling and that, you know, keeping it all structurally sound. I do have a class for that on the Creative Crochet Corner website. It's called Steeking: Cutting Your Crochet on Purpose, I think.

I can't remember the exact title. But I did This is one of the projects from that class. you're creating a, a, this bag that would not be able to be made just completely in the round. We had, just because of the way the color work was done, so if you guys are interested in that. okay.

So that concludes our tapestry crochet. So the next thing I'm gonna talk about, Oh, Molly says she loves the, the tree hat, and they've made it multiple times. Aw, thanks, Molly, and hi from Molly. Oh, and Jennifer is saying hello from the UK. Hi, you guys.

Oh, I missed some hellos. Okay. All right. Thanks, you guys, for chiming in. Okay.

So, the next thing I wanna talk about looks a lot like tapestry crochet, but it's actually mosaic crochet. So this took me a little while to get into because tapestry crochet seems very simple for me to create my own designs because really all you need is a grid, and you just fill in colors wherever you want them, and you're not really, like, constrained by having it in a certain order or having to have certain amounts of stitches and different colors in certain spaces or anything like that. You can really just draw out whatever you want, and then you can stitch it up into tap- into tapestry crochet. R- you're not, you're not bound by other, you know, having to have, oh, every other row, you have to have another color that connects to the You know, there's n- there's n- really no rules about where your colors go. So if you are looking to create your own charts, you wanna do your own drawings, tapestry crochet, i- I feel like, is the simplest kinda color work as far as designing the actual motifs and making that into your fabric.

it's just very straightforward. so mosaic crochet, I did This is called the Rose Butte Cowl, and I did a live event on this a few weeks ago, where I'm basically showing you from start to finish how to make this mosaic cowl. Mosaic is such a fun technique, you guys, and, and, you know, if you're not, if you're not so much focused on getting a drawing that you have into your fabric, if you just wanna make beautifully patterned things, geometric designs, and that sorta thing, this is a great place to start because you're only using one color at a time as you're work- making your rounds, and it just keeps your yarn from getting tangled. It's just a-Uh, it's just a little more chill foray into the world of color work, I, I think. it's very simple.

So there's two different kinds of tapestry crochet. We have overlay crochet, which is what this is, and then we have inset crochet, which is, here is an example of inset crochet right here. And you can see, I used the same stitch pattern just so I could show you this. You- and this is actually the same weight of yarn, the same type of yarn here. You can see this is a little bit more elongated compared to these.

This fabric is also a little flatter. It's not quite as bumpy, as, as raised. and then if you look at the back, we've got these little s- kind of wiggly stripes, and this one has these little wiggly stripes that are a little bit narrower. They're kind of similar. So, how to know which one to use.

So this, the inset version, this is great if you want to make something that's not in the round. So if you wanna make blankets, scarves, you know, other flat pieces that are worked back and forth in turn rows, then you would probably be- be best at using this. this overlay is great for anything that's a tube, so like a hat, a cowl, mittens, you know, a yoke in a sweater, anything that can be a tube shape, because you're working this in the round with the right side always facing. that's, that is great. Also, if you really like this technique and you wanna make something flat, you can of course do that.

So what, what, what that means, what that would mean is, you know, because you are always going to be facing the same side of your crochet, you can crochet across it, and then you can fasten off. And then you start at the beginning again and crochet across it and fasten off. So you're gonna have all these little yarn ends which can be incorporated into fringe, or you can crochet these little pockets to hide your fringe in, or you could weave in all your ends, which takes a bazillion years. you could do that. So there's lots of options.

So, you know, if you really love this style, you like how it looks, you wanna do this version, but you wanna make flat things, you can still do it. It's just, you know, you're gonna have to deal with your ends in some way. So you gotta deal with all those, beginning ends and ending ends, okay? so, you know, for me, when I'm, when I'm thinking, oh, I think I wanna do this mosaic style crochet, I usually just decide, okay, I'll do overlay if it's in the round, and I'll do inset if, if I wanna make a flat thing. That just makes it easier for me.

But, you know, we are crocheters, and we have ways of figuring out, different ways to adapt anything, right, to, to fit whatever it is that you need. So there, there are ways around both of those things. But just in your mind, if you think overlay, that's usually in the round or is easiest to do in the round. Inset, back and forth and turn rows. So the way that this works, I just wanna show you just like a brief overview of how mosaic works.

So mosaic, you're only using one color at a time, and Here, I'm just gonna back this up a little bit here. you're only using one color at a time, and you can just leave the other one hanging, and you can see right here, this is where I've stranded them up my work. There's a little bit of a line here on the wrong side of my work. That's where I'm carrying the yarn up. You know, the one that's not in use, you just let it dangle there until you need it.

So when you're doing overlay, you're just crocheting. All the time, you're just working into the back loops for the most part. Okay, so I'm doing the single crochets into the back loops like this. And then if I want to, like, say this brown color is, and I don't want that to be brown, I want it to be gray, then I would do a double crochet down here into that unused front loop like this. And what that does is it covers up the brown that was prev- you know, previously showing.

But now it's behind there. So when you're doing mosaic, you're just kinda working along the top edge unless you wanna cover up the color that was in the round below. And every time, every time you go around and around, then you switch to another color. So we're gonna make our way to the end here. So you get to the end of your row, you do a little slip stitch here, and then you pick up the old, you know, the color that you wanna change to.

And then you can start working in that color. Okay. And you don't have to bring the, the color you're not using, you don't have to bring that along with you. It just hangs out and waits. And then you would go around again, and if you Usually for mosaic crochet, you work from a chart.

It might look like this. People who make their charts for mosaic make them pretty differently. but I, I like to make them this way so that the X's are there to prompt you, like, "Hey, you're gonna drop a stitch down below." So let's see if I can figure out what row I'm on here. let's see. I'm at the top.

I think I am right here, which would be right here. Okay, so round number 15. So every time when you're working your way across, this is just a brief overview, and if you wanna learn more about this, you should go back and watch the, the live event where I actually teach you how to make this cowl for real, but I just wanted you to kinda understand how this works, just to have the brief overview, I guess. So any time you see a stitch in the color that you're using, so here we have color A. That means that's the color we're using.

That's not actually standing for a stitch. So we have the brown, the brown, the brown. Okay, so we've got the brown, the brown, and this, this one has an X in it.Oh, actually, I think I'm two- I'm another row up. I'm actually right here, I think. Let's see, brown, white.

Yeah. Okay, so I just fi- w- I just finished my Let's see, the brown stitch. I think I was on the wrong part of my chart there. So brown, and then we switch to white. Well, how can you make white, a white stitch if you're just working with the brown?

That doesn't make any sense. Well, that's okay. You just ignore it, and every time you are making a, a stitch that's represented by just a box without an X in it, you're just making a single crochet through the back loop. When you get to an X in a box, then you're making a stitch down below. So you're making a double crochet down below.

Let's see, one, two Okay, hold on a second. No, I am not sure. Okay. Let's see. That's where that was, right here.

Brown, brown, drop down below, but that doesn't make sense. Okay. I think I'm in the wrong spot of my chart. Hang on a second here, you guys. Let me sort this out.

Okay. Oh, nope. That's right. I was just really resistant to follow my chart, but that's actually right. Okay.

So then you're gonna go down and make a stitch into the unused loop, and every time you do that, you're actually stitching into that same color. Like, anytime you're stitching into an unused loop from below, you're using If you're using brown, you're stitching into an unused loop that's in brown, if that makes sense. So basically, every time you wanna color up, cover up the color behind, you're dropping a stitch down. Okay? So that, that's basically how this works.

You just work your way around. Anytime you're working, regardless of what color the stitch is in the chart, you're just working single crochets all the way across into the back loop. But when you get to an X, that's when you drop one of those double crochets down to two rounds below. And if this Like I said, if this doesn't completely make sense, that's okay. I just kind of wanted to show you how this works so you can kinda look at it and be like, "That looks like a thing I would like to do," or that, "Maybe I'll try a different color work," you know?

Just so you have the very, very basics of, kinda how these patterns are formed. Okay? So that's how the overlay mosaic works, okay? And then the Here we go. The inset crochet, every, every row in here in the chart represents two rows in your project, so you're working across, and then you're working back.

So now we have And this is similar to what we were doing, you know, just previously because you're still gonna be making stitches that drop down and cover up what's going on behind. You're just making them slightly differently. So we have just c- finished working in that lighter color, and you can see when we work across, we're dropping our stitches down below into that same color. Anywhere where Like for example, right here, I made chains and skipped a stitch. That's because I'm preparing that for the next row.

I'm going to be working a double crochet right here in that darker brown, and that's gonna block out and cover up these chains here. Okay? So again, this isn't meant to be, like, a full tutorial. I'm just kinda trying to explain, like, y- you know, the motions that you're doing a little bit, just the theory behind it. Basically, you're working two rows, and you're still covering up.

On the first row, first pass across, you're covering things up. On the second row, you're just basically singl- single crocheting across. And if you come to a section where you've done chains, then you chain instead of doing a single crochet. It's very simple. and I'm going I'm working on, a, a class for this style of crochet that'll be coming up at some point in the future, and we'll be going a little bit more in depth into that.

But this, if you just You know, if you're wondering the difference between, you know, the two different mosaic styles, the interlay or the, the overlay crochet, that is usually done in the round. This style is usually done back and forth in turned rows, like for blankets and scarves and things like that. And also, I just wanna mention too, for this style of crochet, if you wanna have a reversible piece where Like, if you're making a blanket and you wanna have stuff on the back, there are additional techniques that you can use to create that pattern on the back as you're working it up, which is very cool. That's just, like, another step in learning this, this process. So there is also that option, too.

So just, you know, if you're thinking, "Oh, I wanna make something, but I want it, I really want it to be reversible," you know, that's still an option for you even Although, even if you do it this way, the backside still looks nice. It's just kind of wavy stripes. I think it looks good. Okay, so those are the two, generally the two styles of mosaic crochet. So we've talked about tapestry crochet.

We've talked about mosaic crochet. and then I wanna talk a little bit about C2C, also known as corner to corner. So this style of crochet oh, Jennifer says, "Only just started in a mosaic." Well, welcome to the mosaic world, Jennifer. I bet it's fun, though, 'cause it's just kind of a magical moment once you finally, like When it clicks, and you're like, oh, this isn't actually that hard. Like, it, it takes a little while to understand what it is you're supposed to do, but once you get that, it's, you know, it's just really kinda, like, stress-free.

It's a very fun way to stitch stuff up. Oh, hi from Venezuela. Hello. Welcome.Let's see. Oh, and we have another person saying, "I'm just working up to mosaic.

Have no idea what to make." you could start with just like a little coaster or something like that. That would be really straightforward and small, just to kinda get you know, get oriented and kinda understand. Or, you know, if you're interested, y- this pattern is a free download if you are interested in making this cowl. and then we have also a, a, a video on the Creative Crochet Corner website with a full tutorial, if you're interested in that. Oh, we've got someone saying they love MJ's off-the-hook mosaic blankets.

I have the tree one started with plans to make the butterfly one they recently released. Oh, I haven't seen the new one. I, She does have some really great stuff, though, if you guys are interested in mosaic blankets. She's, yeah, very much immersed in the world of mosaic blankets. It's very impressive.

we've got, "I've been working making a Wayuu bag." Oh, okay. That's made with one of those drawstrings, but they are knitted in circular with two to six colors. Oh, okay. and is that in tapestry crochet, I wonder, those Wayuu bags? yeah, two to six colors.

Yeah, you- when you work in tapestry crochet, you can carry along a bunch of different colors and pull them out as needed and crochet over a bunch of them, and that makes a really thick, nice, sturdy bag. It's a really great way to, create that kind of fabric. Okay, so back to C2C, which is corner to corner. So this style of crochet, I feel like this had like a little crosh- crochet boom about, I don't know, like maybe five, 10 years ago. All of a sudden everyone was making all these cool corner-to-corner blankets and giant super scarves and things.

I'm just gonna grab this stuff over here. here we go. and sort of the I think the fun of it was that you're making these sort of giant pixelated things, and you're working in double crochet. The fabric is still very stretchy, has a ton of drape. it really just feels like a regular double crochet fabric.

but, but y- when you're working it up, you know, it is a, it's a very different technique. It's like normally you would look at this and think, "Okay, you go back and forth and turn rows and make little blocks of color," but you're actually working it corner to corner, which is where it gets its name. You're making something on the diagonal. Now, here's a little piece that's in progress that I have here. So you can see, and, and there are also sometimes lots of little ends to weave in.

I left those there on purpose just so that I could show you guys. that's one of the, in, in my This is just my opinion. In my opinion, there's a lot of ends to weave in on this particular kind of crochet, and you There are things you can do to kinda hide your ends as you go, somewhat, but And also to carry one color to the next, you can do that, s- you know, sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. this particular style of color work, I feel like it takes a lot more practice to feel like it's easy bec- unless you do something very, very simple. But if you're working on a larger piece, you know, it takes a little practice before you realize, "Oh, I can carry this yarn through this section and it's not gonna show, but I can't carry it in this section 'cause it will show." There's a lot more of those sort of like little nuances.

but basically to work this up, I'm a- actually gonna pull out this little piece that's in progress. let's see. I wonder if you guys can see that. It's a little too Oh, I know what I'll do. I'm just looking for a background here so, 'cause I have a white piece.

I'm just gonna pull this over here and there we go. Okay. So here I have in process, this is a little kitty. So this is my little kitty chart that I made here. This little guy.

and you can see, like normally when you are working it from a chart, like if you're doing tapestry crochet, you can see how it would be numbered one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Those would be the rounds you'd follow. You'd start here and work your way up. You're just kinda continuing across here, working in the round, as you get up to the top. Now, the difference between that and C2C, these are pretty much identical, it's just that the numbers are different.

So when you're working in C2C, you're actually starting at a corner. Let's see. Where'd my little highlighter go? There we go. You're actually starting at a corner, like right here.

This would be row number one, and you are working your way across in this direction usually. So you're making some stitches this way, some tall double crochets, and then you make some chains here and here, and then you make some double crochets here, and then you do a slip stitch and come up here and make some double crochets here. Then you do some chains and some more chains, and then you make some stitches here. See how I'm drawing these lines in different directions? actually, I don't know if that's showing up for you guys very well.

Let me trace them in pencil. So these are like individual stitches that you're making, little groups of double crochets. So for every little block, like say this eye, there's like three double crochets here and then a, a fourth one that gets kind of s- covered up in the next stitch. So, you know, what, when you're, when you're creating this Okay, so this is in process. We started here with this little block of stitches, okay?

And then we worked our way up doing some stitches here, some stitches here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.Here, here, here, here. So we're just And then now we're on this row where we're making stitches going in this direction. So here's some. You kinda climb up to the next step, make some more, climb up to the next step, make some more, and up to here. So let me just I mean, if that doesn't make any sense, that is okay.

I actually have, a video on how to make this scarf, on the Creative Crochet Corner website if you guys are interested in learning about that. so you can see that in a little more slowed down and in detail, but just so that you kinda have the general idea of how this comes together. I finished with this group of stitches. It was facing this way. Here, let me just back up.

We were making some double crochets right here like that, and when we've finished, we did our chain, and then when we finished our three double crochets, we're gonna chain, and then we turn our work this way, and then we can start working our double crochets for that next row. So this, this looks like it's not attached to anything, but w- we're gonna slip stitch it right here like that. Okay, so that's making our little block here. Now, the next block we're gonna fill in is right here, so we gotta chain our way up, and then we're making some double crochets here. And then we have to attach it to this little block here, but actually, I should be looking at what color that was supposed to be.

Oh, I was already supposed to change to black at this point, so I'm gonna back that up. And I'm gonna back that up and slip stitch it here and change to the black, which is already hanging out here. So we've got black nearby, so I'm gonna pull that through and change to the black. And then because there's this strand hanging out across back, I can crochet over it and hide it. See what I mean?

Like, sometimes you have to just be paying attention to where you can hide those extra little strands of things. and let me show you here. Here's what we're working on right here instead of looking at Yeah, okay. This is the right one. Okay.

So right now, we're right here. I just made that. This square is really this square, so this square is here. So the next square is black, black, black, and then we change to white. So here, we're making a black square.

I know it's gonna be really hard for you guys to see these stitches 'cause this is black here, but you can kinda see the color get filled in a little bit. We're gonna slip stitch, chain up, one, two, three, and then we're gonna fill in this little square. And slip stitch over here. Chain up one, two, three. And we're gonna fill this square in.

And I believe this is where we change to the white. Let's see. Let's just take a look. One, two, three, four, and then white. One, two, three, four, and then white.

Yep, so we're gonna slip stitch here, and we're gonna change that to the white. So we've got a white nearby, so we're gonna bring that on over and let there be just sort of a longer strand there, and then we just have to make sure we crochet over that to cover it up. So I'm crocheting over that strand on the back so that we don't see that. Okay, so you can see this is an unusual way of working our stitches. We're adding these, like, you know, one pixel, basically, if you look at it and think about it like a pixel, is a group of three chains and then three double crochets, okay?

So every time you have a little dot here, it's quite a few stitches count for that one dot. So, because of that, it is difficult to use C2C for really, like, detailed pictures or, or, you know, you have to keep them kind of simple, larger graphic kind of things that look good a little bit pixelated, or, you know, you can make things very large scale and get more detail into it. You know, if you're making a giant blanket, you have a lot more air, you know, pixels, so to speak, to, to play around with when you wanna get your design on there. If you're making something smaller like a hat, you really, you know, you'd really have to use some very fine yarn in order to get a lot of detail in there. so that is kinda one of the drawbacks, in my opinion, this is my opinion, one of the drawba- drawbacks of C2C is that you're, you're dealing with very large blocks of color.

Now, that may not be, just be not a problem. It is fun to do, and it is fun to see, you know, it's-Fun to work in that diagonal. It's a very un- you know, like that's a pretty unusual way of creating your, your pieces. You know, normally we just work back and forth into rows or work on the round. so it is fun to go back and forth and create these like step-by-step kind of thing, and, you know, to see this, like, a fairly large scale design develop, especially on a blanket or a l- super scarf or something that's like a larger scale project, those are really fun to do.

So I don't wanna discourage anybody from trying this out. It is a fun, it is a fun way to work with color, but also I do wanna, you know, just remind you that there are a lots of, there's potential for there being lots of little extra balls of yarn hanging from the back of your work because as you are working, there may be sections where, you know, you might be working white here, and you might not be able to carry it all the way through to over here because it would show between your stitches, so you'd have a separate ball of color for a separate section of yarn. You know, a separate sec- separate ball of color for a separate colored section, if that makes sense. You know, you might have a white ball here, some, a black, a ball of black here, and then another ball of white down here. So then you, you know, if you're doing something larger or has repetitions in it, you might have lots of balls of yarn hanging on the back of your work.

I do have some tips in my video where I talk about this and how to use like a little Ziploc bag with a clothespin taped onto it to, to, to, pin it to the back of your work to kinda like help organize that because sometimes those little balls of yarn in the, hanging on the back of your work can get really tangly, and it can be kind of frustrating. I think that that is one of the things that people get frustrated about this, this style of project the most. but, you know, you know yourself. If you're, you're kind of okay detangling a little bit of yarn, or maybe you just wanna do a smaller project, like something like this, you know, try it out and see how it feels. It is, it is really fun to do, so I don't wanna discourage anyone from doing it.

Okay, so that's my little explanation of what C2C is, so that's a form of colorwork. the next thing I wanna talk about Actually, let's just jump in. I, I meant to mention this at the beginning, you know, when I was talking about how colorwork can be anything really. You can do stripes. It can also be, colorwork can also just be made by, the stitch pattern you're using.

So, you know, for example, like the sweater I'm wearing or this bag, this is just a granny square, and it's like a super simple, beginner-friendly kinda project, but it's a great way to learn how to use color. And the types of stitches where you have stitches that kind of go down into another group of stitches, so they kind of intersect or bleed into each other a little bit like this, to me, that just like, really allows for, like, tying in more colors together that, especially colors that maybe you didn't originally think would necessarily go together, but it's a really fun way to play with color when they, they intersect like that. you know, it's just a very different look from stripes where you're kind of keeping those two sections of color completely separate. So there are other stitch patterns that are similar to this. I just wanted to point this out.

So, you know, normally when I think of colorwork, I don't, this doesn't come to mind right away, but I didn't, I wanted to mention this at this live event because if you are someone who really wants to play with color, try, try different things, but you're looking for something that's a little bit more straightforward, like it doesn't feel like you have to learn a whole new technique just to play with color, I just wanted to point this out. So, so it's just a little granny square project here. Another thing that looks similar to granny squares, this is like a linen stitch square, and I do, this is a live event, and it has a free download. These are called, let me think, Homestead Mittens, Homestead Mitts, I think. and they're just little fingerless mitts, but it's a really fun way to use up your scraps, and it's almost like a mini granny square in a way.

You're actually using single crochets and then chains between your single crochets, and then the stitches kinda m- sit down into each other. Like, you can see the green kinda comes down between those two pink stitches, and that's just kind of a fun way to tie together, like I said, colors that, it just make, makes your colors look like they belong together, I feel like, a little bit more, so you can really use a bunch of your scrap yarn. So I just wanted to bring this up just in case you're thinking about you'd really like to use color, but you're not really sure if you wanna use, like, make a whole, like, learn a whole new technique. this could be a way that you could do that. There's also other stitch patterns out there, like the Catherine Wheel, you know, and other sorts of stitch patterns, like the spike stitch.

I don't have examples of those here today, but those also use multiple colors, and they kinda, have a way of joining the colors together or, like, interspersing them, into So it's not just, like, solid lines of color. This is another example of that. This is just a variation on the moss stitch, and these mittens are, if you are a premium member of the Creative Crochet Corner website, you would have, access to this. This is like, it's ca- I called them the Snowdrift Mittens, but this is a stitch pattern that's a variation on the moss stitch, and you're only using one color at a time. It's not mosaic crochet, although it looks like it.

It's not tapestry crochet. You're just going around with one color and then going around with the second color, and switching back and forth. Basically, you're making stripes, but because of the s- the anatomy of each stitch you're using, 'cause you're alternating between half double crochets and slip stitches, it makes those colors kinda interplay and come together, you know, so that it looks like something really complicated, but it's secretly not, which, those are p- projects I always love. Okay, speaking of complicated, let's see. Oh, I just wanna check in.

Cheeky Sprite says, "I have started a blanket, but tutorial cuts off a row, and I'm not happy with cutting it."Oh, cuts, cuts end of row. Oh, okay. I'm not happy with cutting it, mosaic crochet that is. It's a pattern I bought from Tina. Oh, okay.

If I'm thinking of the same Tina, she does a lot of her stuff with the overlay crochet, that's this style, and then you have those yarn ends at the end. That's what I was talking about, like, when you're making a blanket, you can make a blanket in that, in this style, even though it's, really well-suited to working in the round. You can absolutely work it in turned rows, but then you do have those yarn ends at the beginning and the end. But you could maybe incorporate that into fringe, or you can also make a little pocket. I'm sure she has tutorials on how to finish that type of thing.

let's see. Oh, Yarnie Social, thank you. I'm glad you're here. Oh, is there a pattern for the pillow behind you? I'm gonna talk about that p- pillow in just a minute.

Thank you for reminding me that it was there, because I honestly forgot that it was there, and I probably would've forgotten to talk about it. Okay, but that's coming in a minute. Okay, so, the next thing I wanted to talk about was, Well, I guess I could talk about this, 'cause it's right here in front of my face. So, speaking of other k- oh, let me, let me, wait, wait, wait. I gotta conclude my talking about stitch patterns as being color work, right?

So there are other kinds of stitch patterns, like this one. This is going to be an upcoming tutorial I'm working on. I'm just finishing up the pattern on this one. So it's just a little bag, and it's got that retro flower. it's, it's, you know, some people call it a granny square, but it's like a motif.

and you're just, y- you're only using one color per round, but the way that you make your stitches in front of other stitches or around other chains of stitches or things like that, it, it brings those colors together. So there are al- also lots of options of things like this, motifs that involve different colors, you know, that's just part of the stitch pattern. And I, you know, normally this doesn't come to mind right away when I think crochet color work, but the, you know, you're using multiple colors, and you're making a beautiful motif, and anyone who doesn't crochet would have no idea what, that there's a different style of technique used to make these colors into this particular style and these colors into this particular style, you know? They wouldn't even know. So, anyway, I just wanted to point that out.

And another little quick thing, too, is there are certain stitch patterns that make it extremely easy to do cro- cross stitch on. So I've done a couple of these live events where, So this, this one is c- it's called Hot Dish, because I live in Minnesota, and certain casseroles we refer to as hot dishes. This is, like, a regional, silly, p- you know, Minnesota thing. but, you know, this, this particular stitch pattern, this is called the thermal stitch. And, I do have, Let's see, I don't think it's quite out yet, but I did make a video on how to create the, or how to work the thermal stitch, just a plain thermal stitch, which makes a very thick, sturdy fabric, which is great for pot holders, trivets, this is for my hot dish casserole pan.

but it makes this perfect little grid. If you look at it, there's all these, like, little perfectly proportioned stitches, and you can make X's in them in all those little kind of, like, divots or holes around the stitch. You could just think of that as being, you know, just, like, r- regular cross stitching fabric. Right now I'm blanking on what that is called, but anyway, I'm sure one of you guys knows. but you can just do cross stitching just like you would on fa- regular cross stitch fabric, you know, on this particular fabric.

Also, another fabric that does that very, very well is this Tunisian simple stitch. So this was a live event that I did, I don't know, a couple mother d- Mother's Days ago. This is just a cute little drawstring bag, and it's made in Tunisian simple stitch. And if you've never done Tunisian before, this is a really great beginner, project, because you don't need to get a special Tunisian hook. You can use a regular crochet f- hook and a rubber band to create the fabric for this, and I show you how in my video.

But once you create that fabric, it just makes a really amazing backdrop for creating cross stitch on. So that's what this is. All this little color work bits here, the leaves and the flowers, that was all just done with cross stitch. So this, you know, this would be something you could think about if you really wanna make something and you just wanna have, like, one little section of color and you're thinking, "How can I add that?" you know, maybe you make this in a Tunisian simple stitch or a thermal stitch, just depending on what, what it is that you're trying to make. and then you could just do a little cross stitching.

I, I've also seen people do this on just regular single crochet, worked back and forth in turned rows. I haven't tried that. It looks like I mean, you could definitely do it. Lots of people do it. I just feel like it's not quite as easy when you look at that fabric to know where your X's go, so that's why I'm highlighting these particular, these two stitch patterns for that.

but y- just, you know, if you, if you are more comfortable just doing single crochet work back and forth in turned rows, you can experiment with that as well for making your little X's. Okay, so couple more, couple more little techniques here. So this, this is, from a live event that I did. This is the Waves of Grain washcloth, dishcloth, can't quite remember what I named it. but this was, inspired by our longtime, viewer, Cindy, who is oftentimes in the comments.

She was asking for me to do something that was like swing knitting. And for those of you who are not knitters or not familiar with swing knitting, that is something where you are basically using this mathematical sequence to build up sections in short rows and then fill in another little section next to it in short rows. So you have, like, these little leaf-shaped or triangular-shaped, usually kind of organic-looking sections of different colors worked together. So-I experimented with that, and then I came up with this technique for, for crochet where you're basically just working back and forth and then there are some sections where you work a short row, which just means maybe you work to here, turn around, and come back and then you might work all the way down here. You know, you, you basically fill in certain areas, and then when you come in with the purple, you'd work across here.

Maybe you'd work some little short rows like this and then work your way back this way and come back. And then in gray, you'd go all the way across, back and forth, and maybe there's some short rows right here. Basically, you're using lengths of stitching that are don't go all the way across to fill in certain sections so you can kind of, like, prepare for having another section that you work, you know, in some short rows and add to it. So this is something that I have seen a couple of places, like a sweater and some blankets, maybe shawls, other people are doing in crochet. I have not, I have not looked at their patterns, so I don't know if they're made like mine or not, but it's probably something similar.

It looks like they're using short rows to create these little leafy, you know, like, little sections of leafy color. so that's another option as well. You're only using one color at a time. You know, it does require ha- probably It's, it's a lot trickier to come up with your own pattern for something like this. It's a lot easier to follow something that somebody else has already done, but if you're a mathematically inclined person, I do have a chart in this, and I do talk about how the chart works, so that if you're interested in learning how to do this or just making these, you can check out that live, live event or also the pattern download for those.

Okay, two more things. So we've got right here, this is something called interlocking crochet. So interlocking, also intermesh, also double filet crochet. So as crocheters, for some reason, we really like to have a lot of different names for the same thing, and i- it can be a little confusing sometimes. But what this is, this looks a lot like mosaic, right?

Like, at first when I started seeing this, I thought, "Oh, is that just, like, a different word for mosaic?" Because it really looks like mosaic, but it's not that. This is basically like creating two meshes, two meshes, one in each color, and sort of weaving them in and out of each other as you are creating both meshes at the same time. It sounds really crazy. It's not Once you understand how it works, it's not actually hard to do, but it is Again, this is another technique that I feel like is very hard to design your own motif. Like, it's easier to follow a pattern that somebody already has.

so what you have here, like in intermeshing crochet, you have a reversible, fairly thick, stretchy, really ni- I mean, this has just a really good feel to it. This would make a great sweater, blanket, scarf, and it's totally reversible. Now, so this one you can see it's the same- pretty much the same shapes on each side. Here we have, you know, the green is the pink and the pink is the green, if that makes sense. But the it's pretty much reversible, the same motifs, but this piece right here, this is completely different from one side to the other.

I'm gonna show you that one more time, 'cause I did not believe this when I first saw this. I was like, "What is this magic? I need to learn about that." So and I also left this open so you could see. This is the bottom, and so this is basically like this grid, this mesh that you're making. So we've got the orange mesh, and we have this sort of off-white mesh, and what you're doing is you're just working back and forth, and you're making double crochets and chains.

That's really all you're doing, but you have to know where to work in front of the other mesh and where to work behind it. So let me just show you how this works a little bit. Again, this is not, like, a real tutorial where you're actually gonna walk away thinking, like, "Oh, I totally get it," but, this will give you, like, the overview, and then you can kinda learn more about this. I am working on a project for the Creative Crochet Corner website, a scarf in this. So that will you'll see that eventually.

okay, so let's see. We're gonna start with this salmony color, and I have chain four to begin. Not that you need to remember that, but that's what this is. I've got, like, a little chain going, and that's gonna stand as a double crochet and a chain one. Then we're only working into the salmon color.

We're not gonna work into any of this light, sort of whitish tan color on this row. Okay, and I'm going to make a double crochet into the top of a double crochet. So here's a double crochet right here. I'm gonna work into the top of that, but I'm working behind this lighter-colored mesh for that first stitch. Okay, so there's my double crochet.

Now I'm gonna work in front of that mesh. So I'm gonna do a double crochet in the next This is a double crochet right here in that salmon mesh, okay? But we're gonna do it in front of this other color. So what that means is I have to insert my hook through here and kinda pull it through and make my double crochet. Oops, I forgot to do a chain one there.

Every time you make a double crochet, you gotta do a chain one. Okay, so here's my next double crochet, chain one, and now I'm gonna do one behind. Here's my next double crochet in the salmon, but I'm working it behind that mesh. And now I'm gonna work in front, which is right here. Oops, I v- again forgot my chain, you guys.

Okay, working in the front. Chain, working behind. Chain, working in front.Chain, working behind. So we're only ever working into the same color. Whoops, forgot my chain again.

Every time I open my mouth to talk, I'm forgetting chains, you guys. Okay, we're only ever working into the same color that we're using, and whether we're working And we're only ever working into the double crochets, okay? Into the tops of those double crochets. And, so we just have to basically keep checking to see whether we're working in front of the previous color or behind the previous color. So there's a behind.

Oops again, gotta get that chain in there. Chain one, working in front. Whoops. Chain one, working behind. Chain one, working in front.

All right, so I'm gonna get to my next color in just a second here so you guys can see how this really works. Chain one, working behind. Chain one, and then we're gonna work in front. And this counted on our last, you know, last round of the salmon, this counted as a double crochet and a chain one. Okay, so there we go.

So I'm gonna just put a stitch marker in here so that doesn't undo. And then we come across to the other color. So every time you do a row in one color from right to left, then you also do the second color from right to left, right after that, before you turn, turn your work. So this one, I started out with my chain four, and then I'm gonna start out by working behind, which is right here. Chain one and another behind.

Chain one in front. Chain one in front. Okay, so last time, we were basically going behind, in front, behind, in front. We were alternating. Now, we're doing two in the back, two in the front, two in the back, two in the front.

Okay? So just depending on what the geometric con- you know, design actually is, that's what's going to be driving whether you're, you know, whether you're placing your stitches in the back or in the front of that, previous mesh that you just made. So again, here Whoops, I forgot my chain. you know, we're still only working into that same matching color, and whether we work in front of or behind that salmon color, you know, that's what's going to be either covering up color, like see how that cover- covers up that salmon color because it's going in front of it? Or if you go behind it and let that color show through here, you know, that's, that's basically what's creating that geometric, th- those, that motif, that geometric design.

Okay? So this isn't tricky to do, it's just, you just have, it's just a different technique, and you have to kinda get in the rhythm of it and just kind of, once you start making stitches and learning how to manipulate that, you know, if you're trying to work something behind, yeah, I'm trying to work a double crochet right here, but I gotta go behind this, but yet insert my hook to the front. You know, you just kinda have to get some like different motions down as to, to get it to go in the right spot and to get ev- everything to work smoothly, but it's really super worth learning this one because it's so fun. It's very different from Like at first I thought, "Oh, this is just gonna be like another version of mosaic. Like, why do I need to learn this?" but it really isn't the same.

It l- might look similar, but it's cool that you can have two very different looking geometric patterns, one on one side and one on the other, and it also just has so much stretch, you guys. Like, stretch and squishiness. it just makes a really, it would make a really great blanket, especially a scarf, I feel like. So this, this is, that's what I'm gonna be working on. I'm gonna be working on that for you guys, making a scarf.

Okay, so let's talk about the pillow. Thank you much, so much for reminding me. Okay, this is the last thing. I wanted to talk about Okay. Oh, we've got a, "This mesh looks very interesting." Yes, I thought so too.

Like, it's just kind of fascinating, right? And it's, it's not, that's, the intermeshing crochet, interlocking crochet, double filet crochet, whatever people wanna call it, it just doesn't seem like it, there's that many people doing it. And I think part of it is it's a little trickier to figure out the pattern, but also it's a little harder, like, it's des- harder to design in that pattern and to know what the geometric shapes are gonna look like. so that's, you know, you kinda have to just get like a stitch dictionary for this or a project book for this. but it is a very fun and interesting thing to work on.

Okay, so back to the pillow. So this is called intarsia crochet. So this pillow, I made this pillow in my in, Learning Intarsia Crochet, a Creative Approach to Colorwork class. So that's available on the Creative Crochet Corner website if you're interested in making this pillow. But basically, the whole kind of reason you'd want to use intarsia crochet is if you have large blocks of colorSo large, separate blocks of color.

Like, a lot of the stuff we've been talking about here, except for the cross stitching, are very distinct, separate, like, you know, two d- two different colors, but they're like a geometric pattern, maybe a repeating pattern or something, where you're going back and forth and back and forth between the same two colors, for the most part, but this, this is different. We have, you know, like, a large block of pink here. We've got this purple here. It doesn't go all the way across. So this is a style of colorwork where you just have a separate ball of color, and you, once you work your way across, you switch to the other ball and let the one ball just hang, and you work your way back, you can switch your balls of yarn again and come back to this color.

So what that means is you have to have a separate ball of color for every It's kind of like C2C, actually, where there's different groups of color. If something's interrupting it and you can't carry the color through, which, I mean, you can do that. That's, like, not really, f- I don't know what the word is, but, like, it's not, it's not really, like, just intarsia if your color, if you're carrying a color along. Intarsia, you don't carry the color. However, having said that, I do carry the color sometimes in li- short little spots when I'm working on a generally intarsia project.

So I feel like this is where all the things that you learn about colorwork kind of come together, and you can use whatever tool it is that you know how to do and how to manipulate color if, whether you're carrying it with you and doing a tapestry crochet kind of thing for just a minute in here, or you're just strictly dropping the color, changing to another color, and working in intarsia. You know, you can use multiple things on the same project that you're working on. So this is, like It's great to know multiple different ways of doing things. So I wanna show you basically how this works in action. This is my last thing to show you guys today, so if you have any, other questions, pop them in there so I can see, or any suggestions or, you know, suggestions for future classes or, or tutorials.

All right. So here, I am making a star. Let's see. Did I bring my chart? I did.

Here is my chart. I know it's purple, but I know you guys have imaginations. We're just making it in blue. So each square here represents a stitch, and I'm working from my chart, and I'm most of the way through here. I'm right here on row number 15.

So I'm working this amount. Let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight single crochets. I already did two, three, four, five, six, seven, and then here is where I wanna switch colors, so I'm gonna drop that color, pick up the new color, yarn over with the new color to change color for the next stitch, and do three stitches in this color. One, two, three. And in, in in- in intarsia, you don't carry that color along.

You don't crochet over it. You just leave it over here, and that might seem weird for this short of a space. You could certainly ca- carry it across if you really wanted to, but, like, intarsia purists would probably be like, "That's not intarsia," but you know what? We're all in charge of our own crochet, right? It doesn't matter what other people think.

But, but the reason we don't carry it through is 'cause there are sections like this where you've got a lighter color and then blue and then a lighter color. If you carried it all the way across there, it probably would show, and it also would affect the stretch of the fabric a little bit. So generally, you just have a separate ball of yarn. Here, let me show you the back of this. You have a separate ball of yarn for each section of color.

So here on the back, we've got this lighter color. That's this section. We have the blue. That's this section that I'm working on here, and then we have another ball over here of this lighter color. That's for that section, okay?

So we worked our way across. Oh, and I sh- I should have changed Who noticed that I didn't change the top of my stitch to this color when I finished it? I should have. Okay. And now we're ready to continue in that lighter color.

So one thing about working in intarsia, you know, working back and forth, o- oftentimes you will see this done in single crochet, for the most part. You can use other stitches, though, if you prefer. but single crochet seems to be most people's go-to when doing this. so oftentimes when you see, when you see these, projects done in single crochet, like the tapestry crochet that have a lot of details and that sort of thing, there are sections that are done in a- intarsia, and there are sections where you might wanna just color the, co- ca- carry the yarn through, and that's I'm just here to tell you that that is okay. For a long time, I felt like I should never do that, and I, I've, like, you know, realized over time nobody's gonna be checking my work.

They're gonna think it looks great. It's completely fine. So, so usually you'll see this in, in single crochet working back and forth, and you might notice that there are areas here that look a little bit messy. Like, you can see there's a lighter color sticking into this color. They're kind of, like, bleeding into each other a little bit, whereas this line looks very straight.

Like, it looks like there's a good division between the blue and this tan color here, but then if you look at, you know, one of these lines, like this one here or this one, this one, it just doesn't It looks, like, a little bit messier. So-The, the lines that go to the right, that, that kind of angle to the right, those look very tidy, and the ones that angle to the left might look a little messy. There are techniques that, I have learned and also developed some of my own techniques for making this look much neater and tidier as you're stitching. Like, you can place your hook in a different place. There's areas where you can do, like, kind of a, sort of like a decrease almost.

and I do talk about that in my class for colorwork, so if you guys are interested, if you've worked in this before Sorry, for the Intarsia colorwork, I should say. If you guys have used Intarsia before, or if maybe you've looked at it and thought, "I don't think I wanna do that because it just doesn't look very clean here for these edges," then you might be interested in taking that class, because I do go through That was something that bothered me for a long time, so I really had to go through and figure out what it was about it that I could, like, things I could change and tweak a little to make those lines look a little bit more smooth, and, like, there's a sharper division between the two colors. So I did explore that quite a bit in my class. it's not anything hard. It's just, you know, you just have to, you just have to go through d- some different exercises to kinda learn how to deal with, with those, little areas.

So, all right. Let me just check in here. Okay. "Is there a chart for the mesh or just written instructions?" There is no chart. Now, I have looked and looked and looked to see if anybody has been making charts for the intermeshing or this type of crochet that I was showing you.

I have not seen any charts. Now, I mean, I don't know everything about crochet, obviously. There's a lot I don't know. so maybe it does exist and someone's able to do it, but I think it's gonna be something that's really hard to chart, because you have to chart two different meshes and show which one's coming through. It I just, I'm Like, I'm a chart person.

I love working from charts. I think that makes things so much easier, and that is, in my opinion, one of the drawbacks of this style of crochet, because I can't work from a chart to work up the stitch pattern. I just have to work from written directions. So that is something that I'm gonna be exploring in my, you know, 'cause I can't help it. I love making charts.

I wanna make charts 'cause it makes it easier for me to teach, easier for me to learn, easier for me to design things. and I, yeah, I just feel like charts are so important, but I cannot As of yet, I have not figured out a way to chart this type of thing. It's just complicated to figure out how to make a chart out of it. There's probably a way, though. Okay.

Oh, and Debbie says, "I would like to see a tutorial on gloves with fingers." Okay. I'm, I have not I don't know if I've ever designed gloves with fingers, which is kinda crazy. Okay. Thank you for that suggestion. I'll put that on my list, Debbie.

Okay. Thank you guys so much for being here. I know this was a lot. I hope that this was helpful and that you guys have some, you know, good ideas now on where you'd like to start with colorwork, and some tech- different techniques to explore, and I hope you guys have fun, just, like, dabbling in all these different styles. Because it's really great to know how to do many different things here, because sometimes you'll have an idea for a project, and if you know how to do different styles of colorwork, that'll help you figure out, like, where to start, right?

So thank you guys for being here. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you guys you being patient through my kinda raspy voice and for me being out sick for a while. but I'm glad that I'm back, and I'm glad I got to hang out with you guys. Bye, everyone.