Just a few news! As you can see I moved, I am also trying to save all the comments made on the blogger-blog, not an easy task because I messed up once... I also joined this Crochet along. Loads of fun!

So I went through my stash and found nothing satisfactory, so I'm buying some (more) yarn this afternoon, mercerized cotton or rayon, I'm not sure yet, fitting for a number 3 hook (that would be US size D).
This morning, I wrote down the scheme and side notes, because I seldom crochet at home, and when I crochet I'm not in front of my computer.
Can't wait to start !

Finally got the yarn : bamboo from "la droguerie". It is too expensive for me to tell the price, I hope it's worth it!
Now serious things begin!

Follow up:

I'm in the middle of D1 and things are going smoothly.
I decided to crochet in rows this part so that I would have a front (or back) opening in my skirt, I never can tell which size I will be in the winter
I have 14 repetitions of 12 (counted three times!) so all is for the best!
I had some concerns about the *chain 3 skip 2 stitches, 2dc in the 2 following stitches* part but it seems to be ok, I just make sure I crochet the chains tightly, and they are actually as wide as 2 dc.

This yarn is evenly to crochet, I'm having loads of fun!

Now the bad news : my first skein ended before the end of row 5 !!! I crochet with a 3 mm, is it normal? I bought 450g I hope there'll be enough!

Some of us are finding it difficult to follow the graphs. It's quite simple though...
I is for double crochet

. is for chain stitch

+ is for single crochet

. is for slip stitch


you work in rounds so you must
1 - fasten the previous row with a slip stitch
2 - replace the first stitch of the row as follows :
double crochet : 3 chain stitches
single crochet 1 chain stitch

am I forgetting something?
I hope this helps!

My opinion is, when you are used to crocheting, you know about those things ( "fasten the previous row with a slip stitch" for instance) so you don't really need to be told that again and again, that's why I find re-drawing the pattern helpful, I mentally adjust the graph to what I need to do and make some sidenotes. No biggy believe me. You should try.

I once stumbled upon this site that explains how to read crochet graphs
granny's garret

As or me, I could never be a pattern slave, I just can't make myself read instructions, it's too boring
Graphs rule

I'm in the middle of D2
I found a way to avoid the gap you have here :

.++III...

you know, when you chain 3 to replace the first double crochet, there's a gap between chain three and double crochet, so instead of chain three I crochet one single crochet followed by chain 2. The gap doen't show at all...
To connect D2 to D1, you see how in D2 for every row you have a void space ( .++ ) that equals 3 dc, 25 dc then 6 chain stitches.
In your last row you crocheted 2 sc, this is your void space, now you have to sew the 25 dc of the first row on to the 25 dc following this void space and up to the first 3 chain stitches of your last row ... then you're back on your feet...
I don't know the name of the sewing stitch I used in English... In French it's a "point de surjet"

NOTE: Because we are working in rounds, you need to make a few sl st at the beginning of each row, so that 4 dc are always ABOVE 3 ch. Starting row2, when making 4 dc, insert the hook UNDER 3ch.
I just finishes D2 and started what I think you call "preparation row", that is the row of single crochet, my problem is if I crochet 6sc+6sc+6sc etc... right on the loops of D2, I lose the nice indented effect of the curves between the loops. I think it's unbecoming.

I decided to just skip it and go right ahead to D3, it looks ok and I like it better

I'm in the middle of D3, so you're not alone!
I was already up to row 3 when I thought I should try the skirt out! I did well, because I had forgotten something : I have BUTTS, and those scoundrels would not fit into D3, so I frogged it and tried chain 4 instead of chain 3, it worked for the 2 first rows, and I thought I had rather crochet chain 5 from there, because that's where my butts get... buttier

also, when I reach the last chains of a row, I substitue a treble crochet, so that I don't have to work slip-sitching my way pass the square to the next chains.

So, crocheting in rounds from right to left, instead of :

IIII°°°IIII*°°°IIII

I would crochet :

IIII°°°IIII¨¨IIII

where
¨¨and I are double crochets
° is a chain stitch
* is a slip stitch

I find it quicker... As a matter of fact, I finish the row with a double crochet in the head of the first double crochet of the row, instead of three chains and a slip stitch in the head of the first double crochet of the row, this way, I don't need to slip-stitch forward to the next 3 chains, nor do I need to turn the work .

Svetlana designed an alternate version of D4 :

Here is the row by row of my version of D4. It is worked in rounds.

• R1 : 4dc into the ch, 4dc into 4dc of prev row.
• R2 : 7 triple crochet (trc) (ch4 and count as first trc), ch2. (make sure that 7 trc are evenly above 4dcs that are made into the chain. This will be the base of our triangles. You must have an even number of 7trc)
• R3 : 6trc (again evenly above 7trc of prev row), ch3.
• R4 : 5trc, ch4.
• R5 : 4trc, ch5.
• R6 : triple crochet cluster (*yo 2 times, insert hook, yo, draw thru a loop, draw thru 2 loops, yo, draw thru 2 loops* - 2 loops on hook now, repeat from*to* 2 more times : 4 loops on hook, yo, draw thru all 4 loops (trc cluster made), ch10.

It will look like this:

Here's the original D4 + D5

I'm now into D4, when I saw pictures of the skirt, I noticed the triangles weren't evenly laid under the last row of squares of D3, that bothered me a little bit, so when I redraw the graph, I made a few changes.

In Svetlana's suggestion, you have a row of 7 trebles, so either you skip one double crochet from previous row, to keep the layout even, or you don't and well, they are not laid evenly.
So I thought I would do that:

Now you have row of 8 trebles that are even and the 2-treble-culter in the middle makes it possible to have a smooth decrease to achieve the triangle. At least this is how I am going to do it, and finish in row 6 with clusters of 4 treble crochets (instead of 3).

From row 2 of D4 I decided to work in front post treble crochet, to make the triangle stand out better. Before that,with the type of yarn I use, the triangle was looking too gappy to my liking.
I hope I will finish it in time to attend my cousin's wedding with it (but just in case I started sewing an alter dress, but this is another story)

I'm starting D5, just decided to skip row1, will see if it's o-k or o-frog!

I've crocheted two rows and it looks fine! One thought just crossed my mind : we don't have a CAL gallery !!! we should have one! No, we MUST have one!!! What say you?

I did it!!!

here it is :

http://pyogazel.free.fr/pepe/



our gallery! what do you think? do you like it!
I even made a button!

I thought it could be a good idea to specify for each picture the type of yarn and hook size used, as well as the total amount of yarn needed... maybe I could link to a page summerizing instructions and graphs... any other suggestions?

I just finished D5 it went quickly!

Svetlana wrote row by row instructions for D6 :

Here is our D6:


·R1 - 10trc into chain3, ch3, sc under ch7, 7trc into ch3, ch3, sc under ch7 and so on.You will have 10 trc as base for the fans, and 7trc as base for the pineapples.
·R2 - *trc, ch1,*9 times, trc, ch3, *trc, ch1*, 6 times, trc, ch3, and so on.
·R3 - *trc, ch1*, 9 times, trc, ch3, *sc into ch3, ch3*, 4 times, total 5 arcs of ch3.
·R4 - *trc, ch1*, 9 times, trc, ch3, *sc into ch3, ch3*, 3 tines, total 4 arcs.
·R5 - *trc, ch2*, 9 times, trc, ch3, *sc into ch3, ch3*, 2 times, total 3 arcs.
·R6 - *trc, ch2*, 9 times, trc, ch3, *sc into ch3, ch3*, 1 mote time, total 2 arcs.
·R7 - *trc, make a picot as follows: [ch4, insert hook into 3rd ch from hook, yo, draw thru both loops, yo, draw the loop] - picot made, repeat to the end of fan, ch3, sc into ch3, make picot, sc into ch3, ch3. Repeat till the end.

Note: each new round make ch4 and count as first trc. Again, look carefully at the diagram, do not blindly follow the instructions and make adjustments as you go.
And here is how it looks:

I've almost finished row 2 of D6 and I am facing a dilemna:
I've only got one skein left and I was really feeling like crocheting a matching top for the skirt... I won't have enough yarn to do so if I finish D6

What shall I do?





Oh! Well! I'll just buy more yarn

almost done!

Done!



I intend to wear a light cotton underskirt with it, it's not really finished, I'm still working on the i-cord (it's so tedious, I almost regret that choice for my draw-string)
I decided to skip the picots, I only kept the one on top of the pineapple, in order to save yarn and have a less... girly (I can't believe I'm saying that) and simpler look. I also noticed the fan didn't lay flat until I add more stitches between the trebles (so from row3, chain 2 instead of 1, 4 instead of 3, etc...) .