You've read my openning statement and you first thought, "what is hair-pin crochet?"
It's an old fashion way of crochetting. My second mom taught me a long time ago.
It uses this.
I don't know what it's called and it's hard to find in stores. First, I don't know the proper name. Second, it's such an old technique, not many people have heard of it.
How do you use it?
Simple.
First, buy wool. Don't ask me what kind of wool or thickness or anything. When I was doing this, I went to the store, bought chunky wool that was soft and I liked the colour. I usually used washable kinds (if you read the paper holding the wool, it will tell you). To make a blanket you need about 8-10 big balls depending on size. You can use different colours but make a total of 8-10 balls.
Baby blankets use less wool and generally much softer wool is used.
Second, the crochet hook. The wool will tell you what size to use. I usually ended up with a 5.00 to 6.00mm hook, just because that is what I had. I've seen as big as 10mm used. It seems the bigger the hook, the slightly more holey it is.
The 5.00mm
The 10.00mm
Third, decide how big the holes in your blanket are going to be. If you want to make a baby blanket, smaller holes are better. If you are making one for an adult, bigger holes are fine.
The closer the two rods are together, the smaller the holes.
Hence, further apart, bigger holes.
The further apart, the less time it takes. You are making more. Less time doesn't necessarily mean better blanket though.
Once you have all these things decided, you can start to make the blanket.
The StrandsLoop the wool around the rods and tie a knot. Leave some wool dangling to weave back into the blanket.
I put a saftey pin at this point in the hoop to help with counting.
Once the first loop is created, turn the rods so that the wool is starting to make a hoop on the opposite side. Put the crochet hook through the first hoop and pull the wool through.
Loop the wool around the hook and pull through.
Now you have a loop on the hook.
* Turn the rod again. Put the crochet hook through the hoop and pull the wool through. Put the wool over the hook again and pull through both loops, leaving one on the hook.*
Repeat. Continue until you have the desired hoops.
Note: You can start to weave in the ends at the bottom if you want (once you get the hang of the technique)
Count the hoops on one side, until your desired amount
For baby blankets, make about 125-150 loops on each side. For adult blankets, there should be about 250 loops on each side. The number you choose should be divisable by 3. (For an adult blanket, it will be either 249 or 252 hoops to make it divisable by 3.)
Tip: I find it easy to keep the marker about every 50 hoops. Past 50, it's hard to count.
When finished, pull the wool through the loop on hook. Cut off leaving about 4 inches.
Take off rods. You will get this long loopy thing, we'll call them strands, that is the length of your blanket but by far the width.
Make many of these strands.
Putting The Strands Together.When you think that you may have enough, you can start attaching them together. If you think you need to make the blanket bigger, you can always just make more.
Take two long strands from the bottom.
Put three loops from one on the crochet hook.
Pull three hoops from the other strand through the first three.
Pull three hoops from the other strand through these three. Continue until you run out of loops.
Tip: As you add strands together, alternate the side you start with. Example, if you started with the left side with the first two, the second addition should start with the right. This will keep the blanket straight.
Keep adding your strands together.
When you think that the blanket is big enough, you have to make sure it doesn't come apart.
The Sides.The sides are just like putting two strands together but you only have the one strand.
Put three hoops on your hook.
Pull the next three hoops through the first three.
Continue up the side.
Until you have the entire side is done. Finish the other side of the blanket the same way.
Continue up each side.
The Top and Bottom.The top needs to be tied off. Tedious but it needs to be done otherwise all your strands may come apart.
Once this is done, your blanket won't come apart.
Start with one end and work your way over. The point is to tie off the three hoops from when you put the strands together.
Take the long piece of wool at the top of each strand and tie it to the loops.
It's just a knot.
Continue to the next set of loops.
The two ends are the trickiest but look at the wool and see what makes the most sense to make a flat top part.
Continue all the way across until all the hoops have been tied off.
Cleaning up the blanket.Using a tapestry needle,
Weave the left over threads into the blanket.
Finishing The BlanketI first learned to make tassles at each end. Cut wool to equal length, a couple peices. The length depends on how long you want your tassle. Pull through a hole where the beginning of each strand. Tie into knots.
Alternatively, cos I don't like tassles that much. I kinda chain an edge. I'm hoping that learning to normally crochet, I will come up with a better solution.
I take the wool make a loop on the crochet hook, put it through a hole in the top of the blanket, wrap the wool around the hook and pull through both loops. Find another hole and do it again.
Posted by PicasaThe first row is hard, the second row is easier and the third row makes it nice. When finished, cut the wool, leaving about 4 inches from end. Pull the wool through the loop, making a knot. Weave the last piece into the blanket.
Finished. One blanket.
Time. I count on about 60 hours into each blanket. It's great while watching movies or television!
As you can see, there are no real patterns. There's is no definite anything. You make loops on the rod. You make them as long or short as you want them. You attach them together to make the blanket as big or small as you want. Any material can be used.
The catch: The only thing I can make with hair-pin crochet is scarves and blankets.
Hence, learning how to do more than one stitch.
