Crocheting With Multiple Strands Of Yarn

Okay, so I am going to show you how to work with multiple strands of yarn for a project that calls for it. So, this was kind of a request because my owl basket pattern that you can see on the screen, it works with the recommended yarn with four strands of bulky weight yarn. And, it works with a pretty small hook for those four strands. The reason that the hook is so small is because you want really tight stitches for your basket so it's stiff and stands up on its own. You can definitely switch to a bigger hook or less strands. It's going to change the size, but it's not going to make a huge difference if you don't mind your basket being floppy when it's not filled up, not a big deal. But if you're trying to go for the same look that I have in the picture, you're going to want to do the same size yarn and hook. So my hook is a 10mm. Go off of the millimeter size, not the letter. Manufacturers make different letters for their hooks. Why, I do not know, but the millimeter will always be the same. So anyways, let's get started. I'm also going to show you how to work with Two strands and also a different size hook, so something that's bigger, so for example my golden gate scarf, necklace scarf, that uses a couple strands of yarn and a larger hook to create more drapey stitches, but let's start off with this one since this seems to be the popular one to know about. So I'm just going to do the first couple rounds of my basket. So what we're going to do is I like to just kind of lightly knot. my four strands, just to get them started. Now if you're using the recommended yarn, you're going to have two hanks of yarn. So you're going to do a center pull ball. So for example, this is just a green skein, but you can pull from the center and then the outside one, you can see I've wound this up, but you're going to pull at those at the same You want to do it at the same time so that it unwinds and you can work your stitches. Same thing with the hank, you're going to create a center pull ball, so if you have a yarn winder that's going to do it for you automatically. If you have to wind it by hand, check out my tutorial for center pull balls, because it'll show you how to do it. Alright, where's my... Here we go. So the first instructions for the owl basket is to work eight half double crochets with a magic adjustable loop. So with my magic adjustable loops I always grab my yarn with two hands, here's my tails, and I turn down with the hand that's holding the loop so they cross over. Then I'm going to reach through and grab all that yarn and bring it to the front. Now, there's a few things that you can do to make it, see how my balls are rolling around now, to make life a little easier for you if you want. You can take all of your balls and kind of twist them around to get kind of a loose ply. So if you want to do that, you can always do that beforehand. Start working a ply through it. I don't even bother. I just start working my stitches. But I do like to do a slip stitch when I do my magic adjustable loop. So it's just kind of like working a really loose ply of yarn. You just kind of got to keep track of all of your loops as you're pulling them through. Turning your hook down at your stitch will help you pull through all the loops on your hook. So that is a huge help for any kind of stitch. So I'm going to start, I'm going to pull up my loop a little bit so I have more room for For my half double, I'm going to yarn over, go through the center, Grab my yarn, pull it up. So now I've got tons of loops, technically only three, but really 12 that I have to work through. So I'm keeping a hold of all those. I'm yarning over. Turn that hook straight down and pull through. Sometimes you're going to get stuck on some of the yarn. Wiggle it a little bit. You can see I kind of go back and forth, and then I can get through all of those loops. As I work, You'll see, at a normal speed, I kind of go through each group of four one time, or one at a time, one at a time. So again, pull up that loop, yarn over, turn your hook down, kind of check that you got through the first four, go through the next four, and through the next four. So it just takes a little extra time, but... Look at how large my stitches are, this basket is only like 26 rounds, it works up really quickly because we're using all these strands together, and it's really sturdy and stiff because we're using this small hook. Now if I switch to a large hook, let me pull this out, I'll do, I got this, I think this is a Q hook, yes, my Q hook, this is used for like really fast afghans, so it's really If I use the larger hook, you can just pull this out. I like to weave in each strand individually rather than using all four at the same time at the end. So just unknot that, that's why I made it lightly knotted. So you can see if I do this large hook, I get an even larger stitch. It's easier to work, but it's real flimsy. You can just see from how these look nice and tight to how loose this is. So I can make life easy with a Q, a Q hook, I don't even know what my, this doesn't even have a marking for what millimeter, but you can make life easy with a bigger hook, but your stitches The stitches are going to be a lot more loose. So I'm going to continue with these eight stitches so you can see how to get into round two. And it's, you know, I have to take my time doing these as well, even as many times as I've made this basket and how many times I've worked with this many strands, I still, pretty much every single stitch, I work through each group of four as one. I do group of four, group of four, group of four. One, two, three, so we're gonna do seven and eight and close up our loop. And the tighter you make these stitches the stiffer your basket will be or the stiffer whatever kind of project project project whatever project you're making that's um it will be as stiff as you can make these stitches. So if you're going to substitute yarn so I have eight stitches now so I'm gonna close this up if you're gonna substitute yarn say you're only gonna use two strands of yarn too bulky Change your hook size. Get a hook that makes life almost difficult to work your stitches, where you are hating it, but it's going to make a really tight, tight basket, and you can see how thick this is. This is really, it's almost as thick as my thumbnail, so it's a very thick weave, very stiff. So once we finish that first round, because we're working in a spiral, you go back one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's where we need to put our next stitch. We yarn over, we're doing two stitches in each one around. Again, kind of wiggle your hook to get through, and you can see I missed one of my strands. So if you want to get this just perfect, get through all of those strands. It's probably not going to be that noticeable, but just so you can see how it works. And then start pulling those stitches through and I am pulling with like lots and lots of force because I want these stitches really tight because you can see that I am like barely letting My yarn get to my shaft. And you're going to feel it when you get stuck. You can see that one piece of yarn was pulling. You'll feel it if you get stuck on one strand as you're going through. Just stop and then go back a little bit and pull your hook through that strand that's caught. So, when you're working these stitches, notice I'm keeping, I'm pulling this like really tight so that my loops stay that 10mm size. So I'm not pulling out my loops real tall. If you pull out your loops like this when you're making it, think of amigurumi. That's what we're doing. It's just basket instead of stuffed animal. If I pull my loops out really tall, even if I'm using a 10mm, look at how big that stitch is. That's almost like my Q hook stitch. So you've got to keep your stitches really, really tight if you want a really stiff basket. So pull real tight, get through there. So do that all the way around and just keep following the pattern and keep those stitches tight and you'll have a nice stiff basket. Now, so if we're just working, let me use this green here if I can find my ends again. If you're just working a project and you want to get it done quicker, Like a blanket, using a couple strands of yarn at the same time is really handy because it's going to make those stitches bigger, but you'll finish quicker, so it's if I use this 10 millimeter on this two strands of yarn you'll see that I'm going to have much larger stitches than I would that if I just did one strand of yarn. So as you see even with small yarn you still You can have that problem of having your hook needing to go through all those strands. So point your hook down and take your time, especially with this chain, but we're going to start working some single crochets in here. So keep an eye on your strands as you're working. Remember, turn your hook down, pull through, it's a lot easier with the bigger hook, but But you can see that my stitches are going to be really airy. So what is this good for? This is really good if you want a really drapey type fabric. So if you use a really big hook. You can get a drapey type fabric, but the double strands will help fill in the gaps. So if I just did this with one strand and used this hook, it would be really holey. It'd be great drape, but really holey. The double strands kind of fills in some gaps, makes it a little bit more dense, but still it drapes really well. You can see how much just this one row, how well it drapes. Types. Type. A tight, small hook. It would be really rigid and flat and wouldn't bend at all. So that is how you're going to work with multiple strands of yarn. So remember just turn your hook down when you pull through. Take your time. Do little groups of whatever strands you're working with. So groups of four if you're doing the basket. Pull through four at a time and just have some patience and keep those stitches really tight if you want a stiff basket but thanks for watching.