Hooded Scarf Free Crochet Pattern Workshop Part 2 ~ Crochet Along Easy Pattern

Alright, I have worked this whole row all the way almost to the end. I've got a couple of stitches left. I wanted to leave the stitch marker and so you could see how helpful it is. I stopped my work and I put my stitch marker in my loop, and this keeps it from pulling out. So if I accidentally pull on my working yarn, I'm not going to lose any stitches. So that's another benefit of stitch markers, especially locking ones. I just wanted to show you that before I finish off this row. So I have, looks like, two stitches left. Remember, it's not super important that you have 165 on this project. Leaving off one or two is not going to affect the overall outcome. So if you're not sure about the last bottom bump, if you're supposed to work into it, it's your choice. If it's really small and you want to skip it, that's fine. If you definitely want to work into it, that's fine also. It's not going to affect anything because there's not... This isn't a stitch pattern that needs a certain number of stitches to be able to work right. That's one of the beauties of this pattern. You can alter it very easily. So, oops, I split that a little bit. If you split your yarn when you're inserting your hook, just pull it out and take the time to put it back through. You can see I was just grabbing those two. I want to get all four plies. And a ply is just how many twists are in the yarn. If I untwisted this, you would see that I had four strands of yarn. Okay, so I have finished my last double crochet. Now we are going to turn our work and begin row two. So if you are one of the people that did the foundation double crochet, now is the time to pay attention because we are starting the new part. So to begin your row, you're always going to chain three and that's going to count as your very first double crochet throughout this entire project. Now if you find that your chain three is looking very skinny compared to your nice thick double crochets, what you can do is beef them up. That's what I call this beefing them up. It's not trademarked or anything, but all you're gonna do is just pull out the yarn a little bit before each chain and it's gonna make a taller chain three, but it's also going to make a wider chain three Which is the beefing up part when I go to do my double crochet in the very next stitch Because this is a chain three that counts as a double crochet and that means that this very first stitch that I would normally work into, I'm not going to. So if you turn your work sideways and you look at your V's, this is your first stitch right up here at the top. I don't work into that because that chain three represents the first double crochet that would normally go there. So I'm going to work into the very next one. And I'm also only working in the back loop. And the back loop just means which one is in the back when you're facing the project the correct way at you. So this loop right here is your front loop. This one that's in the back is your back loop. If you're looking at it as a V, it's your left stitch. So this is your back loop. So when I insert my hook through that back loop only, and I do my double crochet, it's going to squash down my chain three so it looks thicker and more like a regular double crochet. So let's talk about the back loop again. If you need to, turn your work sideways and look for your next set of Vs. It's going to be the left V or the loop that is further from you, the one in the back. Now, an easy way to work under that so you're not having to sit there and pick through it and everything, if you just stick your hook right in the center of that stitch and push down, you're going to catch that back loop very easily. Then you're going to lay over or yarn over and pull up the loop. Remember, push your loops to your shaft and it's going to give you nice, even stitches. As you can see, throughout my whole row, all of my stitches are the same height without any blocking necessary, and that's because I keep my stitches the same size as my shaft. After a few rows, you're going to see how rectangular my project is without any blocking being necessary. If you're not sure what blocking is, I'll explain that later on near the end of the project But for now we're just working in this back loop only, go right in the center and push down. I kind of caught part of the front loop that's why I was having a little trouble. Yarn over, pull up the loop, pull through the first two, yarn over, pull through the second two. And this is a super easy project because all you're doing is back loop only stitches. As you can see I moved my finger over behind the stitch and sometimes if the stitches are a little tight I find Red Heart yarn is sometimes a little bit squeaky to use, you'll hear squeaks every once in a while when you're crocheting with it because it's a little scratchy. If you put your finger there when you're pushing through, it kind of helps guide you to catch that back loop. With any stitch over a double crochet and over, you're always working off in groups of two. So I push through, yarn over, or lay over as I like to say, pull up the loop, push to the shaft Yarn over, pull through the first two, yarn over and pull through the second two. Now I'm going to keep on going all the way across and I'm going to meet you up at the end of this row so we can go over how to do the double crochet into the chain three that we have all the way down here. So I'm going to pause it while I work across this row. Go ahead and do that and meet me at the end and I'll see you in a minute. Alright, now I am at the end of my second row, and I wanted to show you how I work into my chain 3's. Because you remember, at the beginning of the pattern, it tells us that all chain 3's count as a stitch. You need to remember that, so that you remember to work into them in each row. Because if you don't, you're going to end up decreasing your work every single round, I'm sorry, every single row. So, what I have left is one more regular double crochet to do, and then I have my chain three that I need to double crochet into. So first let me finish this last double crochet in the back loop only. And then, the chain three, because there is no real front back loop that is going to make a difference in the look of the project, I am going to just choose where I want to put I'm going to put my hook. Now, there's a couple of options. I can turn my chain 3 so I can actually see it, and I can go just into the back loop, or I can catch the back and bottom bump, or I can not turn it and just grab this front loop. Now, what I like to do is I like to turn it and catch the back loop and the bottom bump of that top chain, and let me show you why. So let me first do... My double crochet. And I want you to see that where this is entered, there's not a big gap. It looks in line with the rest. There's not a big hole where I connected my double crochet. If I were to work in just one loop, so say the back loop, because that's usually where I like to work my foundation chains into, is just this back loop. If I do that when I'm working an end stitch, I get a different outcome. You'll see that now That one loop pulled on all of the rest of my chains and made a big hole, so now it doesn't look as good and in line as the rest of my stitches. So that's something to keep in mind when you're choosing where to work into the top of that chain three. So I always like to grab two loops, so I'll get that back loop and bottom bump, and then do my double crochet from there. So it makes it a much nicer looking stitch. Now I'm going to turn my work and start on my row 3. So I'm going to do my chain 3. I'm going to make it a little beefy by pulling out each chain just slightly. Remember our first chain 3 counts as a stitch so I don't work into this very first stitch or this very first V if I'm turning it sideways. That's my first V. I instead need to go right here. So I'm going to push into the middle and push down to catch that back loop. Because this row and all rows after are going to be the same exact stitch pattern. You're just going to double crochet in that back loop only all the way across. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to work a few more rows. Enough to be able to measure my gauge, because gauge isn't so important for this project since it's not, you know, a shirt or something that has to be the perfect size. I didn't do a gauge swatch beforehand, but just in case you haven't learned how to measure gauge, I'm going to show you how to do it for this project. So I'll probably come back around row 5 or 6, enough to do the actual gauge measurement. And we'll meet up then. In the meantime, just keep on working in that back loop only. And I'll talk also about why I chose the hook size that I chose. And different options for changing the size of this once you understand the gauge. So I will see you in a few more rows.