Inspired Crochet: Brenda's Crochet Journey, Techniques, & Tips

Hello, welcome to The Creative Crochet Corner Live Q&A. Now, if you are new to the brand, Creative Crochet Corner is your online resource for all things crochet where you can find everything that you need from basic instruction to advanced techniques. Now my name is Leah, and I am your moderator and Creative Crochet Corner streams live about once a month for an hour to answer all of your crochet questions. If you are viewing on our website, make sure to submit your questions and comments in the chat box below the video player. And you can also participate by submitting your questions into the chat on Facebook, or YouTube. We'll get to as many questions as we can in the time we have. And also, we do like to see some hellos, and just let us know where it is that you're viewing from as well. So if you just want to say hi, but don't have a question yet, you can always drop some comments, or let us know what projects it is that you are crocheting right now, just to get some fun community chat going. Now, we have our crochet instructor and managing editor of The Creative Crochet Corner, Brenda KB Anderson, she's in studio and she's joining us today to answer all of the questions you have about crochet live during our Q&A session. It's time to bring her aboard. Brenda, welcome so much. We're excited to have you join us. I'd love you to start by just telling us a little bit about yourself and what you've been up to. Hi, everybody. I'm so excited to be here. I love talking about yarn. So, please send in your questions. So I started working on. Well, I learned how to crochet when I was very young from my mother. And I've been I crocheted for a long time in doll clothes. And then I stopped crocheting. And then I picked it up again in my 20s. And I've been pretty much full tilt ever since then, working on crochet projects. And I'm always working on you, I used to only work on one crochet project at a time. And now I'm working on like four or five at a time, pretty much all the time. And lately, while I showed earlier how I made this firedrake lace shawl, which is actually right here. This is the pattern download associated with the event here. But this was my latest project. And I was telling Leah earlier, I love making shawls, but I find them a little bit fiddly to wear sometimes. But this shawl is the first time that I ever made a shawl with tassels on it has tassels and beads. And when you wrap it around, it hangs down, and it actually holds your shawl in place better. I had no idea that was an extra added bonus to the tassels. So, maybe now I'll be making shawls all the time. I don't know. Very excited about it, though. Oh, absolutely. And if you missed the live earlier, Brenda went live to provide a tutorial on how to make that lace shawl. So, you can catch the replay at any time and download the free pattern right now. You should be able to find the link in the description of the video. And I do believe our team also dropped it into the chat box as well. So if you haven't had a chance to see it, go back and watch it when you're done here with us. Take a chance on that pattern. It's a free download that you can click the link and grab for yourself at any point in time. Brenda, I know you were talking just a little bit about it already. But will you tell us a little bit about the inspiration? What made you come up with this design? What made you add the tassels, some details on you kind of your design idea there? Sure. Okay, I'll tell you. This was a total impulse buy. I was at the store trying to get something else. And I just could not resist the yarn cake that changes color. And, you know, I had up until this point kind of avoided using them because I'm very particular about how I want my colors to appear in my work. And I was looking for, you know, something to make a lace shawl. And I knew that if I made it out of this yarn that changes color, and it's really different, it's not just a tonal, it changes from yellow to purple. I knew that if I made it out of this, some fine lace detail would just get lost. And you would just sort of see the stripes. And for me, when I'm designing things, if I'm making something in lace, I often just make it in a solid color, or tonal so that the stitches don't get lost. But so I took a lot of experimenting for me to come up with a lace pattern that was very bold. And I knew that I needed some very strong, like positive and negative space, in order to make this, you know, read as the lace, but not so you wouldn't be distracted by the colors, but that they would complement, you know, the design of the shawl. So it was a lot of swatching. And then, after I did that, I don't know, I had always been I always kind of liked how the tassels looked on other people's shawls, but I'd never really added them to my own. But this shawl, just the way that it looked, it just felt like it needed something on the ends of the shawl. So I started making tassels, and then I added the beads for a little extra weight, and to make the tassel hang just a little bit better. So the tassels were kind of more of an afterthought. I wasn't planning on making a shawl of tassels. But it just after I made the shawl, I looked at it and I was like, it needs a little something. And then they ended up helping to hold it in place. Yeah. Perfect. A little, I was gonna say a happy accident, exactly that. Our first question, that we're going to get to, also talks about design and inspiration. It's a little more general, though, and it comes in from Sandra. So Sandra loves your patterns, Brenda, and she wants to know how you decide what it is that you're going to design next. How do you follow that process? Okay, thank you, Sandra, for the compliment. That was really sweet. Okay, so it can come, my inspiration can come from lots of different places. But because I do this for a living, a lot of times I will start out by looking for what a yarn company or magazine, or other business is looking for. Sometimes they will send out mood boards that you can look at, and they'll have pictures of things to get you inspired, maybe different stitch patterns, or colors or things that have nothing to do with yarn at all. They might just have pictures of like flowers and outdoor scenes. And you look at this mood board, and then you just try and think about something that would fit with that. So, sometimes my inspiration comes from other people's mood boards, because I, you know, I'm trying to design things that other people want. But sometimes it's something in my life that I just want to make for myself for selfish reasons. Like, for example, my neighbor just had her first baby, and she's super excited. So spoiler alert, next week, my tutorial is going to be a baby related thing, because I really, really wanted to make this particular baby thing. So, sometimes it comes from there. You know, inspiration, I feel like it just comes from everywhere. Like I somehow find a way to relate everything in my life to crochet, whether it's a color, or, you know, a fashion thing, things that seem a little more related, or maybe it's a lot of times it's something like, I'll see someone says, oh, well, crochet socks, they just don't stretch like knit socks. So I don't crochet them. And then I'm like, okay, all right, I'm gonna make crochet socks that stretch really well, like you will not be able to complain about the stretchiness of the socks. And so it's kind of like a challenge. I'm very receptive to designing, you know, something to counteract what someone else is saying that I don't believe is true. So yeah, so sometimes it'll be like solving a problem, you know, figuring out like, okay, how can I make a crocheted sock that is super stretchy, like, and then experimenting and trying to figure that out. So really all over the place. Well, if anyone out there is watching, and you have your own way of kind of finding some inspiration and some designs, or if you have a design, or some kind of project, you would like to see a tutorial from Brenda on in the future, definitely drop that into the chat as well. We're always collecting some ideas, we want to make sure that you get the most out of these tutorials and Q&A is going forward in the future. And if you have a challenge you would like to issue to Brenda about a design that maybe she could start noodling, definitely drop that into the chat box. And we'll take a look as we plan our future events. Yes. We can just say real quick, I love that when people make suggestions on what they want to see. I don't know. That's one thing that really motivates me. I want to make things that other people want to make too. And I like to know what you guys are up to and what you want to make. So yes, definitely. I just want to echo Lee on that. I love it. Please suggest things. Perfect, and I'll keep an eye on all of those as they come in as well. Even if we don't mention them live, I promise you suggestions like that always get seen. Now, we've got a hello coming in from Bobby Joe in McMinnville, Oregon. And Bobby Joe is wondering if there's something that can be done to cotton yarn and certain colors that bleed so that dishwater doesn't get colored. So, I'm assuming this is a project that goes into some dishwater and starts leaking. Do you have a solution? Okay, so yeah, there are certain cotton yarns, and especially certain colors like reds and purples, that tend to bleed a lot. And I mean, the best thing you can do is to wash it enough that the dye will come out. Eventually, it's going to stop bleeding. One thing I have heard people have some success with is adding vinegar. I used to be a dyer in a former job that I had. And we would add acetic acid, which is the same thing as vinegar. Vinegar is just a diluted version of that to kind of help the some of the colors pop and adhere to the fabric a little bit. So you could try using that. But really, in my experience, it's just been a matter of washing it a matter of washing it separately. If you are going to crochet something that has two different colors, and one color you think is going to bleed, and then the other color is like a white or something like that, that's gonna soak up the first color, that's when you have the biggest problem, right? Because you're putting those two colors together. So if I'm in that situation, I will take my yarn, and then I will, if it doesn't come in a hank, like if it doesn't come in when you buy your yarn, if it comes in a ball or a skein, then I will wind it onto my Swift. If you don't have a Swift, you could just wind it around the back of a chair, somebody's hands, or something to make bigger loops. So that way, more of the surface area of the yarn will be exposed. And you can put that in some water and let it soak, and let some of the dye just come out and do that a couple of times, rinse the water, start with clear water and try to get that dye to just come out. Really, that's just, I mean, letting the dye just come out is really the best way to do it. All right, and you said at the top of the hour that you are ready to talk all things yarn. So we've got another yarn question coming at you next. This one is from Paula. Paula wants to know, what is the worst yarn that you've ever used? And then on the other end of it, do you have suggestions, or recommendations for yarns that feel nice in your hand when crocheting, or that drape well? So, let's cover both extremes here. The worst yarn. Oh my gosh, I don't know if I've ever really met a yarn that I didn't like. Okay, I'm being totally honest. I love all yarns for different reasons. But I will say that crocheting with certain yarns can be really hard on your on hands, and you need to make sure that you take breaks. So last week, as Leah knows, we did a show on Plarn and we made some yarn out of plastic bags, and there's no elasticity. So when you crochet with something like that, you really have to take a lot of breaks, maybe switch back and forth between a different crochet project that's not, so hard on your hands. Also, another thing that I've crocheted with that was hard on my hands was I used hemp cord. I made a pair of shoes, sandals. I use a flip flop sole, and then I covered it with this crocheted hemp cord thing, and my hands actually started to hurt after that because there's no elasticity at all in the hemp cord. So things like that are a little bit tricky, but it's not that I didn't like crocheting with those things. I actually loved it and I love the result. It's just you have to take your time and have something else to switch on to. Trying to think if there's any yarns that I really, really didn't like. I mean, I do appreciate a yarn that is not splitty. Sometimes when you're crocheting with the yarn, you know, it kind of untwists as you crochet with it and it's a little splitty. But I feel like that was more of a problem at the beginning of my crochet career. Now I've kind of learned ways to counteract that, pulling up on my loops a little more, you know, things like that. So, yeah, I just love the yarns. OK, so suggestions for yarns that I particularly like. I think it just so depends on what you're making. You know, there's different uses for everything. Some people really love using acrylic yarns, and I love using them for certain things like toys. And the shawl that I made turned out very nice. And I love using acrylic yarns to gift to other people because they're always pretty much always easy care. And a lot of other people, especially if you don't crochet or knit, you're not going to want to take the time to hand wash things and lay them out super carefully. So I like to recommend that to people who are newer to crochet, unless their interests. I mean, obviously, you know, everybody comes from a different background, and some people might really appreciate wool to begin with. And that is actually my favorite fiber to work with because it it blocks, so well when you get it wet, it kind of puffs up and fills in all the spaces, and it feels nice in your hands. I mean, you can get some scratchy walls, but most of the walls that I use are very soft. Yeah, and I you know, another thing that I particularly like, especially if I've been crocheting a lot and I need something that's quick and fun and just, you know, a change of pace. I like to use really thick wool yarns for that, like big puffy yarns. Just makes me happy for some reason. So a shout out for the big puffy yarns. And then, of course, as always, if anyone's watching and you feel a lot of feels about a particular kind of yarn that you love, love, love. Go ahead and drop that in the chat, too, and maybe spread the love a little bit. I'm gonna jump because you mentioned beginners to crochet. So I'm going to jump to Amy's question next here. Amy is a beginner. She's in North Carolina, has no idea how to crochet, learned to knit first. So is looking to find the best way to learn this craft. Now, first of all, our team has already dropped in the link. Brenda on Creative Crochet Corner. There's already a 14 day Learn to Crochet series. So it's a fantastic series that you could go ahead and follow along with video instructions, get you started into the crochet craft. But Brenda, I also want you to add on to this for any of our beginners out there that are, you know, like Amy, haven't even dove into the craft just yet. Is there anything they should know about what they need as far as a crochet hook, what expectations to kind of set for themselves, and what that first project might be to keep in mind? Sure, well, the cool thing about crochet is you really don't need a lot of money to invest in this craft. I mean, you really, really don't. You literally just need a wall of yarn and a hook. And, you know, if you don't have a lot of hand fatigue problems already, you can just get a regular hook, like a metal hook or plastic hook, from a craft store. And they're just only really a few dollars. I mean, it's so inexpensive, right? There's no reason to not start crocheting. So you need a hook, and I would say to most people, I recommend starting with the worsted weight yarn because most people find that very easy to hold on to. This is an example of worsted weight yarn. You can see about the kind of thickness that it is. This is the kind of yarn that most people start out with. It's the kind of yarn that most people use for lots of Afghan patterns and that type of thing. And I would look for a yarn that is pretty smooth and doesn't have a lot of a lot of things going on. You just want a smooth, basic yarn to start out with. Not a lot of colors going on. When you're first trying to orient yourself and figure out what the anatomy of a stitch is, it can be really frustrating. So you just don't want to have anything else that's going to distract you. So you can just go get an inexpensive, solid colored yarn that isn't particularly fuzzy or anything like that, just fairly smooth to make your stitches with. And then I would recommend starting with an H or an I hook. But just depending on the person and the way you crochet, you may need a bigger hook or a smaller hook. So the letters, the H and the I, that also corresponds to millimeters, the size of the hook. Let's see, this is an H hook, and this is a 5 millimeter hook. And an I would be a little bit more. I think it's 5.5, but I'm not totally sure what the millimeters are. But if you start with something like that, an H or an I, that's kind of middle of the road, usual size to start working with a worsted weight yarn. This is a worsted weight yarn. It's also, if you look at the ball band at the yarn store, the ball band is just the paper that's wrapped around the yarn. There should be something on there usually that says C-Y-C-A and then a number. And then it'll have, like the number symbol, and then it'll have number one through four. So if you look for, well, actually, it goes up to like seven or eight, or maybe even more. But it'll have C-Y-C-A number four is what you'd be looking for just to start out with. And I would recommend, I always recommend to people to just make a little square, a little swatch. Or if you get a cotton worsted weight yarn, you can make a washcloth or a dishcloth, and just, when you start out, just expect it to look a little crazy. It's not going to look perfect the first time you do it. I mean, you're training your body to make all these little motions and how to hold the hook and where to put the stitches. You know, it's like you have to coordinate your physical movements with what you know is going on in your brain. And you just got to be nice to yourself and allow yourself to mess up a few times before you, you know, don't be critical of yourself. Just give it a chance. Absolutely. Well, good luck to all of our beginners out there, Amy included. And make sure to check out that link to the 14 Day Learned Crochet Series. It's really helpful. A great way to build your confidence in small steps. And then, before you know it, you're going to be jumping into more of these projects that Brenda does tutorials on every month. Let's go back up. I apologize if I'm getting your name wrong. It's Jean or Jeannie. I'm not sure which one. But she is having issues with granny squares and is looking for any recommendations that you would have, Brenda. What do you have for her? Okay, well, I did a live tutorial called The Bonita Project Bag, named after my Aunt Bonnie. And she had made a granny square vest for me as a kid. And so that's why I named this after her. But in that tutorial, I teach you how to make a granny square. So I would look for that. And I'll show you step by step how to make the granny squares. Yeah, and, you know, the basic, the gist of making a granny square is you're just going to start out in the center of the square. And you're working around, you know, it becomes a square. But you're working around and around, like in a spiral. And so you're doing a series of usually double crochets and then some chain spaces. And then you work into your chain spaces as you go around and around. It might sound kind of complicated if you've never done it before. But I definitely, I feel like the best way, at least for me to learn, for a lot of other people to learn, is to watch somebody doing it. So I would just check out The Bonita Project Bag live tutorial. And then you can see, you can see me making granny squares. And you can, if you download the pattern, there is a stitch diagram. And if you've never heard of a stitch diagram, let me show you an example here. This is from the tutorial that I did earlier. And I don't want to freak you out because this might look a little bit advanced if you've never seen this before. But see all these little symbols, and they're arranged in a certain way. What they're telling you, it's basically like a picture version of what you're making. And each little symbol in here stands for a different type of stitch. So these little ovals, they stand for chains. You can see the legend down here. The little plus sign, like you'd see here, those are a single crochet. So in the Bonita Project Bag, you can see that there is a diagram that's, you know, it's not going to look like this because this is a totally different project. It will look much more simple. But if you're a visual learner, then I would definitely recommend looking at that. Because then you can see how all the stitches relate, where to put all the stitches, where the chain spaces go. It just makes it a little bit easier to understand what's going on. The link for that Bonita Project Bag is also in the chat box as well, so that's another link that you can follow. And if I may brag on Brenda just a little bit, I have to say I've done some of these tutorials with her. And I've watched her explain these design patterns that she was just showing. And Brenda, you can really make what is quite intimidating to look at, I would imagine, especially for a beginner, very accessible. And the way that you demonstrate how to turn that design into your crochet stitches is really helpful. So if that's something that you need help on, jump into one of Brenda's tutorials because she's going to translate that for you beautifully. Thank you. All right, let's go to Trish's question next. So Trish can't seem to get a hang of her tension. So she's looking for tips for holding the yarn and improving the tension. So what do you have to suggest for Trish? I feel like so much of tension is just practice, practice, practice. But if you're having trouble hanging on to your, it might be that you're having trouble hanging on to your hook. Let me get a little something started here. Actually, I'll start on, just grab a little piece of this. Here's something I already crocheted up. Let me pull up a loop. This is a project I'm working on, crazy washcloth with a little green trim. So when you're crocheting, to get your tension right, you know, people will have to experiment with how you're holding your hook in whatever hand you hold it in. And then how you're holding the yarn, and also kind of how you're hanging on to your project. So you're keeping track of like, three things at once and how to hold it. Like I said, this does come with practice, but there are some things you can do to try and help yourself. You just got to try different things. So what I recommend, this is actually, so this is how I hold the yarn. I didn't start out doing it this way, but then once I started knitting for some reason, I started holding my yarn this way for knitting. And this helps me keep the tension on this part of the yarn that's coming from the ball. If you go over this finger, under, over, under, then you are able to pinch your fingers together. You don't have to do it very tightly. It's not like I'm using like all my strength to pinch and hold it in the right spot. But you're letting that yarn run through your fingers. So when you spread your fingers out, it slips more easily. But if you put them closer together without even a lot of pressure, there's a lot of tension right here. So if you haven't already tried holding your yarn like this, I would recommend trying to hold your yarn like that. Some people will do something where they wrap the yarn around their finger once, maybe like this. I can't even remember what I used to do before I started doing this. But this has just replaced whatever I was doing because I feel like this was just much easier. And you can see when I'm holding this, I can control the amount of tension in my yarn here with this finger, how much I'm lifting it. Right here, these fingers are holding the yarn in place, and this finger is sort of adding different amounts of tension, whatever I need. So when I insert my hook here, yarn over, and then I'm releasing my fingers a little to let that yarn slip through because I need more yarn. I'm running out of yarn. So I would recommend that. I would also recommend, if you haven't already tried experimenting with how you hold your hook and maybe you've been crocheting for a while and it's like too hard to change that. I understand that. I've tried to hold my hook in a different way just because I thought it would be helpful for teaching people to show them in different ways. But it's like I just cannot seem to make it work with this kind of grip. Watch me try and crochet. I know there are those of you out there who can easily do this, but it's like, look, I'm learning to crochet for the first time because I changed my grip. So I like to hold my hook like this. I'm not saying that this is the right way to do it. I'm just saying this is what works for me. But I would try, you know, looking at some different images of, you know, how people hold their hook, try that out too, and see if that is helpful, and also how you're hanging on to your fabric. You might need to work on a table, so you can let it lie here. Sometimes people have trouble if they're working in their lap for it to be in the right spot. You might try rearranging how you're sitting, if you're resting your arms, things like that. That can also affect your tension. So I hope that was helpful. Great, I like these tips. That seems helpful to me. So hopefully that's helpful to Trish and anybody else that's struggling with tension. Now, I picked up on something you've mentioned a couple of times here with pretty much all of these questions so far, Brenda. And that's about your hands and needing a break, depending on the yarn you're using, the project you're working on, et cetera. Would you talk a little bit about any care you can take with your hands, maybe some skin care if people are experiencing dry or irritated skin? Any tips that you have when it goes along with just basic hand care? Sure. For me, yeah, in the wintertime especially, my hands get really dry. So what I do is I just put lotion on and then I have to go do something else for a little while while the lotion sinks into my skin. Because if I put the lotion on and try to crochet, then my hands are too sticky, and then I can't crochet. It's just like the yarn does not slip through my hands the way that it should. But there might be some other things that might be better for that, like if you put on, I know that there are some lotions that you're supposed to put on at night. And then you could put gloves on at nighttime and take care of your hands that way to make sure that they're hydrated, and then you don't have to put lotion on right before you crochet, like I do. But another thing is just taking care of your hands, making sure that you notice when your hands are starting to cramp or if they're starting to hurt, to stop early enough and stretch them out. I like to do this because this, for some reason, this motion of pulling back kind of helps my wrists and my hands kind of relax a little bit. I'm trying to think, there was one more thing that you said, Leah, about taking care of your hands. It wasn't about, can you remind me, it wasn't about the skin, it was about something else. Either the tension with the yarn, fatigue, tightness, any of that jogging? Yeah, no, I think it's gone. I was going to say something else and I forgot, but if I remember, I'll bring it back up. But I think the main thing is just to make sure that you're staying aware of your hands. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our project and maybe we're also watching TV that we don't really realize what's going on. And then all of a sudden the next day we're like, oh, my hands really hurt. Just try to check in with your hands and be like, okay, maybe you need to rest for a little bit, or do a different motion or something. This might have been it. You mentioned going from project to project. So maybe it was something about varying your project, so that you're not doing one repetitive motion all the time. Yeah, if you choose a different project with a different stitch pattern, sometimes it's really just like doing the exact same motion over and over and having your wrist twist in the same way over and over, and that can hurt your hands. But you can find something else to do for a while. Maybe you could even, if you have some yarn you need to wind or something like that, you could do a different aspect of a different project. But if you find a different stitch pattern, like one that has really open work, or one that has puff stitches, or it's making you move your hands in a slightly different way, then that might be enough even. Just look for a variety. One thing that I like to do is use a really thick yarn. Usually, when my hands are cramping up, it's because I'm trying to do something really detailed and small. Usually, if I open up to a bigger yarn project, it doesn't hurt so much. I don't usually have problems, but when I have had problems in the past, if I switch to something bigger, then it's not such a big problem. Another thing I did want to mention too is the hooks that I use, I've switched to using these ergonomic hooks. They're not only larger here, so it's a little easier for you to hold onto, but they're also kind of rubbery here. I find that I don't have to hang on for dear life, as I'm making my stitches. I can hold it with a much lighter touch, and it's just kind of sticking in my hands. I don't have to use those muscles to really hang onto it so much. That helps my hands, too, to use something kind of rubbery and a little bit soft. Now Ronnie has a question, and this is specific to you. I'm sure everyone will have a different answer to this, but Brenda, how long are you able to crochet before you have to take a break? I can crochet for a strangely long amount of time. Sometimes I have crocheted literally all day, from taking breaks for lunch and dinner sometimes. I have crocheted all day long and usually it doesn't hurt, but if I do that too many days in a row, or if I'm working on something that's kind of intense, like tiny stitches and color work, and I'm doing a lot more fiddling with the yarn, then usually it's kind of more like a few hours and then I have to stop, but I would not recommend that. I think that I'm a little unusual in that, for some reason, crochet doesn't really hurt my hands so much. I have noticed when I knit that my hands cramp up after maybe even just like three hours, or something, and I need to stretch out, take a break, do something for an hour, and then I can come back to it. But yeah, for some reason, I'm just extra lucky. I don't know. I don't know why, but it just doesn't usually hurt my hands, which is good since this is my profession. That is very lucky. Before I ask the next question, I'll just drop in a little reminder, especially if you weren't with us at the top of the hour. So, Brenda is here to answer all of your crochet questions, but that means that you get to put them all into the chat box. So if you haven't already checked out the chat box, if you're watching on the website, it's going to be right below the video player. If you're on Facebook or YouTube, just use the chat there, and your questions will come through as well, and we'll get to as many as we can. We usually get to a fair few. As you can see, Brenda's got a lovely display in front of her. So if you have anything specific that you want to ask her about a stitch or anything like that, she's very good about demonstrating those. So we'll get to the questions that we have as they come in. And then, of course, check out the chat box. Even if you don't have a question, either let us know what kind of projects you're working on. Let us know where you're viewing from, or check out some of the many links that our team has dropped in for some of the crochet series, the learn to crochet 14 day mini series. Some of the tutorials that Brenda has mentioned are included in there as well. So you can go back and watch a lot of fun crochet items even after this Q&A is over. All right. That's enough for me. We're back to questions. The next one comes in from Amy. Amy's hands get very hot when holding her projects. Not too sure if it's from the type of yarn or how she's holding it, whatever she's working on. Is there a yarn that would be cooler to work with that you know of, Brenda? I guess I would try using a cotton yarn if your hands are really warm. I mean, that always feels colder in my hands, it doesn't, you know, it's not an insulating type of yarn like a wool or acrylic, where it kind of, you know, absorbs your heat and reflects it back to you. But it seems like cotton yarn might be the way to go, or rayon, or some kind of plant fiber based yarn. I would try that and see how that goes or linen. Linen is another good one, too. All right, good luck staying cool out there. I know we're about to maybe move into summer here sometime soon. Hopefully, fingers crossed. So for anybody that's also moving into summer, those could be some good tips for you as well. Kelly's got our next question. Kelly wants to know when you're working in rounds, if a pattern calls for joining the rounds, can you just ignore the slip stitch? I believe it's supposed to be chain, but it said cane. Do you just ignore the slip stitch chain? Okay, so when you're working in rounds, let me see. I think I have the swatch that's worked in the round. Let me just check. I do. All right. So when you're working in the round, you start in the middle and go around and around and around and around. If it's telling you in the pattern to make a join, which is I think, what you're asking about. Let me just pretend that I've been crocheting this little section here. For those of you who don't know, when you're working in the round, I'm just going to go all the way around this while I'm talking. When you're working in the round, you can work in joined rounds, or you can also just work in unjoined rounds, which is a spiral. And that may sound very confusing. Like what is the difference between a join and working in a spiral? Because you're still working around and around and around your circle, right? So the only difference between those two ways of working is one version has a slip stitch at the end of each round. So you do all of your stitches around your circle. And then, at the very end, you just do this little slip stitch. And then you will have, you're basically connecting the end of your round to the beginning of the next round. And then you do a chain one, which counts as a beginning chain. And usually that does not count as a stitch, but sometimes it does. So the pattern should tell you, you know, what things count as stitches and what things do not. But I'm going to show you so that you can, I'm almost all the way around, so that you can see a little bit more about what I'm talking about. If you're working in a spiral without the joins, what that means is as you go around, you're just going around and around, and around, and around. And you're not ever making that little slip stitch to the first stitch of the round. When you get around to the last stitch, you just work into the first stitch with whatever you're doing. In this case, these are single crochet stitches. So here we go. We are almost there. So say this is you're working in joined rounds. So what that means is when you work that last stitch of your round, like that, you will get to the first stitch of your round. You will make a join. So here, let's put one more stitch here because I think we need to close that gap there. All right, so we've worked our last stitch of the round. And if you're working in joined rounds, that means you insert your hook under that very first single crochet that you did, yarn over, pull your loop through, and pull through here. So you're making a slip stitch between this stitch and the first stitch of the round, which is actually right here. This is just where I pulled up a loop. And then at that point, you would make a chain one, two. It's like a little ladder that gets you up to the next level there. And then, if that counts as a stitch, then you move on and do your first single crochet in the following stitch. If this does not count as a stitch, which usually in my patterns it doesn't because I feel like there's too big of a gap, but you'll just have to look at your pattern. If that doesn't count as a stitch, you just chain that, and then you pretend like you never chained it, and you work into that same stitch where you already did your slip stitch, which would be right here. So you do your first single crochet right there. That counts as your first stitch. So when you come around that last slip stitch, you ignore that when you're doing your join. You don't crochet into that. That doesn't become a stitch. So this whole thing about this counts as a stitch, this doesn't count as a stitch. That can be super confusing to people because you're like, okay, I'm making a stitch why doesn't this count? I don't understand what counting means. What are you talking about? So the counting as a stitch, it's like you consider that a stitch. So then on your next round, you work into it unless your pattern specifically says to skip that stitch. So it's like you're saying, here's the slip stitch, and that's how you're joining it. That doesn't count as a stitch. So what that means is it's not part of your stitch count. So at the end of your instructions, if it tells you how many stitches to have, you don't count that slip stitch. And also, when you work all the way around here, you don't work into that stitch. It's like that stitch never existed. You're just doing it to join the first stitch to the last stitch, and then you're pretending it's not there. So if you're working around and around and you're not joining at the end of each round, then what happens is you get all the way around like this. This would be your last stitch. And then, instead of doing a slip stitch join here, you just work your first stitch into it. You just do a single crochet, okay? And that's the first stitch of your next round, right there. So there is no slip stitch, so there's nothing to skip. I hope that I answered your question. I'll keep an eye out. Kelly, if you are looking for more specifics, definitely drop it in. We can go back to this in the future. We do have some time here left, so let us know if that could take a little more explanation. But that was fantastic, Brenda. Thank you for demonstrating that. We've got a little more general question coming your way from Trish. Trish wants to know who was the last person that you crocheted something for, Brenda? Mother's Day is coming up. Trish is working on a couple of secret projects. So she wants to know what it is that you had last for somebody. Okay, the last thing that I crocheted for somebody else is actually what I'm going to be doing my pattern tutorial on next week. It's a pair of super cute little baby booties. And those are for the new baby next door. I'm super excited to give them to his mom. So yeah, that was, I just made that last week, so pretty recent. Yay! Perfect timing. Well, Trish, good luck with all of your secret projects. I hope they can stay secret until you unveil them to great appreciation. Ooh, another question coming in that's very general as well, but very fun, is from Jen. Jen wants to know, Brenda, if you could make any crochet project with unlimited budget and materials and lots of free time, so no obstacles in your way whatsoever, what would you make? Okay, this is going to sound kind of crazy. I have seen, I don't know who this artist is. I can't think of their name right now. But there's somebody who makes basically like a giant rope crocheted playground. So it's got like webs of crocheted ropes that funnel down. And then sometimes there's a ball encased in crochet, and kids can climb on it and jump through it and crawl through it. I mean, that would be like my dream crochet project to do something like that. That's like super large scale, and you can like physically interact with it and watch kids climbing all over it. That would just be, I mean, that's kind of like a little out there, but I would love to be able to do something really crazy like that. We'll keep an eye out for that tutorial when you have the opportunity. I'll be making a playground next week. Oh, that was a great question. We are going to have time for maybe one or two final questions. So if you've been hanging on to anything for Brenda, this is your chance to get it in. I'm going to turn it over to Brenda, though. Before we have to say goodbye, I always want to know where we can find you and also what's coming up. I know you've got some projects coming up as well that you're going to share with the Creative Crochet Corner community. So give us a little heads up on what to expect going forward. Sure. Well, I am, I'm constantly teaching videos on the Creative Crochet Corner, which is so much fun, as you guys know. And also, I am on Ravelry. My name is Yarnville on Ravelry. I have a blog that's called Craftsplosion.com where I just blog about random crafty things that I'm up to. And for in my future, what I'm working on, we'll have the baby booties next week. But I am working on some new like spring, summertime secret projects, for later in next month. Yeah, I pretty, and I also I mean, I just also want to mention again, like if you have suggestions on things that you want me to make, please let me know, because I get really excited to hear what people want to be learning about. So, yeah, please drop them in the chat box, because I would love to know what you guys want to be doing. Absolutely, and it gives Brenda a chance to put her own twist on certain designs and things like that and keep everything fresh as it's coming to you. So, Brenda, no further questions have dropped in, while you were saying your farewell. So just a couple reminders for me before we say goodbye today. There's a ton of links in the chat box. Like I said, tutorials that Brenda mentioned are 14 day learn to crochet series. Also, the download that Brenda was doing the tutorial just this morning on how to make the firedrake lace shawl pattern. And that's a free download for you. You can click and watch her tutorial from earlier as well. So if you missed it, you can go back and watch it. Don't worry. And that is going to be in the chat box for you. I'm just looking at the next date is coming up before we know it. I can't believe I'm about to say a date in May. So on May 3rd at 11:00 a.m. Central time, that's going to be Brenda's next free crochet tutorial. So mark your calendars for May 3rd. I cannot believe it's almost May. I genuinely thought for a moment that was a mistake. But here we are. We're so close. May 3rd, 11 a.m. Central time, for the next free crochet tutorial with Brenda. We have to say thank you to Brenda for joining us once again, sharing all of your expertise. Thank you to everybody out there that was watching today. Please come back for more Q&A's. We're here with you about once a month. So we'll be back before you know it. And until the next time, happy crocheting, and we will see you soon. Take care.