Week 2 Top Tips

Hints and tips to help you with this week

Week 2

I hope you enjoyed week 1 and are getting on well with your Train Wheels. Don't worry if you've not made them all yet - we won't need them for a little while longer.

This week, we're going to be starting work on the main Train Panel.  There's a bit more simple tapestry crochet plus some intarsia crochet to create train carriages, presents and toy blocks. We'll also meet post stitches for the first time when we crochet the ribbons on the presents. Exciting!

If you're a left-hander, note that your Train Panel will be a mirror image of that shown in the photos. 

As always, make sure you have your bingo grid to hand so you can tick off the new techniques you meet!

Below, you'll find my top tips for this week. These are designed to accompany the written pattern but don't forget to refer to the video tutorial for a thorough demonstration of this week's techniques.

The written pattern and video tutorial are available here.

Top Tips

  1. 1
    When crocheting Row 1, insert a stitch marker after every 20 stitches to make it easier to count.
  2. 2
    When crocheting the train track rows with tapestry crochet, always drop one yarn to the front and the other yarn to the back to avoid tangles. Also, when you pick up a yarn to start crocheting with it again, give it a gentle tug to make sure it sits snuggly under the previous stitches.
  3. 3
    As with the Nice List, the 3 chains at the start of each row count as a stitch. Finish each row by crocheting the final stitch into the top of the 3 ch from the previous row. It can be helpful to put a stitch marker in the top of the 3 ch to make sure you don't miss it.
  4. 4
    Don’t forget to do the BLO and FLO stitches where indicated in the pattern. Not only will this give your colourwork a nice straight outline, but you’ll need to crochet into a few of the unworked strands later on in the CAL.
  5. 5
    Use small pieces of card to create bobbins for your yarn for the intarsia sections.
  6. 6
    To keep your yarn bobbins in order, use clothes pegs or small clips to secure them to your work when not being used.
  7. 7
    Pay attention to which is the right side (RS) and wrong side (WS) of your work, and make sure that when yarns are floated along, they are always on the WS.
  8. 8
    Read the instructions in the pattern carefully to make sure you use the right bobbin for each stitch section. When crocheting the presents, you will have more than one bobbin with the same colour yarn.
  9. 9
    To keep track of where you are in each row, cross off the stitches on the written pattern as you work them.
  10. 10
    As always, I recommend sewing in your ends at the end of the week. It will make it much easier to add the further details to this section later.

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