Stitch Sampler Afghan for Renee

A couple of years ago, my niece Renee joined the Annie's Attic Crochet Block of the Month Club to make this lovely Stitch Sampler Afghan in the Pearl/Cream colorway.

Renee has been crocheting even longer than I have, but she is in a different life stage than I am, and, a few months into her subscription, she realized that she just didn't have enough time to set aside for herself to enjoy crocheting these blocks.

I'm sure many of us can relate to her dilemma. It becomes an added layer of stress and/or guilt when we're subscribed to something that keeps coming at us, but in the process we end up finding out that we just don't have the time to engage with it.

So after six months, Renee cancelled her subscription and stashed the unused kits in her closet in the hope that she would eventually get around to making them.

Alas, the months kept flying by, and Renee found herself having only finished the first block.

Earlier this summer, she packed all the kits into a tote bag, which included the first six pattern brochures, all of the yarn, and the first block she made, and called me to ask if I would be interested in having them. She wasn't asking me to make the blanket for her; she just wanted the stuff out of her closet, and she assured me that if I took it, I could make whatever I wanted to with the yarn. Of course, I was happy to receive her offering. To me, the yarn and patterns were a gift, yet I also completely understood her need to be rid of them to protect her mental health in this moment. I have been there myself from time to time.

However, I also knew immediately that even if I used some of the yarn to make other things, I would secretly finish making the blanket and gift it back to her. 🩷 I think she will be surprised when I gift it to her but also pleased that she will be able to have this blanket in her home after she thought that would never happen.

In fact, the first thing I did was to crochet an open-mesh cardigan for myself using some of the yarn. 😂 

Then I got busy crocheting the blocks for this blanket. Because each block is different, and because the pattern arranges the blocks in a way that does not follow their numerical order, I printed out little labels (I just printed them on paper and cut them out) to mark the number for each block and attached them with safety pins as I finished each one to help keep things organized as I went along. You can see the pinned-on labels in some of my photos. These were easy to remove once the blanket was fully assembled according to the pattern. Here's a link to download a copy of a PDF for my labels, in case you would like to use them for your blanket project.

I finished making the first 18 blocks from the six pattern brochures in the kits that Renee had purchased. Then I was faced with a decision: Do I find a way to get the rest of the pattern brochures (or a PDF of the pattern) from Annie's, or do I make up my own block designs until I have enough made to finish the blanket?

I did already have an account at Annie's from a pattern purchase I made years and years ago. So I decided to reach out to their customer service and ask if it would be possible for me to purchase the entire Stitch Sampler Blanket pattern as a PDF.

The short answer is no, they don't sell this pattern separately from the kits. (Hint-hint, Annie's; you would probably make a few extra pattern sales if you also sold this pattern separately from the kits!)

I explained my situation and how I was attempting to finish the blanket for my niece, who had purchased half of the kits. The rep who was helping me looked up Renee's account to confirm my story, then she said that she could arrange to have the other half of the kits (including the rest of the yarn and pattern brochures) sent to me all at once if I agreed to purchase them. I mulled this over for a bit and then decided to do it. The rep also added to my account the digital versions of the patterns (all of which include video tutorials) from all the kits Renee had purchased, as well as the digital patterns and videos from all the kits I purchased, which was so nice and very helpful. So I now had the complete pattern, plus all the matching yarn I needed to finish the blanket.

The individual blocks are very quick to make, and most of them were easy for me, but there were a few that I needed to view the videos to understand how to do them. You know how it is; trying to explain the steps in writing can often be waaay more confusing than just to SHOW someone the steps. But even the ones that I needed the video for were fairly easy to crochet once I understood the steps.

I would make a block or three each evening during my break from work. That's how quick and easy most of the blocks were.

I finished crocheting the blocks on Aug. 15, and I finished weaving in the ends on Aug. 27. Even though I used a 5.5 mm hook to crochet all of them, I tend to be a tight crocheter, so even after adding a border that's a little more than 2 inches deep, the finished size of the blanket only measures about 46 inches by 52 inches. I'm pretty sure that the blanket will relax and maybe grow a bit after laundering (and certainly after being used for a while), but if I ever make another one of these later, I would probably use at least a 6 mm hook. (P.S. The blanket did grow about 3 inches in width and 4 inches in length after laundering. Yay!)

I deviated from the pattern in a couple of ways. First, I moved the position of Block 1 (the one Renee had made) from the outer-right column to place it more toward the center, because I wanted to "mark" her block with a little crocheted pink heart applique, and thus I figured it would look nicer if her block was placed closer to the "heart" (or center) of the blanket. So I swapped places with Blocks 1 and 29. To join the blocks, I used a technique where I slip-stitched into one block, then chained one, then slip-stitched into the other block, then chained one, and repeated that going back and forth all along the seam. That gives a nice, solid join that has a small bit of zig-zag texture but is subtle and doesn't detract from the prettiness of the actual blocks. I also deviated in the way I worked the border. I did one round of SC followed by one round of DC, followed by one round of SC, followed by one round of DC, followed by one round of SC, followed by one round of twisted SC.

For the little heart applique, I used a small amount of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in the Rosy Cheeks colorway from my stash and a 4.5 mm hook. I followed this video tutorial by ElyseCrochets on YouTube, which makes a lovely little quick and easy heart.

The blanket was finished in time for me to enter it in our local fair, so I'm planning to do that.

Annie's schematic

 

Montie's True Blues XL blanket

This is just a simple XL corner-to-corner moss stitch crochet blanket worked with two complementary colorways of yarn. 

Recently I saw a reel where crocheters were basically losing their minds in the comments at how beautiful this simple, monochrome C2C moss stitch baby blanket was by Laura of Hook and Fiber Made. It reminded me of how versatile crochet moss stitch is, because it works really well in solid colorways but also just as well in variegated colorways and also in other configurations, such as stripes, and I was fairly certain that it would look nice being worked up in stripes of the two colorways of yarn that I had in mind for this project.

Close up

Hooked by Robin has a good video tutorial on YouTube for how to make a C2C moss stitch blanket. I basically used the same process for this blanket; the only difference was that I used two colorways of yarn, alternating colors every two rows so I could carry the unused color up without ever having to cut it.

The somewhat unorthodox method I used to change colors is very much like what Play Hooky with Me shows in this video tutorial. The differences for me are that I'm working in moss stitch (so, SC and chains) and I'm only changing color at the end of every-other row. After changing colors, chaining and turning the work, I pulled the dropped color strand so it was crossing over the edge where I was working from back to front, where I would crochet over it without catching it in a stitch. (The strand would then be caught by and lie between my turning chains and the first SC of the new row.) That kept the dropped color close enough to pick up again the next time I changed colors, where I would repeat the process, and with marled look of the multicolored yarns I was working with, the "floats" are barely noticeable at all along the edge. If you were concerned about the floats being visible, all you would have to do is to crochet a border on your blanket as a finishing step; the first round of the border would fully conceal the floats.

Edge with floats vs. edge w/o floats

Using that method meant that the only tails I had to weave in at the end were the ones at the start and at the end of the project.

The yarn I used is Red Heart Bitty Stripes in the Horizon (blue) and Seaweed (green) colorways. Those are the same colors that I used to make my new grandnephew Waylon's blanket.

When I first started working on Waylon's blanket, my husband looked at what I was doing and said that he would actually like to have a similar-looking blanket for himself. That was a jaw-dropping moment for me, because if you know my husband the way I do, he NEVER wants me to crochet or knit ANYTHING for him, and he directly said so to me many times over the years. 😂 (Not because he doesn't support me in what I want to do, but because he is very particular about what he will and will not wear, and he doesn't want to hurt my feelings by not wearing something I've made for him if he doesn't choose to wear it.) So for him to tell me that he would actually LIKE for me to make him a blanket constitutes a jaw-dropping moment in my book.

My only concern was that this is not a tunisian entrelac pattern, as Waylon's blanket was. I did admittedly find tunisian crochet a bit challenging, so it wasn't as enjoyable for me, and I didn't want to attempt another tunisian blanket again this soon if I could avoid it. So I worked up a good start on the C2C moss stitch design so that I could give my husband a realistic preview of what the finished blanket would look like. I figured the worst that could happen would be that he said he didn't care for it, and if that happened, I could just finish off the blanket anyway, figure out what to do with it later, and then start on another tunisian one for him.

Another feature of the C2C moss stitch that I like better than tunisian entrelac is that moss stitch produces a fabric that is entirely reversible and looks equally good on either side. And another nice thing about moss stitch is that it grows surprisingly quickly, even though it isn't a tall crochet stitch.

I reached 60 inches wide on the short side of the rectangle after working 41 stripes each of both color A and color B. (Each stripe is two rows.) So the width for the short side of the rectangle was achieved after working 82 stripes, which equals 164 rows. 

60 inches wide

With the target width achieved, now I could stop increasing at one end of the row while continuing to increase at the other end of the row to continue to increase the length of the blanket until the target length of 84 inches was reached. (Details for how to work the "straight" rows are in the video by Hooked by Robin linked above.)

Turning the corner

If I've counted correctly, the straight rows are 167 single crochet stitches wide. Plus the chains in between, for however many total stitches long that is on the diagonal. 😅

Gauge view

Slogging through the middle section took months, because those are the longest rows, and they just seemed to go on and on and on and onnnn...

Fair time is coming. CROCHET FASTER!

But, finally, the long side reached its target length, and then I was able to start decreasing at both ends of the rows, heading toward the final corner. Changing colors on the decrease edges works about the same as on the increase edges, in that I would still pull the dropped color across, from back to front, and then crochet over it as I worked the next row, to secure the float where it needed to be to be picked up again. The only difference was making a decrease there instead of an increase.

Turning toward home!

Thankfully, I finished the blanket in time to enter it into our local fair. There's nothing flashy or fancy about the blanket; it's just the biggest single thing that I've ever made, so I wanted to enter it in the fair because of that. 😀

Peek-a-boo! (He's standing on the hearth.)

 

Fair time is coming

Fair time is coming. ... CROCHET FASTER!!!! 😂🧶

This is a candid shot of me working on my C2C moss stitch Montie's giant blanket WIP. The blanket is approximately 80% complete here. The final dimensions will be 60 inches by 84 inches. Whew!!! Here's hoping that I finish it in time to enter it into the fair. 😁🤞

Boho Crochet Hexi Cardigan

This is a hexi cardigan designed using a modified version of the stitch pattern from the Lazy Diamond Boho Pocket Shawl by Crystal White-Van Cleemput.

Toggles and twisted fringe added

I started out using a six-sided hexagon instead of a four-sided square, but other than that, the stitch sequence is identical to the pattern in the original design. I think this design lends itself well to the hexi cardi style, and I'm looking forward to being able to wear this because it's cozy and looks super cute in this Red Heart Super Saver Ombre yarn in the Anthracite colorway. 

Hexagon

The magic of the hexi cardi is what happens to the shape when you fold the hexagon in half: You instantly have the shape of half of a cardigan with a sleeve and half of the body.

Folded in half, plus extension rows on body edges

It's easy to crochet a hexi cardi shaped in a way that best fits your unique body. Begin by crocheting the two hexagons until they have enough rounds for the sleeves to easily fit around the widest part of your arms. If you still need additional rows to make the body of the cardi fit around your torso, you can add those rows later on the just center-back and center-front edges.

I suggest that you fold each hexagon in half and mark the edges that you intend to join across the top of the sleeve, then join those edges together before moving on to add any extra rows to the center-back and center-front edges. Sewing the sleeves closed first helps to make it easier to see which edges you should be adding to for extra width around the body.

Each hexagon is one-half of the cardigan, and the hexagons are joined at the center-back to create the cardigan.

Assembled, with extra length rows before adding pockets

If you want your cardigan to be longer, I suggest adding more rows to the bottom edge after joining the two halves together for a more polished finish. If you want to add pockets to your cardigan (and who doesn't love having pockets?!?!), wait to add those until you have finished adding any length to the bottom edge, to help ensure that you are able to position the pockets where they are most comfortable for you.

With pockets added

After completing those steps, you can then choose whether to add cuffs to the ends of the sleeves and/or whether to add a placket to the front edges. These cardigans can be worn without any fasteners, so you might not need to add a placket at all if you choose not to use buttons or a zipper on the front of your cardi.

I also added twisted fringe along the bottom edge using my handy Maple Quad End Fringe Twister from Etsy seller theknitstore. 

I debated whether I wanted to leave the front of my cardi open, but after my husband found a set of nice toggle closures (similar to these), I decided they would be a nice finishing touch.

I will be entering this project in our local fair this year.

Facet Keychain wristlet

This is the Facet Keychain pattern by Amy Kate Sutherland of The Graceful Tangle. These keychain wristlets work up super fast and are easy to finish. The pattern is a great way to use up small remnants of cotton yarn. I had a random remnant of this yellow/green/turquoise colorway of Lily Sugar N Cream cotton yarn in my stash. There wasn't quite enough yardage of the colorful yarn to finish two wristlets, so I alternated every two rows with some white cotton for the second wristband.

These would work with a variety of different keychain hardware types. I had these D-ring swivel lobster clasps that I found on Amazon on hand, so that's what I used, but there are many different keychain clasp styles and even ones with prettier finishes available online.

Amy shared this full video tutorial on YouTube:

 

Ginkgo Night Moves scarf

This free pattern is Night Moves, a lovely shawl or scarf designed by PurpleIguana. For my project, I followed Fiber Spider's video tutorial and patern mods. His mods begin when we reach the first decreasing row. 

I also greatly appreciate PurpleIguana's notes about yarn usage that she included on her Ravelry project page. 

The shape of these crochet shells reminds me of ginkgo leaves. 

Fiber Spider project inspo photo

I had a partial cake of the Red Heart It's a Wrap Rainbow in the Foggy colorway that had 134 grams  out of the original 150 grams. (I also had two other full-size cakes on hand.) I wanted to try to use all of the partial cake for this scarf, so, based on the notes on PurpleIguana's project page (linked above), I calculated that I needed to crochet my scarf until it weighed about 89 grams before starting the decrease rows described in Fiber Spider's mods.

I was working from the white end of the cake to the gray end of the cake. On my first attempt, I started the decreases a bit early and ended up with still having quite a bit of the gray left, so I placed a marker to indicate where I started decreasing and then ripped back to that point. Then I crocheted another four-row repeat section using the original (increasing) stitch sequence before starting the decreasing rows again.

As you can see in my photo, the plies of this yarn are not spun at all, which can sometimes make it a bit fiddly to work with. But, overall, it is a lovely yarn that feels soft and light.

Plies not spun

On that second attempt, I ended up running out of the gray a few rows before the end of the scarf, so I stole a few grams of the gray end of one of my other cakes to complete this project. 😂 Hey, it's my yarn stash; I can do what I want with it. 😹

Before blocking

I soaked the scarf in a washtub with a splash of Woolite and a few drops of peppermint essential oil mixed in, with the hope that some of the fragrance will remain in the fiber after it's dried. I would have liked to have used lavender essential oil for the fragrance, but I only had peppermint on hand, so I used what I had. But now I'm thinking that I need to add a vial of the lavender to my collection soon (ha!!). This project turned out so well that I'm intending to enter it in the fair this fall, and I would like the fiber to have some lingering fragrance, if possible, to please the judges. 🤞

After rinsing and gently squeezing the scarf, I rolled it inside a fluffy bath towel and pressed out the remaining excess water. Then I pinned it to the blocking boards, gently pulling out the bottom sawtooth points and opening up the lace. As you can see in the photos, the blocking makes the scarf several inches taller than it was before blocking. But it would be lovely either way, with or without blocking.

Blocking

Dimensions after blocking: 80 inches by 14 inches. I will be entering this project in our local fair this year.

Crochet Romanian cord

Here is a quick tutorial video by Naztazia showing how to crochet Romanian cord. This cord works up fast and is useful for making lanyards, keychain wristlets, bracelets, tote straps — so many options for this lovely cord. You can use macrame cord, as in the video, but it also works well with most types of yarn.

 

A chibi demogorgon for Charlotte

My grandniece Charlotte's birthday is coming up!

I've actually been meaning to crochet one of these softies for her for the past four years, ever since I made one to give to her sister, Wendy. As soon as Wendy took it out of the gift bag, Charlotte said (in perfect little-sisterly fashion), "Ooooh!! I want one!!"

I'm so sorry, Charlotte; Auntie didn't intend for it to take THIS LONG for me to get this made for you! 😅 But I hope "better late than never" applies here. 😉

This is the Stranger Things Demogorgon, a free pattern by Andrea Leek. 

Charlotte's chibi demogorgon is made using the same mods to the original pattern that I used when making Wendy's version. The main difference between the two is that I used a 5mm hook for Charlotte's (compared to a 4mm hook for Wendy's). I did that mainly because the smaller/tighter gauge is really hard on my hands (so I was going easier on myself this time), but also because I figured the minor size difference would help them tell their softies apart, in case they ever ended up in the same place at the same time.

Both softies are made in a slightly less demonic "chibi" ragdoll style with a twist cuddly cuteness.

For more details of how I made these, check out the notes on my other Ravelry project page or my blog post about Wendy's demogorgon.

I wuv his widdle feetsies!!

Boo! Wheelchair Spoke Covers

If you know me, you know I just had to do it.

As I said in the narrative of my earlier project for the first set of wheelchair spoke covers I made, having a set of these in Boo! by Marsha Glassner is an absolute MUST for Halloween, because if you know me, you know that I ADORE Halloween. (The cutesy-creepy Halloween stuff, that is, not so much the gory-horrific stuff.)

Finished set

Boo! is designed to be an adorable doily crocheted with No. 10 crochet thread. To make the same design large enough to work as a set of wheelchair spoke covers, it's necessary to use heavier yarn (both for size and durability) and a larger hook. I used Red Heart Super Saver in the colorway Soft White and a 4 mm hook.

I had seen pictures and videos where other crocheters had made these sized as wheelchair spoke covers, but I wasn't able to find where anyone blogged about how they did it, so I basically had to start my project from scratch and use the trial-and-error method to figure out how to make it work.

The first set of wheelchair spoke covers I made previously was done with Red Heart yarn and a 5 mm hook, and those covers were the right size to fit my wheelchair's wheels after crocheting 16 rounds. The pattern for Boo! is 23 rounds to the top of the ghosts' heads, so I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments to be able to get the design to fit the wheels of my wheelchair.

First attempt overlaid a previously made working spoke cover

I am not including all the details here of how I made the flexible hoops for the spoke covers, which is how they are mounted inside the wheels' hand rails, because you can find that info by viewing my previous spoke cover project. I used the same process for this set.

1st attempt (L), 2nd attempt started (R)

For my first attempt here, I decided to use a 4 mm hook to crochet the pattern as written (I found it easier to follow the chart rather than the written instructions) just to see the size it would make that way, and then use that to figure out how much I was going to need to change it to fit. I stopped on round 22 (which eliminated the last round at the top of the ghosts' heads). You can see in my photo of the first attempt overlaid on one of my previously made spoke covers that it was going to need to be smaller by at least three rounds. 

2nd attempt attached to hoop

For my second attempt, knowing that I needed to make the design at least three rounds shorter, I decided to try skipping rounds 2, 4, and 6. Doing that meant that I had to change the increases on rounds 3, 5, and 7 to keep the stitch counts the same. And, again, I stopped the pattern after crocheting round 22. Making the pattern that way eliminated three rounds, but you can see in my photo of the second attempt after I attached it to the hoop frame that the fit was still too loose, so I knew that for my third attempt I was either going to have to eliminate more rounds from the pattern or else come up with a different solution.

2nd attempt (L), 3rd attempt (R)

I was feeling somewhat stumped at this point, because I was worried that eliminating more rounds from the pattern would be detrimental to the ghosts' appearance. I was clicking around, still trying to come up with a better solution, when I came across this video of a livestream by TheCraftyCub on YouTube of them crocheting Boo! on camera. Near the beginning of the video, where they are describing the pattern for their followers, they talk about the stitches used in the design, and they mentioned half-double crochets. I had already crocheted the pattern twice by the time I watched this video, and (I intend no offense to TheCraftyCub, but) I was pretty sure that there were no half-double crochet stitches anywhere in the Boo! chart.

Third attempt

But then the lightbulb went on over my head. 💡

I paused the video to think: What if I tried crocheting Boo! using half-double crochet stitches everywhere the pattern used double crochets?

Well, I didn't know for sure how it would turn out, but I decided to try crocheting the pattern that way for my third attempt. And, as you can see in my photos of the finished spoke covers, using half-double crochets throughout worked and resulted in the perfect size I needed for my wheels, AND I was able to follow the pattern chart all the way through round 23, so my ghosties are fully complete (according to the pattern).

To store the wheelchair spoke covers, I'm using a cable keychain loop that can open/close, similar to these found on Amazon. It's easy to thread one of these kechain loops inside the flexible hoops of a set of wheelchair spoke covers, and then hang the keychain loop from a hanger in the closet. The spoke covers take up very little room stored that way, and they are easy to access whenever I want to switch out the spoke covers on my wheelchair.

Wheelchair Spoke Covers

I've been using my wheelchair more and more lately as I've been battling ever-increasing pain in my hips and back. And then, a few weeks ago, my right hip apparently decided that it was done playing, which means the pain is now so bad that my leg threatens to give out on me if I try to walk unassisted, and my next appointment with my orthopedic doc isn't until later this month. So, in the meantime, I'm making do as best I can, which means using my wheelchair a lot more than before.

Finished set

Anyway, I've had this wheelchair for about a year and a half. It was gifted to me as a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law (who is a paraplegic). The wheelchair has been very helpful for me and has saved me from experiencing immense amounts of pain that I would have had without it, particularly when I'm cooking in the kitchen, because it saves me from having to stand/walk all the time.

But since I have recently been needing to use it even more, I decided the time had come to give her a bit of color and personality. 😁

First, I added some purple silicone hand rim covers, which I found on Amazon. Because purple is one of my favorite colors, obvs. 😊  

With purple hand rail covers only

Then I wanted to add some snazzy, colorful crocheted spoke covers. There are many tutorials online for how to make wheel covers/spoke covers, and there are many different methods that can be used to make them (including this super budget-friendly tutorial by Jude Merit for poster board covers laminated with strips of clear packing tape), so there isn't only just one "right way" to do it. This video by WheelchairCovers4U gives a good look at what the crocheted wheel covers are like and how they attach to the wheels. As you can see in the background, she has dozens of AMAZING and creative designs for the wheel covers she makes to sell. Her talent is very inspiring! I would say that if you want some wheel covers but don't want to make them yourself, you should definitely check out her shop.

Almost any circle will do - 14 rounds here

After clicking around online, I learned that there are basically two methods used to attach the covers to the wheels: using semi-rigid, flexible tubing that lets the cover "snap" into place and uses tension to hold the cover in place on the wheel; or using rigid outer rings with small binder rings to attach the cover to the hand rail. I opted to go the flexible tubing route. 

Tubing and hose barbs

The description of the supplies in this Etsy listing by JubilanceCrochet says they use 3/8-inch polyethylene tubing – outer diameter 3/8-inch, inner diameter 1/4-inch – to make their hoop frames. That size of tubing gives sufficient rigidity for the frame to hold its shape while still being flexible enough to allow the hoop to snap in/out of the wheel's hand rims. I bought my tubing at our local Ace Hardware, but just about any hardware-type store should carry it, or you can find it on Amazon. I also used 1/4-inch double-ended nylon hose barbs to join the ends of the hoops. 

Hoops with hair dryer

My husband helped me to measure where to cut the tubing and also to insert the hose barbs. We applied the heat from a hair dryer to the ends of the tubing for about 60 seconds to soften it up enough to get the barbs inserted; they were VERY snug. (But that's a good thing; they will stay in place securely.) You can see in my photo with the hair dryer that one of the rings lies flat, but the other one was more potato-chip shaped. 😂 My husband tried to twist the ends of the chip-shaped hoop in an attempt to get it to flatten out more, but eventually he gave up. I told him I was pretty sure that it would still work out OK after I attached the crocheted part and pushed the cover into the wheel. And it did. After finishing it, the chip-shaped one does have a small gap where it doesn't snug up to the inside of the hand rail all the way around as well as the flat one does, but I'm not worried about it. It still looks cute to me. (You can see the gap in my GIF when looking at the wheel on the right side of the wheelchair.) 

First attempt came up a bit short

For the crocheted portion, I used Spin Me Around by Catherine Bligh (a paid pattern), but just about any circle-shaped afghan, doily, or mandala pattern will work. "Spin Me Around" just seems terribly apropos for a project like this, don't you agree? 😵😂 If I decide to make another set of these later, I might use the Rainbow Granny Spiral Sun-Catcher pattern by Jaime Ramsey for my next set (another paid pattern). 🌀 And, OMG, for Halloween, a set of these in Boo! by Marsha Glassner (free pattern!!) would be TO DIE FOR, don't you think?!?! (Squeeeeee!!!) 👻 

Good fit this time

The tricky part about making wheel covers for any wheelchair is that the manufacturers have many different wheel sizes they use, and even wheels of the same diameter made by different manufacturers might still require different size wheel covers, depending on many different factors, such as how the hand rails are attached, etc. So it's important to keep this in mind as you're making your own set of wheel covers: The process is going to be highly customized to your unique wheelchair, and you can't just blindly rely on a pattern to give you the exact measurements your specific chair will require. My wheelchair has 24-inch wheels, and the measurement inside the hand rails is about a 20-inch diameter. We measured the best fit for the tubing on my chair to be about 60-inch lengths. And, remember, if you use hose barbs to attach the ends like I did, the barbs will add a tiny bit of length to the final measurement. 

First one done!

Using "tough" acrylic yarn is a good choice for the durability needed for a project like this. I had most of a skein of Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo Stripes in the Parrot Stripe colorway on hand in my stash. I figured the bright colors and the long color changes it has would work well for this project. 

First one installed - cuuute!

It turned out that the one skein would have been just the right amount to make the two wheel covers, including the length needed to crochet the covers to the rims, if I hadn't already used part of the skein to machine knit two hats for my grandnieces. 😆 But even so, I was nearly finished with the final row of my second wheel cover when that yarn ran out. It ended with green, so I found some Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green in my stash, which had enough length left to finish up that row and then crochet the second wheel cover to its rim, and it all turned out fine. Some makers, including JubilanceCrochet, prefer to use black yarn to attach their covers to the rims, no matter what color the center of the cover is, so I would say that it's fine to just use whatever colors you like and have on hand. 

At my gauge, my wheel covers were the correct size after crocheting 16 rounds. I stopped after 14 rounds on my first one and was about halfway around crocheting it to the rim when I realized that I was going to need to make the circle part bigger. Ultimately, I needed 16 rounds to make these fit correctly. So if you're making wheel covers for yourself, just be prepared for some trial and error as part of the process. You need them to be large enough to fit the hoops, but you also want the crocheted circles to stretch a bit so they fit snugly inside the hoops. It's a balance between "big enough" but not "too big."

To attach the crocheted circles to the rims, I chained up two and then single-crocheted around the rim into each stitch of the circle all the way around. This step is extremely fiddly, especially at the beginning, and awkward and difficult. But if you take it slowly and give yourself plenty of rest breaks, eventually you will make it all the way around and be ready to finish off with a knot to secure everything and weave in the tail.

Two different 5mm hooks

As a postscript, I included the photo of my two 5mm crochet hooks to illustrate the differences between the lip length. I prefer to use tapered hooks, like these, but even within that broad category, there can be significant differences in the shapes that affect their usability for individual crocheters. For me, the hook on the right, with the longer lip, was definitely more difficult to use, because the lip kept snagging as I worked. The hook on the left worked much more smoothly for me. The difference is minor, and I know different crocheters will have different preferences in which tools work best for them. But it's something to keep in mind: If you're struggling with a particular hook, consider trying one from another manufacturer.