Crochet Colourwork Tests

Having been completely savaged by the crochet bug, my next self imposed task is to see how I can animate it. Obviously. So with this in mind, I decided to carry out a few tests of different ways to create an image out of yarn. Also known as colourwork. I’ve so far tried three methods, some more successful than others, as you’ll find out below. The first method was mosaic crochet. And it’s safe to say I won’t be using that method for this pattern:

It was either the wrong pattern for the technique, or I was tired and it wasn’t really clicking that well for me. Likely the latter, but basically it just went wrong and I didn’t see the point in continuing through with it. To be honest the technique felt like a lot of wasted yarn too, because you crochet over a lot of the stitches as well. It looks great for some patterns- I’ve watched a fair few videos about it and seen a load of images of how it can look when carried out correctly, so it is a very cool technique, but unfortunately just not for me at this time. Maybe I’ll try again, who knows…

Oh yeah, before I go any further, I should say that this pattern is again self drafted, based on one of my own designs:

And below is how it looks after I was finished with it, after the next technique:

The next method I tried (and stuck to) was tapestry crochet. This felt a lot more logical to me- it was essentially like creating a big, crochet cross stitch! The pattern is essentially the same, in terms of a somewhat pixelated image, but obviously the technique is quite different!

I actually started this one again, because I had created the foundation chain too tightly so it started to fan inwards (not a good look), but I unravelled it and persisted through and completed the piece. Still, I lost one hour, but suppose I learnt something from that hour, to be mindful of the tightness of the starting chain. Including the lost hour, plus weaving in all the ends, it took five hours in total. I used a 4mm hook, and DK 100% acrylic yarn. The finished size measures approx 7.5in x 5in. Here’s the finished piece:

This was before I weaved in the ends:

And because it wasn’t the cleanest on the front, I actually went over some of it with my needle, in order to tidy it up a little and make the picture appear ‘cleaner’. Here is what it looked like pre tidying it up (you can see the changes if you compare it to the finished version above). It’s like a good old game of spot the difference!

As you can see in the photos, I did actually carry my yarn under some of the stitches, because it made for a smoother crochet process. But I learnt that when working on the wrong side, the carried yarn does unfortunately poke through. So in the future, I think I will try the intarsia technique, which is where you use separate bobbins/ skeins of yarn and drop those to the wrong side when you’re not working with them. You do not carry the yarn in this technique, meaning the final image will be cleaner. I also learnt midway, that if you’re crocheting a different colour on the above row, then on the right side rows, you work front loop only and on the wrong side rows, you work back loop only. This again, makes it all look neater/ nicer. I might even have another go at this, but not carry the yarn and do the BLO/ FLO the whole way through.

On finishing the piece, I decided to try another test, because I wasn’t quite that happy with how the finished version looked. In my opinion, the legs felt a bit too unclear and I thought that when this piece is animated, they might get a little too lost within the movement and end of looking like a blurry kind of mess. I toyed with the idea of embroidering it even more, to make the image clearer, but then what’s the point of crocheting something if I’m just going to embroider it? Then I may as well just create an embroidery rather than a crochet piece, so it kind of defeats the object.

I then had an idea of working right side only. This way, the yarn will be carried all to the back, plus it will all be forward facing, so the colour changes will all look uniform and the whole piece should just look neater. So I used what I learned in my failed mosaic crochet attempt, in terms of working from right to left only, rather than turning my work and implementing a border stitch at the beginning and end of each row.

I used all the same yarn/ hook size as above and the finished measurements are pretty similar, though this one took a total of 7 hours, 45 minutes. But, some of that was because I started again for a reason I no longer remember(!) and also because I created an envelope border to hide the ends.

And I’m just going to say here, the border is horrible!! It is NOT to my taste and to be honest, I think it just ruins the piece! But in the process, I did learn a new technique (one I likely won’t use again, mind) and I now know that creating a border in this way is not for me. It’s just not my style.

Border aside, the image in the middle is what we’re really here to talk about. And the horse is much, much cleaner than the first one. The legs are more defined and I just prefer the whole overall look. Comparison below:

But, as you can see, the image is slanting to the right. This is because I wasn’t turning each row at the end and with each row, the crochet tends to shift. I need to do some research into how to prevent this, because if this piece wasn’t slanted, then I’m sure this technique is the one I’d prefer to go with. I also didn’t carry the yarn here, so yes, there were sooo many ends to weave in!

…that aside, the image is one I’m a lot happier with. Either that, or I should do some research into how to create a cleaner image using the first technique. The first way was a bit easier, because you could just crochet continuously and didn’t need to fasten on/ off for each row. Hmm, definitely got to do some thinking/ reading to do around all this. I’ve lined up several videos already about this on my YouTube watch later playlist. Despite my dilemma here, I feel I’m on the right track to create what I want to be making and having only been at this just over a couple of months, I don’t feel I’m doing too badly! I shouldn’t be so hard on myself if things don’t quite work out first time round, plus the learning experience here is valuable too. And that’s why I carried out these tests. As always watch this space, see you next time xo