Grand Bazaar – Before We Begin: Special Stitches

Before we get started with the Grand Bazaar CAL Lite, you’ll want to make sure you’re familiar with the special stitches needed to make this pattern. We’ll go over the basics you need to know here, but you’ll want to review page 8 of the pattern for the complete list of special stitches used.

Post Stitches

Regular post stitches are made by inserting the hook from front to back around the post of a stitch (for a front post stitch) or from back to front around the post of a stitch (for a back post stitch) and pulling up a loop. Make sure you’re going around the post not just under the top two loops – that’s a different stitch. This is easiest to do on a double crochet because the post is so obvious.

Front Post:

1. Insert your hook from front to back around indicated stitch to pull up a loop. 2. Completed front post stitch.

Back Post:

1. Insert your hook from the back. 2. Continue inserting hook around front of indicated stitch to pull up a loop. 3. Completed back post stitches.

Shallow post stitches are made similar to regular post stitches, but you insert your hook just below the top two loops of the stitch and nothing more.

I’m going to send you over to the Moogly Blog by Tamera Kelly to learn how to make shallow post stitches – you can also see regular post stitches in action in her excellent video tutorial.

Picots

Picots are pretty important in this pattern. They are not simply used as a design element, they are important structural elements.

I do NOT recommend making just any picot for this. My instructions for making a picot are as follows: ch3, slst into back bump of first ch. This gives you a very pointy picot with smooth sloping sides.

Here is a video tutorial on how I make picots.

To use picots as structural elements we will work stitches into their centers. Here is a video tutorial I made for the Lotus Moon Tiles CAL to help you see how to do that. (Ignore the part about working into the bottom of a picot. That is something we did in Lotus Moon. We will only be working into the center of the picots for Grand Bazaar.)

TIP: if you’re worried you’re going to have trouble working into the center of a picot, there’s an easy trick to help. First, make your ch3 for your picot, then place a stitch marker around that section of chain (1) – you don’t want the marker in a specific chain, you want it around the whole thing. After your stitch marker is around your chain you may need to hold it in place while you slip stitch to the back bump of the first chain (2) thereby trapping the stitch marker in the loop of the picot (3). Then, when you get to the part where you have to work into the center of the picot you can simply insert your hook right in the place where you stitch marker goes through your picot (4).

Other Special Stitches

e-dc (extended double crochet) & htr (half treble crochet) are two ways of making a stitch that is slightly taller than a double crochet and slightly shorter than a treble crochet.

To make an extended double crochet: yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch and pull up a loop, (here’s where it’s different than a regular double crochet) yarn over and pull through ONE loop on your hook, finally yarn over and pull through two loops on hook twice (just like a regular double crochet)

To make a half-treble crochet: yarn over twice (just like a regular treble) and insert your hook into the indicated stitch and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two loops on hook ONCE, then yarn over and pull through remain THREE loops on hook (see how the second part is like a half-double crochet?)

X & A stitches found in extensions will be discussed on the week that we do the extensions. Don’t worry about them for now.

So that’s not too bad is it? There are a few more special stitches in the pattern, but they are made up of pieces you already know and/or what we’ve just discussed. Remember, everything in crochet is just a variant of pulling one loop through another – so if you can make a chain you can make anything.

Don’t forget to check out my other blog posts for the Grand Bazaar CAL Lite by clicking here.

If you still need the pattern, you can get it on Ravelry or on Etsy. (Use coupon code “liteitup” now through January 31st, 2017 for a 25% discount!)

And all the CAL excited can be found in the Polly Plum Pattern Posse on Facebook.

Hope to see you there!