I’m giving tapestry crochet a shot. It is not easy.

This is an image of Ewing that was altered in Photoshop using this technique to create a filet crochet pattern: http://theindigophial.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-create-filet-crochet-pattern.html
Since this image translated well to only 2 colors, I’m going for the tapestry crochet. At the rate it’s going, Father’s Day may be more realistic than Christmas.

12/4/2010: This is going slowly, but I am getting better at crocheting with my left hand. It turns out that is the easiest way for me to do the alternate rows, who knew. I’ve been working on this very sporadically because I have a ton of projects going that I’m trying to finish up and the first few rows haven’t been going so great. There’s so many color changes that in areas where colors alternate, the piece is curled up a lot. I also need to print the image so I don’t need to read it from Photoshop.

12/6/2010: So far this has been a disaster. To attempt to get something decent done by Christmas, I’ve decided to do a pillow in regular single crochet with the yarns carried across the back. This is now 12 color b+w and 76x76. Of course now I need to find 10 shades of a color… joy. I am so determined to pull this off. I used KPG for the pattern as well as a grid of the image… which with 12 shades the grid won’t help much.

12/11/2010: Ok, bought the yarn. It’s mainly Red Heart Super Saver, but there is a little Impeccable Red Heart Soft, and Vanna in there too to make the needed shades. Am I worried about issues with that? Yes. I just worked the changes in the pattern as well so that the shades are in order. I ziplock bagged each yarn with a big number on it. Now it’s time to start…

Ok, so that turned into a tangled mess before I got to the end of row 2. It was really bad. I guess it’s time to try the Crochet By Numbers method now.

12/12/2010: So I tried the Crochet By Numbers method last night and while it looks pretty good, it took about an hour a row, so around 3AM after row 3, I decided it’s time for the next option. With 12 color I had way too many 1 stitch per color and it go ridiculous. I’m going to see if I can get a decent image with 4 color at not too large a size and try intarsia this time. The Thomas blanket I worked on seems SOOOOO much easier.

12/12/2010 PM: Ok, so now I’m at 152x154 stitches with 6 colors and doing this using intarsia. I started with 2 rows of black and finished the first 5 pattern rows, which so far have been very simple. Of course the real challenge will be the face. The good news is I’m already further along than any of the other attempts!

12/18/2010: So I’ve been working on this some the past two days. Last night around 1am I remembered that I make a lot of mistakes after midnight and it’s a good idea to just go to sleep instead of crocheting through the night just to rip it out in the morning. My main problem right now is maintaining my stitch count. I cannot figure out where extra stitches are coming from and where I’m losing stitches, but the past few rows keep ending up being off. When I check the row, I still can’t figure it out.

I don’t think I’ll have time to finish before Christmas, but I hope to have a decent percentage done and will let my husband know what his future present will be.

If I do another photo, I would not use black and white, but would use more shades of a color.

I just stared using a combination of bobbins for areas that I knew would use a large amount of a color and 6 footish lengths for those that wouldn’t. It’s been working out pretty well.