So, I've fallen into a crochet hole ... It started when I "discovered" this then I found this. So, to get my crochet chops down, I decided that I would use all of my (not so) itty bitty bits of mystery yarn to try my hand at making Teru Teru Bozus (掃晴娘). This "trial" really is a "killing 2 birds with 1 stone" concept: 1) to help instill in me crochet terms and 2) to help decorate my window with something other than my much loved crochet snowflakes (which is meant to be my "winter" decoration so, I need some other season (summer!) decoration).
So the first thing I needed to do was to evaluate my mystery yarn: I had various colours of mystery yarn of which some of them seemed to be mohair-like and most of them seemed to be very thin, lace like yarn. So, using my (best buy ever!) ball winder, I doubled up the yarn and wound the mohair-like yarn together with a non-mohair like yarn to give it more structure. Then, I proceeded to try my hand at making a Teru Teru Bozu (掃晴娘) using a 3.5mm crochet hook.
In my first foray (using my blue mohair-like yarn), making the head was relatively quick and easy. I even learned that I had to stuff the head before I got to the last round because it was simply too small for me to stuff it by then. But, when it came to making the body, that's where I had run into issues. First of all, I think I made the body "too big" so, it didn't have the look of a tied material version. This also meant that I also casted on too many stitches. So, I had to rip it out to start again (this also meant: ripping out mohair is not that easy to do! 😳😱🤦). Nevertheless, I managed and tried again and here's what I did:
Row 1: cast onto the head 6 sts.
Row 2: inc 1 st (12 sts)
Row 3: sc, inc 1 st (18 sts)
Row 4: sc, inc 1 st, sc2, inc 1 st (24 sts)
Row 5: sc 3, inc 1 st (30 sts)
Row 6-7: sc (30 sts)
Row 8: sc 4, inc 1 (36 sts)
Row 9-11: sc (36 sts)
Row 12: sc 5, inc 1 (42 sts)
Row 13: *trtr 1, DC 1, skip a st*, repeat *
Bind off & weave in ends.
Now that I had one under my belt, proceeded to use all my other miscellaneous balls of yarns:
The multi lace was the easiest to crochet (simply because it wasn't fuzzy). I used the same 3.5mm hook.
The black and white mohair was very hard to crochet because the "base" black and white yarn was cotton and while it provided a great base for the mohair, it was really hard on my hands. I had to use a 4.0mm hook for this one (& yes, it was with my most non-favorite Furls hook because it's really heavy).
For the mixed blue and black & white multi mohair, I decided to see what it would look like using a bigger hook so, I used my Furls 4.0mm hook for it. Oddly, it was only slightly larger than my original one although I suspect it was really due to the black & white mohair yarn.
For the plain white one, I decided to try an even bigger hook so, I used my Furls Candy 5.00mm hook to see how much bigger it would be. The head come out larger but not radically larger and the body size remained the same. What I did learn was that the tapered head on my Candy hook was something I actually disliked about my hook. When I had to do a small diameter, I actually switched to an in-line hook which was easier for me to do the additional increases needed.
For the white and pink one, I used a 5.00mm hook and simply followed what I did with the plain white one. This time, the head came out a bit better & less floppy.
For the black & white and blue mohair one, I used a 3.50mm hook and found out how floppy the black & white multi really was. I ended up reinforcing the head to the body with some cream yarn so it wasn't so floppy.
For the larger multi, I added another 2 strands of cream and used my 5.00mm hook. It was twice as large is my original multi.
For the navy and turquoise marl, I used a 4.50mm hook and ran out of yarn on the last 2 rows which worked out well as it has a very cute navy edged trim.🥰
For navy and cream marl, I used a 4.50mm hook. It was virtually the same size as the navy & turquoise one.
For the navy, multi and cream marl, I used a 3.50mm hook. It came out to nearly the same size as the multi & cream one (it's just a tad taller) but with the navy yarn, the multi really pops! 🥰
For my 2nd multi & cream, I used a 3.50mm hook for the head and body and a 4.00mm hook for the edging. I realized that since I had a much better understanding of how to connect the head and body (without breaking the yarn), my newer version is larger but also better looking.
For my 3rd multi, I did the same thing as my 2nd multi. However, it came out slightly taller than my 2md one. 🤷
For the all cream one, I did the same thing as the multi one and it came out cute and petite. 🥰
For the final multi, it came out the smallest and actually perfect for Hub's nice where she can either hang it on her backpack or whatever else she wants to put it on.
And, here's what all my teru teru bozus look like:
Together:
And apart:
