Fall Crocheting

I just can't stop.  I made a cute little pumpkin to go with the others, from this pattern:

I used a mystery yarn from my stash (used for this jack'o'lantern), which I think is a worsted but seemed a little thicker than the other worsteds I have, so I used a K-sized hook, which is supposedly on the upper end of the recommended range, but I think it was too big -- you can see the batting, which I don't like.  I'm learning that for a lot of the projects I'm drawn to, one is better off using a much smaller hook than recommended.  I also didn't realize I was supposed to make the stitches in the back loop only, so the ribbing was lost.

I tried again, with a smaller hook (H, I think? or maybe G):

Much better!  I'm sending this one to my mom.

Next up was a leaf, with pretty, pretty variegated yarn that was also bulky and bumpy and tended to split.  Having learned my lesson, I used a smaller hook for this project, but of course that was a mistake.  The fuzziness of the yarn and the smallness of the stitches made it very difficult to make sure I was actually putting all the stitches where they were supposed to go, and the result is kind of messy:

I tried again with a larger hook, and that was much neater (and easier).  However one of the downsides was a visible gap in round two, between the chain stitches used to represent the first stitch and the last double crochet:

When I wove in the ends I ran a stitch just behind this gap to close it up.

Here it is with a metal mesh leaf I made a number of years ago:

For good measure, I made another out of the pumpkin yarn:

The pattern is even easier with "normal" yarn!