So... found another pattern in the cro-tat books and decided to try it. My now I've tried many different threads to see if I could find any that worked better.
1. I have size 20 and 40 in Lizbeth, which is a tightly woven 6 cord thread, so not catchy, BUT that is way small for the size hook they sent. It leaves the stitches too loose. So I will wait to try it till I get my 1mm cro-tat hook I ordered off ebay. The hook sent by Annies Attic, is about the size of a 7 crochet hook, and I rememered I had a size 3 sample from Lizbeth, and since the stitches with 10 were too loose, thought I'd try it. It did make nice tight stitches, but bigger rings, not small dainty ones:
2. I found that the Hobby Lobby thread Artiste, has a sheen on it, and so is more slippery, and that causes the hook to slip thru the stitches, rather than catch. (In cro-tatting, you get the stitches off the needle by pulling the hook with a loop of thread, back thru the stitches, then catching a loop at both ends to close the ring) Still loose, with this hook we'll see how the 1mm works with the Artitste thread, which is the least expensive solution to good thread to cro-tat with.
3. Then I remembered, quite some time back, Walmart had a clearance on a bunch of some kind of thread skeins, and I bought a dogs load of it, at something like 10cents each. I thought I could make Barbie clothes with it, as I had 2 Barbie pattern books. I did make half a Barbie top... she's still mad about that...I wonder where that is now.... But, I couldn't remember what it was, but knew it was not cross stitch floss, with the 6 strands for separating. Turns out that it was DMC Perle Cotton 5, and I have a whole drawer of it. Again this thread has the important charicteristic of looking shiny and that makes it non-snaggy!
It reminds you of long hanks of wool yarn, because it is a large loop of thread, that is tied and then twisted into skeins to keep it in order, then you have to decide how to handle it when you open it, so it doesn't fly into knots. I guess many people wind it... but I'm lazy about some things... or maybe just work smarter, not harder... unwound pretty easily from the opened loop, after hanging it from a cabinet knob, by my desk.
So, with this discovery of nice shiny slinky perle cotton #5, I chose another cro-tat pattern and it worked wonderfully.
This pattern is from Annie's Attic #873717, "Crochet Baker's Dozen Pot Holders". Pattern by Elizabeth Ann White. Using the Annie's Attic cro-hook with hook size appearing like size 7/1.65 crochet hook.
This comes with a front and back body (not the rose), but since a pot will never dare to touch it, on Rnd 11- I di NOT fasten off, instead finish last ch as -ch 1, dc in last ch 3 of starting ch, which put me in the middle of the chain for the next rnd. Then go straight to the 2 rnds of edging. I do not see this as a pot hold, but decorative, like a doily.
Even with only one thickness of the body, I was lucky to finish the ecru crocheted area with about 2 yds left over from the skein of 27 yds. I used about 2/3 of the other 2 skeins. I see a large improvement in this second cro-tatted project, from the first one.
