Snaggletooth MAL Week 2

 Hi there! Welcome to Week 2 of the Snaggletooth Make Along, which I am thrilled to be running with the wonderful Scheepjes team. 

Yes, this week it's all about edging our Snaggletooths! (Or should that be Snaggleteeth??) ...But can I just say before anything else, OH MY GOSH!! Your response and enthusiasm for this project has been incredible so far! 3000 downloads already!! Thank you all so much for sharing your colours, chatting about all things Snaggletooth. I know this is a new style of crochet for some of you, and I know some of you were understandably apprehensive about it, as it looks quite tricky. But then you gave it a try, and you should all be so proud of yourselves for diving in feet first! It's not hard once you've got the rhythm, and remember the pattern gives lots of helpful hints. I'm also so thankful to the INCREDIBLE Scheepjes super Moderators on Facebook who are helping out with your questions... thank you lovely Scheepjes Mods!!

Before we start, here are some useful links if you need to catch up:

If you'd like to participate, you will find lots of help, support and chat over at the Scheepjes Facebook community here:

OFFICIAL SCHEEPJES INTERNATIONAL GROUP

and 

OFFICIAL SCHEEPJES NEDERLANDSE GROEP

where we will be sharing our work, and chatting about all things Snaggletooth.

The Snaggletooth pattern is available as a paid pattern on Ravelry HERE but I am delighted to offer it to you as a free gift from me to you with the code ScheepjesMAL for the duration of the MAL when you check out on Ravelry. It is also available as a paid pattern only (not free) in my Etsy shop HERE.

...And just so no one misses any Snaggletooth news, here's the itinerary:

PREVIOUS POSTS

A Big Announcement! (8 Sept)

Week 1 (22 Sept): How to Mosaic Crochet

UPCOMING POSTS

Week 3 (6 Oct): Pompoms and Tassels

Week 4 (13 Oct): Wrapping up the MAL and celebrating your makes!

SO, HERE WE GO: WEEK 2 HOW TO EDGE SNAGGLETOOTH

 OK, this is where it gets really fun as we take our 2-colour Snaggletooths from last time, and make them GLORIOUS with some fabulous edging. It's like icing a cake- I mean, a plain cake is great, tastes good, but it's even better with groovy colourful icing and sprinkles. This, in essence, is what edging is all about. The introduction of that third colour transforms the design into something unique and fabulous. From this...

...to this! Hank Deluxe my cat obviously loves the beautiful aqua edging I chose for my Chunky Monkey Version! He looks happy, right?? 

 To start, you'll need to have either made an entire Snaggletooth main throw (which would be amazing!) or a swatch, which we made last time in my post Week 1: How to Mosaic Crochet. For all information on special stitches and useful tips, I suggest you follow the link above to that post as I won't be going into those details again this week. And of course the full pattern gives all the info too!

For my swatch, I used the following yarns:

Yarn: Scheepjes Chunky Monkey (you can use any Scheepjes yarn and hook size of your choice, so long as the colours are contrasting to show the stitches clearly)

Yarn A: Slate

Yarn B: Stone

Yarn C: Aqua

6.5mm crochet hook

So, to edge my swatch, I'll be using Yarn C (the aqua blue) with some Yarn A (dark blue) to add a bit of interest.

Top Edging

We will start with the top edge, which we fastened off last time.

With RS facing, join Yarn C with a ss in the first st on the top edge.

Row 1 (RS) Ch1 (again, this never counts as a st), 1dc in each st to end, turn. [33 sts]

Row 2 (WS) Ch1, 1dc in each st to end, cc to Yarn A in final st, turn.

Row 3 (RS) Ch1, 1dc, *ch2, skip 1 st, 1dc; rep from * to end, turn.

Row 4 (WS) Ch1, 1dc, *ch2, skip ch-2 sp, 1dc; rep from * to end, cc to Yarn C in final st, turn.

Row 5 (RS) Ch1, 1dc, *1mtr, 1dc; rep from * to end, turn.

Row 6 (WS) Ch1, 1dc in each st to end. 

Fasten off both yarns and weave in the ends.

Bottom Edging

Now we're going to edge the bottom edge in exactly the same way. You might remember last time I mentioned when we started the swatch to make Row 1 into the single back loop on the back of each chain? Well, this is where it pays off, as we work Row 1 of the Edging into each of the 33 chains of the starting chain. It just makes for a good edge, which looks like it's part of the design, not just an edge added on which it can do when working into a starting chain.

So, as before, with RS facing, join Yarn C with a ss into the first chain on the bottom edge, then follow the pattern as above.

Now we have a lovely top and bottom edging done, we need to edge the two 'raw' sides, where the yarn has been carried up every 2 rows. To be honest, on some designs I like to keep this visible but here we're going to cover up these sides.

Side Edging

Very simply, each side is edged with 2 rows of dc stitches in Yarn C. It makes a neat edge, as you work your dc stitches OVER ANY LOOSE LOOPS of yarn carried up the side of the work. The only issue is that getting your stitch count correct when working into the row-ends can be tricky. You want your work to lie flat, without rucking, or without being too tight. Some people choose a different hook size, some have a tried and tested 'formula' to get the drape just right.

So, with all that said, this is my formula, it may not work for you so feel free to work to your own, or have an experiment to see what works for you.

I always use the same size hook as for the main pattern.

First Side

With RS facing, join Yarn C with ss in first row-end on one side. 

Row 1 (RS) Ch1, 1dc in same row-end as ss, 1dc in each of next 3 row-ends, *skip next row-end, 1dc in each of next 4 row-ends; rep from * to last 2 sts, skip next row-end, 1dc in each of last 2 row-ends, turn. [34 dc]

Row 2 (WS) Ch1, 1dc in each st to end. Fasten off.

Second Side

Repeat as for First Side.

Weave in all ends. Block as required. I never block my throws as I'm too lazy and I think they look good unblocked anyway!

So, that's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed getting some gorgeous edging on your Snaggletooth. Next week it's all about pompoms and tassels, so I'll see you then. Until next time, happy mosaic crocheting!

Esme x

PS Don't forget to share your pics, I'm so excited to see your colour choices! We'll take a look at some of your Snaggly works of art next week!