Left Hand Acorn Ornament Free Crochet Pattern Workshop

Hey everyone! It's Deja from crocheteverafter.com. Today's project is a viewer request. She wanted an acorn ornament, so I made up this little guy so that everyone can have a bunch of acorn ornaments. These things are really fast to make. You could probably make one in about a half an hour, so you can fill a whole tree by the end of a weekend. But we're going to use worsted weight yarn, and we're going to use two different size hooks. For the actual seed portion of our acorn, we're using a 3.5, and then for the seed top, we're using a 4.0 millimeter. So these are much smaller than normal worsted weight yarn hooks, but that's going to create these really tight stitches so that it stays in its shape and nothing pokes through, none of our stuffing will poke through. So let's grab our yarn and we'll get started. Okay, so we're going to start off with the seed portion of our acorn, and what I want to do is I want to make a long beginning tail, because I'm actually going to use my yarn to stuff the seed, because it's really small, and using stuffing, trying to stuff something that small can get really difficult, so I'm going to show you how you can use your yarn to stuff it, and it's a lot easier. So usually I'll keep my tail short so you can see it, but I'm going to make it longer so that I can stuff it. So I'm just making a loop with my yarn. I've probably got, you know, a good two feet of yarn. So I'm going to take my yarn, and I'm just going to turn my yarn down to create a little crossover because we're going to do a magic adjustable loop for the beginning of the seed. So with that crossed over, I have my yarn in the correct place. I want my working yarn to come through the loop, and I'm just going to secure it with a slip stitch so that I can start making my magic adjustable loop. And in my magic adjustable loop, I'm going to put four single crochets. Usually you start with six for a flat circle, but I don't really want a flat circle. What I want is it to kind of taper up. So let me show you how we do the single crochet. So I'm going to reach through the center. I'm going to lay my yarn over. It's almost like it's not even touching my hook. So I'm going to grab it with my hook and bring it up. I have two loops on my hook. Hold on to your magic adjustable loop so it doesn't start spinning on you. I'm going to yarn over from back to front, turn my hook down and pull through. That's my first single crochet. I'm going to do that again. Reach through. This one's kind of more connected because now we have a single crochet already there, so it's touching the hook this time. So I lay over, pull up the loop, yarn over and pull through. I'm going to do two more of those. So we finish our first round, and then we're going to close the Magic Adjustable Loop. This is not going to make a full circle. It's going to make almost like a three-quarter circle. You can see it's not coming all the way around where it's going to touch. If I had put six single crochets, then I would get more of a circle. But that's all right. We're still going to be able to work into this. So we're going to start round two. Okay, so for round two, we're going to put two single crochets in each of our four single crochets. And you can see that the very first one is over here, it's kind of far away from where my hook is. That's alright, we're still going to be able to work into it. If you're kind of confused, because this is a pretty small hook and your stitches are going to be really small, where that first single crochet is, just turn your work sideways And you will always have your The V stitches, the tops of your stitches look like little V's, so you're just going to count backwards, 1, 2, 3, and 4 to find that very first one. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to kind of reach across instead of going like around with a really long loop. I'm keeping my loop the same size as my shaft because I want tight stitches that the stuffing won't show through. So I'm just going straight across to that first single crochet. Sometimes you might have to push to get under both loops because it can be a little small. So once I'm under, then I'm going to lay over, yarn over my hook, pull up that loop, And then, make sure that I keep my loops nice and small to keep my stitches tight, yarn over and pull through. So as we work these eight stitches this is going to look more like a circle and it's going to kind of form up into a bowl. But what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to mark this first stitch that I made. And what that does is it helps me keep track because we're working in spirals. We're not joining rounds. We're going straight into our next round by working right into the previous round. We're not joining and chaining one. So I just Take a stitch marker and you can put it under one loop or you can put it under both loops, whatever you like to do, I'm just sticking it under that one loop. Now I need to go back into that stitch and make another single crochet. So you can see, it's kind of even difficult if I pull it, you still can't quite see the hole, but you're just going to go right back into that same stitch where you made the last one And put your hook through. Once you get used to doing some of these stuffed projects or amigurumi, you'll get used to working with these small stitches. It can take a little bit of practice to start these first couple of rounds, so don't get frustrated. Just keep trying, and remember, look for your Vs to find your stitches. So now I'm going to my next stitch, and I'm going to put two in there. These are a lot easier to see. They're a little bit bigger than that very first one. So I just go right back into that same one to make the second. You'll see my stitches are really tiny, because I want them to be really tight. So always push your loops to your shaft. Push through, go back in, pull up a loop, push it to the shaft, yarn over, pull through, and push the shaft. So I'm going to do that eight times for round two, which I'm on my seventh stitch. Now I'm at eight. I know that I'm at the end because my stitch marker is right there. And you'll see it's kind of starting to look like a circle. I'm going to start cupping it up. I'm going to push that center out because now I'm starting to get the bottom of my seed. So you can see how it kind of goes up into a rounded end. So my next instructions for round three are going to have some brackets and a repeat. So what I'm going to do for round three is I'm going to single crochet in my next stitch. Then I'm going to single crochet in the stitch after, so when you see brackets, it's going to tell you what you're going to do and how many times to do it. So it says SC two in next stitch, and then a comma, which means go to the next stitch after, and single crochet, and it tells me to do that four times. So that's going to give me 12 stitches in all at the end of this round. So I'm going right into my next stitch, remember, just turn it sideways if it's difficult to see and find that V. I'm going to do my first single crochet, and I'm going to put my stitch marker in. Just go right under that loop there. These are nice because they kind of hold well, and they're not too big, so they don't get in your way. I think these are from Lion Brand. And I'm going to do another one in that same stitch. So I SC two times in my next stitch. Now there's a comma, which means go to my next stitch and do one single crochet. So I'm going to follow that repeat three more times. If you have dark yarn, this is the dark, not super dark, but it can get a little difficult to see your stitches, get a bright light. That can help a lot. You can hear my yarn is squeaking. That tends to happen when you're doing tight stitches. So if you're squeaking, it's probably a good thing for amigurumi or stuffed items. Almost to my last two stitches. You'll see my thing's kind of getting all wonky again. I just have to push it out to get it back to that curved. I try to make my stitches really tight. Your hands can get pretty tired working these kind of stitches as well. Thankfully this is a really small project, so it doesn't take a long time. But if your hand gets sore, just take a break. All right, I'm back to the beginning of my round. Now I'm ready for round four. Round four is saying that I'm just gonna single crochet in every stitch around. This stitch marker comes in really handy now because I don't have to count my stitches at all. I can just do my first stitch, stitch one, put my stitch marker back in, and then I'm gonna do 11 more stitches. I'm gonna do one stitch in every stitch that I come to. And then when I hit this stitch marker, I know that I'm done with round four. So single crochet in every stitch around. I'm going to show you my last single crochet of round four. Now round five and round six are just a repeat of round four. You're going to do 12 single crochets in every stitch around. So that stitch marker can help you. If you don't have a stitch marker, just grab a piece of yarn and you can place it in your stitches you're working that very first stitch. So that way you can still keep track. So that way you don't have to keep a continuous count and you can watch TV while making these. So keep going, we'll go all the way to the end of round 6. You're going to do 2 more rounds of just 12 single crochet around. And then we'll meet up to do the decreasing. Okay, round six is done. Now we're going to do a much blunter end to the top of our seed than this tapered beginning. So to do that, we're gonna take our 12 stitches and decrease them in half, all the way down to six. So you'll see on the pattern itself, it says, it has brackets, and it says SC2TOG, which means single crochet two together, and it tells me to do that six times. So what that means is I'm going to take these next two stitches, and I'm going to turn them into one. So to do that, I'm going to insert my hook into the first stitch, yarn over, and pull up a loop. Then I'm going to stop, and I'm going to go directly into the next stitch that I come to, yarn over, and pull up a loop. So now I have three loops on my hook, and I'm going to yarn over and pull through all three. And that's going to turn two single crochets into one. Let me put my stitch marker in there. Even though it's a much more noticeable stitch, it's still easier to put the stitch marker in and not have to worry about it. So again, we're going to go into the next stitch we come to. So you'll see that there's yarn coming out of both of those, but you can still turn your work sideways to find that next stitch. Right through, and notice because this is a circle, I kind of push down on the back side and push my hook up through the center. Because if I go straight across, I might catch the other side of my acorn. So when you're pushing your hook in, kind of push it up, and I just use my finger as kind of a guide to keep it away from the back side so I don't end up going through two layers. I go through that first one and pull up a loop, go to the next one, pull up a loop. And then I'm going to yarn over, and notice I pull my hook straight down, and sometimes you have to wiggle a little bit, just wiggle a little tiny bit, and you'll get through all three loops. Because your loops and stitches are really tight in this type of project, sometimes it can get a little difficult to pull through. So make sure you point your hook down, and that'll help you out. And if you wiggle it just a little so you don't get caught on the plies, you'll get all the way through. I just have a couple more of these to do until I'm at the end of the round, and I will have reduced everything to six stitches. And last decrease. The SC2TOG is also called a decrease, so you can see it written both ways. I'm going to pull out my loop. I'm not going to cut it off just yet. Because it's kind of helped me keep it out of the way for while I'm stuffing my yarn into my seed. So, I'm taking my beginning tail that was made down here, and I'm just stuffing it back inside. So it's going to take a little work. You can use the end of your hook to push it in. Just kind of double it over, then use your hook and shove it in there. Depending on how much yarn you have at the beginning, you might have a little too much or a little too less or just perfect. If you have too much, just cut whatever you don't need. If you don't have enough, just take, once you've cut, you can cut this tail and then grab a little bit of extra yarn and push it inside. But this is a great stuffing for small items using the yarn that you made it out of because you won't get any color, you know, most of the stuffing is white so if you over stuff it you're not going to see the white stuffing sticking through. You wouldn't want to use this on like a huge stuffed animal because that would take a lot of yarn. So I probably could use a little bit more stuffing so let me show you what I do. So I'm going to pull my tail a little bit longer because I'm going to use my tail to close up the top of my hole, which we're going to do right after we finish stuffing. So let me get my kitty snips. How cute are these? I just found these on Amazon, actually. And I'm going to do a giveaway of a pair of these. So if you go over to my blog and follow it, you'll see the giveaway come up pretty soon. So I've got this probably long enough to weave. So I'm just going to cut that. Goodbye kitty, the extra. So I'm going to probably get a few more, another couple feet maybe. I'm just going to pull out some more. I'm actually going to need my cat again. I'm going to have to cut this cat a little bit more and start stuffing it in again. So you don't want to overstuff it because this product looks better a little bit smaller than if it was completely stuffed to the brim. But I can fit a lot more in here than I have right now. Overstuff it as much as you like, because it's yarn and not stuffing, it's not going to settle as much as stuffing, so usually if you're using polyfill, they tell you to overstuff it, because over time it loses its buoyancy, I guess you would call it, so you want to overstuff it so that it doesn't get so deflated over time, but using yarn, it shouldn't deflate as much as the polyfill. Good, because the top of this is going to be relatively flat when we're done, so I push it flat now and then see how much I have around. So I think that's pretty good. I think I'll cut the rest of this. So handy. Okay, put that last piece in. Now we're going to close off the top of our hole. So we have our very last stitch, and we're going to go the way that we would crochet. So I'm going to take out this stitch marker. And either starting from the inside out or the outside in, it does not matter. I'm going to weave this tail in and out of all these stitches. So I'm just going to go outside in, I'm going to grab the tail and I'm going to pull it through. Then I go opposite, so now I'm going inside out on the next stitch. I'm grabbing the tail, pulling it through, and go to the next stitch. So I'm just weaving it in and out of these last six stitches. And this is going to give me a nice flat top for my acorn. Make sure you do one on that last, or technically first stitch. Okay, and then I'm just going to pull it tight to close down that hole. Make sure that it lays nice and flat like I want it to. So now I have my seed complete. And I'm just going to get rid of this end in a super easy way. So you can weave it in if you want to, but what I like to do is I just go right through the center And poke it out on whatever end. Pull it through and this kind of helps make it flat too because I can pull it nice and tight. Take my kitty snips. Pull it kind of tight when you cut it. Cut it right next to your project and then it's going to ricochet back inside. Nice and easy fasten off. Okay so our seed is complete. What we're going to make now is our seed top. This is really dark and it's hard to see when you crochet with so I'm going to make the seed top on the video out of the same color but when I sew it all together I will use the darker brown one that I made. But what we're going to do is we use the E-hook or the 3.5 millimeter for the seed. Now we're switching to a four millimeter and what you need to do is be careful. Because, I don't want to say F or G, if you can see on here, both of these say 4mm. One is an F on this, this is the same manufacturer too, which kind of cracks me up, because this is a Clover Soft Touch, and this is a Clover Amore, and they are different letters. I have an F, and I have a G. So don't go by the letter, go by the millimeter. So find a 4mm hook because you just want it slightly bigger than your 3.5mm so that it will fit nice on top of your acorn. So don't worry if it's an F or a G as long as it's a 4mm. I don't know why they do that. It still baffles me, so I'm just going to use my soft touch since I was using the soft touch for the E. And we're going to start our seed top. So what we're doing is making a little hat for the top of our seed. So what we're going to do is just kind of remake the last couple rows of this seed in reverse. So to start our seed top, we want a long tail again, not for stuffing but for hanging, because we're going to use this to make the actual hanging part of our ornament. So make it a little bit longer than you normally would, and we're going to do the magic adjustable loop again. So turn it, grab it, reach through, You can either just start single crocheting or you can slip stitch like I do. But this time, instead of four, we're actually going to make the full circle. We're going to do six single crochet. So we did six single crochet at the end of our seed. So our seed top is going to begin with six single crochet. So that way they can look identical. Three, five, and six. And we're going to close that up and start round two. So just grab your tail. Pull it closed and you can see that now we almost have a completely closed circle that's going to be a lot easier to work than those four single crochets. Okay, so now we're going to start doing two single crochets in every stitch around for round two. So again, if it's difficult to find that first single crochet, just count backwards from your last stitch made. One, two, three, four, five, and six. We're going to head under both loops as usual. I always find that very first one to be a little bit tighter than the rest because there's no chain one at the beginning. And this is worked in the spiral as well. I'm going to throw my stitch marker in that very first one before I forget. And we're just going to do two single crochet in each stitch that we come to. So we'll have 12 stitches at the end of this round. Here's the last stitch of round two. Pull out that stitch marker, and now we're going to do two rounds. Round three and round four are just going to be 12 single crochets all the way around. So one single crochet in every stitch you come to, just to make our seed top cup over and kind of turn into a hat for our seed. So just keep going around in each stitch that you come to for two more rounds. Here's the last single crochet of round four. Now it says to slip stitch fasten off, which is what we're going to do to finish this off. Now if I take out this stitch marker and you look at the end of this stitch here, you can see it's a lot higher than the round below because we've got a little bit of height all the way around. So, to make this blend in better, we're going to slip stitch into this next stitch. So we're going to insert our hook, yarn over, pull up that loop, and then pull it through our previous stitch. And now we've brought the height down from here to there so it matches up better and it's not so noticeable. Then I'm going to fasten off with a long tail because I'm going to use this tail for sewing our hat, or our seed top, to our seed. So cut that off. And then get your yarn needle, because we're going to start making the hanging tag, or the hanging portion, hanging loop, whatever you want to call it, and we're going to sew the seed top to the seed, but we're going to use the dark brown color. Okay, so I've got my dark brown seed top, and what I'm going to do is, the first thing I need to do is make the hanging portion of my seed top, because if I attach this to my seed with this inside, I won't have anything to hang my acorn from anything. So I'm using the tail that we began our round with, and if you can see, this dark brown is a little difficult, but the tail kind of comes out to the side. It doesn't come out of the direct center because it was part of the magic adjustable loop, but that's going to help us create an easy hanging piece. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to, depending on how long you want your hanging loop to be, you can just... guesstimate or if you're going to make a lot of these and you want them to be exact get a I'm going to get a... ruler out so i like my hanging loop to be about that big so what i'm going to do is i'm going to create about a triple or quadruple knot right at that spot so i'm just going to loop and start putting i'm just going to run the yarn through two or three or four times so i can create a nice this fat knot in this area right here. So to do the quadruple knot just start pulling and pull all these loops together so that they will all be in one spot when you tighten your tail. it makes a nice fat knot be lodged up here in our seed top. so i'm going to take my hook and i'm going to reach through the center, that beginning hole of my seed top, and i'm going to grab a loop from the piece of yarn that has the knot on it. i'm going to pull through that center and as i pull, my knot is going to get stuck right in the center and become a hanging loop. So now I am ready to hang. These aren't super heavy, so you don't have to worry about them pulling out. they should be just fine in there. Now you just go ahead. You can put a little bit of glue if you want, you know, for extra security. if it doesn't feel quite tight enough for you. i'm going to cut a little bit past that knot. Now I'm ready to start sewing my seed. to my seed top. i'm going to take my seed and i'm going to kind of shove it inside of my seed top. That's why we use an F for the seed top so it fits it nice and snug but big enough to fit the seed inside. and then i'm going to grab my needle, and a metal one is very helpful for this because you don't really want it to bend a lot when you're putting it through your project, so a good metal yarn needle is a good thing to have on hand. so i'm going to make sure that i like how my seed top looks, that it looks straight to me or however i want it to look. You could put it askew if you want. then i'm going to start sewing right under the two loops. so just like my stitches, i'm going to sew underneath both. so i'm going to push into the seed and then I'm going to push out in another portion and get through, through another part of my seed top. I'm going to go to my next stitch, and you'll see I'm skipping like two stitches, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to do this a couple times around so that I get all the gaps. So I go in, through, back out, and you'll see the little kind of slip stitch area so you know where the end of that round is. I'm just going to make sure that I get in between each and every one of these stitches so that I don't have any pieces that are sticking up. And then once I get it all the way sewn around, I can just do the same thing that I did for my seed. I can just shove my needle right through a portion, which I'll do in just a second right after this one. Shove my needle right through, all the way to the other side. All the way through, and then cut that guy off. I don't know why I keep... Oh, I did it this time. That's good. And see, I don't know why I keep putting my kitty snips back together when I keep cutting everything. And then I'm just going to shape my acorn back up because he got a little squished while we were sewing. So, now we have our acorn all complete. Get all this stuff out of the way. And you can squish his top back down because he got a little bit. His birth gave him a cone head. So now our acorn is completely complete and it's ready for hanging. So if you have any questions about it, go ahead and leave them in the comments section. But thank you for watching.