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Remember the packing twine I used for my towel topper a few weeks ago (scroll down)? I had some left over and I badly needed a thingy for a side table (you’ve got to love the Military Engineering Services for the sheer numbers of dinky little tables they provide you with), so in overweening optimism, I started a doily called Pineapple Posy from Pineapple Crochet Designs ed. Rita Weiss. Naturally, the twine ran out, and I ended up with this. It shall remain in this condition forevermore, so in my books, it’s a finished object. At least the pineapples are done!
For my August CAT PAC, a friend sent me lots of blue-themed yarn and the Spring issue of Interweave Crochet, which had the Boteh scarf pattern. I had to start it immediately, so I grabbed the Patons Kroy sock yarn Rosi sent me as a contest prize and set off. The pattern repeat is simple enough, but I had to rip a bit after the second motif, having confused myself with right and wrong sides. Now it is making sense, though, and I’ve made quite some progress. Here it is:
Please forgive the blurry pictures, I’ll try and get a better one of the Boteh once it’s done.
I’ve also finished and added a zipper to Jacque‘s pattern that I was testing. Turned out a bit small, but more on that later. Have a hat FO in the wings, also, perhaps tomorrow.
I’ll never understand the fascination of the Larger than Life Bag, though. It’s just some motifs, right? Perhaps I’m missing something.
Denise. Sorry, I couldn’t resist! The thing is, my Denise set has gone missing, and try as I might, I can’t remember when I saw it last. I remember showing it to Ruth in London, and in Vizag beginning Jacque‘s pattern on it, but here in Cochin? Nope. Now all I have are two pairs of tips (the one I’m using for Jacque and another 6.5 mm pair I have in a UFO), plus 3 cables (one ultra short, one medium and one longggg – on second thought, that last one might be two joined cables, which would mean I have one of those joining thingies) and two end doodads. If anyone can remember where I put the set, do please tell!
I have made some progress on the pattern as you can see above, having detoured wildly on both the crochet and knit fronts, by turning out these two FOs (now, isn’t that a rare word for you to hear on this here blog?). First up is the Gingham Country Tea Towel I had a bit of a duh moment with:
Specs:
Yarn: Lion Kitchen Cotton (navy) and Sugar n’Cream (light blue)
Needles: Unknown plastic/resin (very flexible) 4.5mm circular and for the handle a metal circular that’s among my favourites, which is loose in the 4.5mm slot and won’t go through the 4mm (Is there a 4.25mm size in western needles?). Both needles courtesy Heide.
Pattern: Country Gingham Tea Towel
Time: About a week?
Size: Haven’t measured, but it’s a good size. It’s been immediately pressed into action in my kitchen.
Extra #1 Did two-colour double knitting for the first time, following a chart. Phoenix was good enough to hold my hand throughout and spell things out in words of one syllable! It was wonderful to be able to hound her interact with her on Ravelry. (If any of my readers want me, I’m MrsFife there).
#2 Got confirmation my finishing is terrible
#3 My floats are too tight and my wraps are too loose. Resolve that conundrum if you will
#4 Perhaps a thinner needle would have made the work neater
#5 Stopped the handle when I ran out of the light blue.
#6 I liked the grid stitch better than the gingham part (not to mention my work was neater)
#7 The original colour combo was scrumptious, and was what made me do the towel, actually. Also possibly, yarn which wasn’t 100% cotton might have fared better.
A great learning experience, though, overall. Five stars all around. Now for a crochet FO:
The details on this one:
Thread: Something called Fitpack, a twine from Jaipur that I bought in Vizag, in the philosophy of “any string will do to hook with”. It isn’t bad for bags and things, but I doubt any other colour would be available. On the other hand, I remember a crochet goods salesman telling me you can get cotton yarny type of fibre in Jaipur, so maybe the place is a hotbed of fibre.
Hook: The 2/0 (2mm) end of a Clover double-ended 2/0-4/0 hook. Nice and light.
Pattern: Acrobatic stitch from The Harmony Guides (the instructions are for a straight swatch, but I made up the decreasing on my ownsome). Pat yourself on the back, sweetie!
Time: One hour
Size: Seriously?
Extra #1 Nuthin’ much. There’s two more towels where that came from which need topping.
We now have a working washbasin, and the rains have stopped. Now all I need is some good roads, and we’re all set.
I tried a couple of different infant sock patterns, but even though they were knit, they appeared to use more yarn than I had left (I was knitting from opposite ends of the leftover skein). So I frogged and fell back on my favourite no-seam bootie pattern and would you believe it, I had just the right amount to weave in ends. I’m not totally happy, because crochet has a different look from knit and I wanted the set to be homogeneous 😦 With this worsted yarn it somehow doesn’t appeal. Anyway, here are the pictures and the specs.
Yarn: The same Shepherd Cynthia Helene that I won from Nona when she was giving away some of her stash last year.
Hook: Pony 4.5mm
Pattern: Darcy Richardson’s Newborn Booties
Time: Half-an-hour
Size: No idea. Hopefully they should fit at some point. Most probably, the three different parts of the set will fit the baby at three different points of time. Very odd.
Extra #1 Satin ribbon with tiny polka dots. No one said a boy baby can’t have polka dots. (Also, I didn’t think I’d find a matching shade of brown)
#2 Why do ribbons fold up when you thread them through the holes? I wish they didn’t.
#3 This is one set I wish I’d see pictures of in use. I never do, otherwise.
Here’s a picture with the ribbon in.
Well, not really, but it does look a lot like an eye! (Now I shall get lots of LOTR fan visitors.) This is the finished doily whose chart I had a problem with last week. Sorry for the horrible photograph! Specifications:
Thread: Red Heart thread, 50 gm ball, probably size 10 (the big balls don’t have a size written on them). I was stashbusting as usual and thought I had enough, but apparently I didn’t. My favourite local craft store didn’t have the exact shade of pink, so a lighter shade and an interesting twiny thread came home with me. I forayed to another craft store and picked up two 20gm balls of the right shade, but the wrong thickness. Now, these smaller balls have #20 on them, so I know the size, but held together they ended up thicker than my original thread, so I just shrugged and used a single strand. Apparently 20+20≠10 (wowie, I just used WordPress’ new advanced editing to put in that not-equal sign). This has happened to me before and I used a strand of sewing thread held with the size 20 to finish my Crochetville Doily Swap doily in September 2005. Somehow it didn’t occur to me and in any case I didn’t want to do that this time. Why didn’t I remember that simple equation (or un-equation, if you will)?
Hook: Started off with the plain Pony 1.75mm and when in the middle of the project I received the handle ones from Jaishree, I swapped for one of those. These Pony hooks with handles look identical to the Profi hooks, except they aren’t gold-tipped and obviously aren’t made in Germany. They are light and I think I might exclusively work with these for all my thread projects, unless of course I need a size they aren’t available in. I shall do a separate post showing off all the hooks she sent. Why don’t the company behind the Profis have a website? Maybe they do in German, but not, it appears, in English. You’d think at least Western companies would be well-established online.
Pattern: From Burda Handicraft Series Vol 1 No 3, Crochet Lace, E 227. Lovely patterns, lovely photography, and all patterns are charted, of course. Despite the hype about Magic Crochet, I find some of their photos are really sloppy. Although well-lit, the doilies look unblocked and even unfinished sometimes. There should be a difference between how I, an amateur, present my work and how a magazine showcases its designs.
Time: About a week, not including delays for thread emergencies and chart puzzling.
Size: About 33.5″ long and 19″ wide. Bigger than the specified size, since I used a larger hook.
Extra: #1 This is for my mom, whose birthday is coming up later this month.
#2 This is a pattern I’d love to redo, which makes it a very rare thing indeed (other than winging-it stuff like funfur bags for visiting small girls). And use the right size hook this time. And avoid the booboos I made in this one.
#3 That part of the chart I didn’t understand taught me a new technique, that of turning in the middle of the row to end up with loops that look as though they’re hanging in the air. Nice challenge, even if I didn’t solve it myself.
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On the book front, I finished Martha Grimes’ Lamorna Wink. Good read. I’ve now gone back to Pico Iyer (Falling off the Map). I find he doesn’t particularly make me want to visit any of the places he’s written about, but perhaps that holds true for most of the travelogues I read. Perhaps that is why I read them, to savour the experience without the effort.
A few weeks ago I’d asked for suggestions on what to make for a baby girl in a hot place. This was the compromise solution I arrived at.
Thread: Anchor knitting cotton (I think it is bedspread weight) in cream, about 3 full balls.
Hook: Clover double-ended hook, with 4/0 on one end and 6/0 on the other. I assume those are size numbers rather than mm. I got two of those in a CAT PAC. They’re wonderfully light. I’m all about lightness in hooks. I used the 4/0 end.
Pattern: From Crochet World June 2005. Toddler’s Spring time dress. Errors found.
Time: A while.
Size: About 14″ long and 22″ wide.
Extra: #1 There was a row count error in the back instructions. It should read Row 44 instead of Row 43 (and so on). I found the pattern stitch instructions quite confusing and it took me several attempts to get it right. In Row 1 of the skirt part, it should read “Work 66 sc … ch 6… ” instead of ch 3. There was also some problem about right and left, which I don’t recall now.
#2 I left off the sleeves and improvised on the edging. (ch3, sc around for 3 rows). I was afraid I was running out of thread and didn’t want to buy any more, since I was stash-busting.
#3 My first dress.
I agree with Sara about finishing. Mine is very, very poor.
Thank you everyone for your responses so far on my sappy (soppy? sloppy?) question in my last post. Let me be clear, I am not at all the sort of person to keep it all in, as those who have known me for any length of time will testify. Rather the opposite, frequently latching on to unsuspecting passersby to upchuck all my current troubles. Oops.
But sometimes no one is handy, or you feel you need to give your current recipient a break. Or sometimes it just feels as though things are the same, although troublesome. Then I feel like I need a Scream Roomâ„¢. Do you have one? Or any personal space where you know you won’t be disturbed (intruded upon)? Let me know.
Meanwhile, here is a bag I rescued from UFO-dom and finished to send off to my Crochetville Notions Swap partner. This picture was taken with my last bookhaul in it. Amazingly, both of us have received our packages intact and promptly. Only, mine has gone to Hyderabad in anticipation of our moving from here. So no pics.
And guess what? The husband’s transfer has been deferred indefinitely for two months. The boss at the other place, who was on leave until a couple of days ago, returned to office and realised he’d lose his deputy if the transfer went through (the husband is too junior to fill that particular position). So they’ve asked for a postponement of the move until they figure out what to do about a deputy. Ha. Suspended animation. It’s nice, have you ever tried it? Anyhow, I present to you, The Frugal Bag.
This was a pattern from Frugalhaus.com, but I can’t find it there now. Googling produced a pdf link whose legality I’m not confident of.* Since I forgot to measure this before sending it off in the Crochetville Notions Swap, let’s get the details in an ugly format. The yarn was GUM and unknown (probably RHSS) purple, with Denise 10 1/2 circulars. I started this bag so long ago, I don’t even remember when. Some time last year. Nice and sturdy. For the bottom, instead of using the garter stitch recommended, I used linked dcs (US) (this link shows a linked treble (US) but the principle is the same). Also try this Crochet Me tutorial. The stitch produces fewer holes than simple dc (US).
You could use either of the bag’s sides (inside or out) and in fact the stockinette side looked interesting, like fairisle or something. However, the purl ridges defining the sides weren’t clear enough so I turned it this side out (according to the original pattern). And now the sides of the bag are well-defined. Ugly but functional. That’s me 😀
* ETA: Heather very nicely found me the link to the pattern from archive.org. Thank you, Heather!
Something. Another FO.
In an effort to finish things and see what can be gifted/mailed away before we move, I finished this blanket. As usual, here are the details:
Yarn: I’ve been told it is Lion Brand Woolease, by Cordelia, who gave it to me. (I think it might be the discontinued sportweight variety). I used three full skeins (with about 3 yards left over).
Hook: Clover Soft Touch F/4.00mm
Pattern: Pattern stitch for Block and Offset Shells from Harmony Guides. Mindless. Reversible but not upside-downable, because the top of the pattern scallops. Also, I didn’t do an edging. It didn’t appear to be necessary. (Plus I was too lazy to try and figure out how to unscallop the scallops for edging). So the baby gets a sorta symmetric pattern. Do you think he’ll care?
Time: I began this a month ago, but obviously it goes much faster than that. Around a week would be plenty.
Size: 41″ square (should be good for a toddler, right? And please, no one tell me it’s too hole-y)
Extra: #1 Quick and easy.
Up close and personal with the pattern stitch:
The pattern is a multiple of 11 + 4 (plus 2 for the base chain). I made a mistake in the starting chain, but recovered by adding dcs (US) a la filet crochet. Now I need to pop it into the wash before packaging it. It’s been washed. Also, the same friend for whom this is intended tells me her next baby will also be a boy. How boring. I’m thinking I shall make something else for that baby too, and mail it to aunty (her mom) to take with her when she goes to the US. Might save on postage!
There’s another wedding coming up this week, so I made another doily and got it framed. This is it before framing (and after impaling blocking).
It’s been framed against an off-white background and with a dark brown frame. Maybe I will take pictures later. Some of the specs:
Thread: Red Heart 100% mercerised cotton from Madura Coats. Size 20, I should think. The balls give amazing yardage.
Hook: Nameless 1.75 mm steel, probably Pony (could be Tulip also)
Pattern: Berka Shell doily from Southmaid Timeless Doilies to Crochet. (Someone will please explain what a berka shell is.)
Time: A day or so.
Size: Forgot to measure it before framing. I might measure it before wrapping it.
Extra: #1 Quick and easy.
#2 I used Pony Pearlised pins to block this and found they didn’t rust! Yay! Normally when I leave my doilies to dry overnight, I find the pins have rusted. Of course these could just be slow rusters, but maybe not. I shall have to buy lots more of them. This was only a small doily, so I didn’t need too many.
#3 I seem to have found my thread mojo again. Actually I was planning to make a couple more to frame as gifts for the husband’s hospital/mess, but he told me they aren’t classy enough. Ah well. That’s put me in my place, proper, it ‘as.
The dotty thing of two posts ago has morphed into this:
Yarn: The pink is Bergen, apparently a German yarn (possibly East German) made of WolPryla (mit anderen faserstoffen – with other ingredients). It is showing quite true on my monitor. The purple is Pegasus, also of the same origin. It is less blue than in the picture. Both yarns advise using 2.5 mm needles, but while the pink says “3”, the purple says “2”. Neither has a st/row count gauge indicator. The white is Cactus from Taiwan (why would you name a yarn that?!) with no indication of content, but also advises 2.5 mm. The gauge indicator for this yarn says 32 st/46 rows to 4″/10 cm. All yarns are slightly fuzzy but soft enough.
Hook: Easy Tunisian Hooks N/10mm and M/9mm, Boye K/10.5/6.5mm
Pattern: Loosely based on a Crotiques pattern. I changed st counts, row counts, button bands, and the collar pattern, as well as adding that holey lacy row in the middle. I used a Tunisian double crochet(US) for that. The body was worked in Tunisian knit stitch. Changed colours when I felt I couldn’t go further without compromising on the yarn for sleeves. The button bands and the bottom were worked together in seed stitch (sc (US) in both loops, sc in back loop only and then reverse order for next row) and I quite like how it worked out. To make the collar longer, I added a few rows of sc through both loops on top of the collar area. Instead of poke-through buttons, I plan to put snaps, and use the purple buttons for only aesthetic effect.
Time: About a week.
Size: Hopefully to fit a 6-month niece (cousin’s kid) I’m going to meet in a couple of days. She was a big baby. The size sweater is about 24″ wide and 12″ long, with the sleeves at 8″ long. Her next winter will be obviously when she’s older (a year), so this needs to fit her then.
Extra: #1 I love how neat the raglan shape came out. My knit raglans are never so good.
#2 All three yarns were very grippy. I don’t think I like that. This was true on both the plastic Easy Tunisian hooks as well as the metal Boye. I plan to use the rest of the yarn to make a hat or booties, and will check how they act with my Denises and Pony hooks. Slightly slippery is always better than grippy.
#3 The German yarns say “Altenburger Wollspinnerei” which I think refers to some sort of spinning cooperative. The Bergen also says “50-PAN-f-TDI/50 Wo” which could mean it has some wool content, but I’m not hopeful. The Pegasus says “30 PAN-f-TDI/70 PAN f ” which completely baffles me.
#4 The Bergen yarn says “100 tex x3” while Pegasus has “110 tex x2” which makes halfway sense, because the x3 has 3 strands plied together while the x2 has 2 strands.
#5 Bergen came in a 100g ball of 280m, while Pegasus had 50g to 190m. No size/weight indication on the Cactus.
#6 All this documentation for all-acrylic (probably) yarns is because I didn’t find any information on them when I googled.
#7 Shh! I haven’t yet seamed/sewn in the ends or the buttons/snaps yet. The garment has just been skilfully arranged for the photo session.
I trust you dutifully squinted for the first picture so you didn’t see the boo-boos and ha-has. Now I shall reward you with a close-up of the raglan which also shows the button band, main body and collar up close.
Not a party, sorry. Just this Trish Kristoffersen doily that I made to give a neighbour. She’s going to visit her sister in the US and I offered to make something for her to take. She asked for “something to put on the table”. I think this qualifies, don’t you?
Here are the specs:
Thread: DMC Baroque size 10. White.
Hook: 1.5 mm Tulip steel
Pattern: Diamond Landscape by Trish Kristoffersen, from Southmaid Masterpiece Doilies, Book 1411.
Time: A day.
Size: 13.3″ across from picot to picot.
Extra: #1 I used the thread weight recommended and the hook size recommended. Wow. At least it wasn’t the same thread brand.
#2 This was my third attempt after I tried an oval doily (the one on the cover) and another round one from the same booklet. The oval doily was ruffling. I kept at it to see if it would straighten out after a few rounds, but it didn’t, so I frogged it. The round doily had a bit of slip stitching to the required stitch, which I tried to do differently (join with ch, dc instead of ch 3), and then I got confused with what I’d done and where I was supposed to end up. Plus the thing was cupping slightly. I think I make my chains too tight. That would explain why the oval doily ruffled (because it starts with a base chain, obviously).
And here’s the salsa. With red capsicum, tomato and spring onions. Now I have to make something to eat it with.
swakrta.com 