You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘FOs’ tag.
There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up. Well, not exactly, but my mind is all scattered in the past few days. I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s get the knitting out of the way first, shall we?
Me and bags…
I stole some yarn from Jaishree to make this bag. It’s now living with its owner in Australia happily, so I can blog about it now.
In the usual fashion:
Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, pinched from Jaishree’s stash. The recipient said she liked blue and this was what I found. I used two strands held together. I’m happy to report that despite being acrylic, the yarn shows off the cables quite nicely. Perhaps the tight gauge helped. This is light-worsted weight, the usual size.
Needles: 4mm, 6mm and 6.5mm
Pattern: The Lambe bag from Berroco. This came in a newsletter with four cabled bag patterns and I had in fact queued one of them when I read in the Rav RAK group that someone wanted this one, so it sounded ideal. The other one’s still on my queue, but will probably be made later. My project page on Rav is here.
Time: This took a while to make, because after starting it and finishing a repeat or so I realised that I’d miscrossed a cable, and had to rip. That kind of put me off a bit, but this was the only knitting project I took with me to Hyderabad, to ensure I would finish it. And I did.
Size: 9″ x 13″ across at the widest point, going down to 11″ across at the top.
Extra #1 I was glad to have the bamboo handles, which were almost identical to the ones the pattern called for. I bought them right here in Cochin.
#2 I like cables and bags. What can I say?
#3 I didn’t line this bag, because I felt the fabric was dense enough…Should I have?
#4 I had yarn left over and couldn’t resist the temptation to begin another pattern on my queue. I cast on almost immediately I got back and even finished part of it, and then found myself wondering if I had enough yarn. So of course I demanded that Jaishree send me more, which she has, the poor thing. So keep your eyes peeled for yet another blue thing in the future, ok? I know you can’t wait.
………………
Other stuff. Warning: will be hodge-podge-y
- There’s this new job I’m doing (job? contract? assignment? whatever) and I have a couple of files to attend to.
- Yesterday we had two separate meals out at the hospital, one a traditional Onasadya (Onam meal) for lunch served on a banana leaf, and the other a dinner in the evening to dine one of the doctors out. I got told off after the first one by the male in-law for waving my hands about when I talk. It isn’t ladylike, apparently. Not if I’m dressed in a sari. I wonder if I have a banner on my head that says, “Yes, I’m 34 years old, but I need to be told how to behave.” In a suitably tasteful font, of course. Needless to say, I tried to be very demure at dinner and did not go over to talk to the men which I normally do. Mustn’t blot my escutcheon further.
- We are hoping to go to the UK/Ireland/Italy in a few weeks time, and now that The Man has been given approval from his headquarters, the visa process has begun. Last year I thought getting a visa to one country was bad enough. I don’t know what made me think trying for 3 at a time would be any better! If they had all been within the Schengen zone, it would have been nice, but alas, no! All three countries have minds of their own, so we need a UK visa, an Irish one and a Schengen one from Italy. Just the UK form has 21 pages.
Of course, a lot of it we don’t have to fill, because it’s full of sections for all categories of visitors, but the bulk is still intimidating. Also, finding answers to questions like “How much money will you need for your accommodation and food while visiting the UK?”, “Have you ever done anything which might make you not a person of good character? If yes, please give details.” is quite exhausting (I wonder if waving my hands about would qualify). And so much of it is plain terrifying. The Italy visa requires a long list of “mandatory documents” including a confirmed air ticket…what if we don’t get one? Then we’d have to add the visa fees to the cancellation charges as lost money.
- Bright spot? I posted for advice on the Rav forums and found a great new friend who’s promised to put us up in Rome. Best of all, she has 3 cats!!! No wonder she’s so kind as to offer a bed to almost-total strangers.
- Italy sounds more and more like India every time I go to a different website or source of information. The potholes, the pickpockets, the 60-day train bookings, the refusal to accept credit cards…But the men should be handsomer, no? 😉 And I always have been drawn to Rome and Egypt…Perhaps Rome because my parents and sister went there as part of their farewell tour (actually they were relocating from Canada for good and decided to cover Europe on the way back, touching London, Rome, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Egypt in 1972). Anyway, they had a photo-rich book on Rome I still have memories of.
- Another India-like feature? The Consulate site tells me the VFS (Visa Facilitation Service) has a centre in Cochin, but the VFS-Italy site says there isn’t. This sort of confusion feels so Indian! I’ve sent a mail asking for information. I’m hoping not to have to travel to Chennai or Mumbai for the visa, sigh. Anyway, we need to get the visas in order, so nothing to be done until the other two come through.
- Looking once again for help/advice on accommodation in London. And do any of my mostly silent readers live in any of these places and could we meet? It would be so much fun! This would be in late October, early November. Last time I didn’t actually get to go to a knit/crochet meetup. Or a real yarn store. Though I’m thinking that would be too tempting/depressing/dangerous for my credit card. So, anyone out there in London/Manchester/Belfast/Dublin/Rome/Venice-or-Florence?
- Another example of the unexpected kindness of people: I saw someone queuing or faving the Ten Stitch Blanket (Ravelry link) on Rav and discovered the UK’s Knitting and Crochet Guild were selling copies of the past issue of Slipknot which had the pattern. I wrote to them to enquire whether they’d send a copy to India and the lady was sweet enough to send me a copy free! Gives you a nice warm feeling inside. The pattern itself is written in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s chatty style, not the row-by-row detailed style.
Thanks for listening! My mind is flitting from one topic to another these days, and the table at which I work is in a royal mess. Which is reflecting the other I am not sure, but the likeness is astounding.
Don’t mind me, I’m just a sloth.
Oh dear! I hadn’t realised that I haven’t blogged in ages! It’s a good thing most of my online friends see me around on Ravelry and the mailing lists, else someone might have been worried. No? Which raises the valid question, what good is this blog? What purpose does it serve (aside of occupying cyberspace)?
Luckily for you, it is not a question I am not going to answer in this post. Instead, I’m going to smother you in a flutter of doilies (what is the collective noun for doilies?).
Here’s #1, Kaleidoscope and its specs.
Thread: One strand each of a plain yellow-orange and an ombre, both in size 30, of Coats Mercer.
Hook: My current favourite size, 1.00mm Pony (the grey handle)
Pattern: Kaleidoscope doily by Julie Bolduc from JPF Crochet Club (it’s a free pattern). Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I’d made it before, in a pale blue baby yarn and found it cupping, which I thought might be a gauge problem. I really enjoy the different patterns created with filet and net stitches.
Time: Overnight
Size: 9″ across
Extra #1 As I said, it’s a pattern I made before, but I had the inexplicable urge to make it again, perhaps to see how my skills have progressed since the last time I made it. At least my tastes haven’t changed in the patterns I like.
Moving on, here’s doily #2.
Thread: One of my thread finds in Hyderabad, Jyoti thread. This is size 20-ish and liable to fade. It’s locally made but what impressed me is that the wrapper has washing instructions and a pattern for an edging on the reverse! That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that on an Indian product for sale in India. The fading is disappointing, though. To work with, the thread is quite good. It didn’t chafe my fingers or leave colour on my hands. The next time I spotted it, I picked up cream and pale pink and white, since these are less likely to be dramatically affected. I saw some skeins which had faded just from being on the shelves.
Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle)
Pattern: Crystal Fan Doily by Linda Mershon from The Ultimate Doily Book by ASN, #1185. Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I was attracted by the unusual shape. Blocking it was a bit tough, but then I’m finishing-challenged in any case. The beads were my own touch, in a desperate ploy to escape the picot curse :p Actually I picked up beads as well in Hyderabad and was in a “bead-y” phase.
Time: 4 days. We had a lot of power cuts while I was in Hyderabad and there was little else to do until I got a new battery for my laptop which replaced the one which kept dying after 30 minutes.
Size: 15.5″ across
Extra #1 Hmm. I liked the shape.
#2 Oh, and now I have this one and a few other doilies on my dining table, sandwiched between the protective plastic cover and the cloth underneath. The husband thinks I’ve gone overboard, but I’m basking in my own brilliance at thinking of the idea, and so have added variously-coloured motifs as well to the melange.
This one’s gone far, far away to live…
Well, not that far, actually, just about 4 hours away by train. It’s gone to live with Jaishree who drew the short straw and landed me as a partner in a swap. This is the first time I’m showing a Bruges lace crochet piece on this blog, but let’s follow the established pattern, shall we?
Thread: Red ombre rayon (sold as “silk” or “art silk”) just under one cone.
Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle), which seems to be usurping the place of favourite.
Pattern: Nameless square Bruges lace sample from a German book I have in the English translation, called simply Crochet. Published by Verlag für die Frau in the erstwhile East Germany. I bought the book along with a companion book on knitting/crochet at a book sale in JNU sometime in 1997 or so. Most of the patterns are charted, with some rudimentary written instructions. This book was actually how I learnt symbol crochet, teaching myself. I’ve made other pieces from this, I shall save them for later, since I don’t have too many details on any of them. Somehow I’ve never had the confusion over US/Rest of the World terminology, perhaps because I intermingled patterns from both sources willy-nilly. Also, at that point, I was not aware I had to be afraid of symbols…alas, perhaps I should have been introduced to socks as well at that vulnerable juncture.
I chose this pattern for two reasons. One, I wanted to give Jaishree a doily which she wouldn’t have in her formidable library (or photographic memory). As you can imagine, that was a challenge, because she appears to have almost every pattern ever published in the Western hemisphere (only half-kidding…). I knew she didn’t have this book, though, so that narrowed my choices between one of the patterns here or in a Finnish book I have.
The other reason for choosing this doily was that I wanted to make an entire piece of Bruges lace (well, the crochet imitation, at any rate). I’d tried it a few years ago and there’s evidence of it at my parents’ house, but that used a granny centre, so it wasn’t wholly Bruges crochet. Now that technique is something I can cross off my list. Whew.
You only use double (UK treble) crochet and chains, besides longer length stitches for the “spiders” at the centres and turns. Good fun, though you need to keep close track of where to turn. Here’s my Ravelry page.
Time: 4 days. I had to do it quick, because I’d almost forgotten that I had to swap it! Luckily Jaishree reminded me so I only waited till I got back to Cochin and could access the book again.
Size: 12″ across
Extra #1 I think I’ve said it all up there. This would be my debunking doily, I think, as a fellow crocheter has now seen it close-up and while she wouldn’t be rude enough to tell me what she thinks of my skills and finishing, I can well imagine!
Leaving you a-flutter…
I promise my next blog post will be different! It’s just that once I actually finished making something with the Russian cotton, it was like I found it eminently suitable to lots of things. Actually, having spent a small fortune on having it imported, I thought I had to make a wearable out of it and was not willing to admit that I didn’t like the non-glazed, non-mercerised look of it when worked up. Now I’ve decided that since the ice is broken, I can use the yarn for whatever I want, just so my stash is reduced. So here’s another thing I made out of it.
Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn). Held two strands together.
Needles: Size 3.50mm (US 4)
Pattern: Modern Cabled Baby Bib (it’s a free Ravelry download) by Andrea Pomerantz (gibsongirl on Ravelry). I can’t see if it is available outside of Ravelry, though. Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Time: Overnight. I had to make a gift in a hurry for a colleague/neighbour’s baby (I thought the mom had left with the baby for a vacation, then discovered she hadn’t just two days before I left for Bangalore, so I needed to whip this up in a hurry. I had been considering a bib anyway and found this on Ravelry.)
Size: 7″ x 7″ not including the strap, of course.
Extra #1 Nothing much to say. Nice easy and elegant pattern. Suitable for either gender, perhaps slightly masculine. That’s good, though, because so many patterns tend to be suited for girls.
#2 I wanted to put a much larger wooden button, and even sewed it in, but then I found it was too large for the buttonhole. Duh. So I unsewed it and sewed on a slightly smaller one. (I’m calling the buttons wooden, but I think they might be coconut shell.)
I must warn you that I have (had) a total of 1500m of this yarn in my stash.
Everybody in the crochet world seems to have made this one, and caught by my bagmaking bug, I finally did, too. The yarn was again the same Russian cotton, and of a much smaller gauge, I think, than the recommended yarn, so this is a bit small. But no matter.
Yes it’s the fat bottom bag.
Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn).
Hook: Size 3.50mm
Pattern: Fat Bottom Bag (Ravelry link) by Julie Holetz from Stitch’n Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker.
Time: 2 days. Much faster than I thought it would be.
Size: 9.5″ x 5″
Extra #1 I didn’t think it was this easy to make.
#2 I was lucky to find a bag lining tutorial before I finished and sewed it together, so I was able to sew the lining first and then finish the crochet part. My sewing was pretty bad as usual, but you are all used to that by now aren’t you?! I used an old favourite top to line.
#3 I’m ok with the yellow plastic handles (though the husband thought they were cheap – which they are). But I normally prefer shoulder bags to handheld ones. Might make the next one with some modifications. I have other ideas for the pattern in my head as well.
Just to make sure there’s no doubt of my sewing skills, I’ll leave you with a closeup of the inside of the bag.
A year ago, a friend of ours was returning from Russia and made the mistake of asking whether I’d like something from there. Well obviously, I asked for yarn. After seeking advice online, I asked for cotton and wool yarn in sweater quantities. He more than delivered on his assignment. Since then I’ve tried to do several things with the cotton yarn, but unfortunately, it is not a glossy kind and my usual demon of Garment-Fear® kept me from actually using the yarn for its stated purpose.
A few weeks ago, however, someone on one of my mailing lists sent a link for a new free pattern at NaturallyCaron.com which looked innocuous enough, but was quietly screaming my name!!! I hastened to add it to my Ravelry queue and found it had me so mesmerised that I was upset there was no photo to represent it. Well, there was no answer for it but to make it myself. The world had to know the pattern existed.
Here it is, the Chakra bag.
And since you’d like to know, here are the details.
Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), about one-and-a-half skeins. (Each skein had 250m yarn).
Hook: Size 3.00mm
Pattern: Chakra Bag from NaturallyCaron.com (and here’s the Ravelry pattern page, and my project page).
Time: 3 days from start to finish. Seriously quick.
Size: 11″ x 7″ x 2″
Extra #1 As I said, it was screaming to me :p
#2 I love the textured stitch, and the pattern it forms. The shape of the finished bag is also interesting, only my poor finishing makes it not stand out. Next time, I will not take any shortcuts, but I shall sew a proper lining (the story of my experiences with lining a bag will follow later).
#3 The said lining is cut from a length of Vietnamese silk my father brought back for me in December 2006. I still have enough left to line another bag perhaps. I was hoarding it for something special, but decided enough was enough. Here’s a glimpse of the inside (not much more, because my finishing is really sad).
#4 There is a slight error in the strap instructions, which have you start off with Ch 10 and then begin the first row with Ch 2 and hdc (US) across to give 8hdc, but obviously, either you ch 8 to begin, or you omit the ch 2 at the beginning of Row 1.
#5 I drastically shortened the length of the strap because I know it would stretch anyway. I took it out into the wilds of Bangalore last weekend, and I’m gratified to report the stretching was minimal (or not noticeable enough for discomfort at any rate). Perhaps it was because of the rigidity given by the reverse sc edging. On the other hand, the width of the strap and the cotton yarn made it one of the most comfortable bag handles I’ve ever misused. I was carrying my camera, my cell phone, the iPod, extra camera batteries, a packet of wet tissues (which despite being touted as containing aloe vera and having no alcohol still left my face dry), pen, address book, small diary, wallet and sundry other necessities for a weekend away.
However, next time, I’d prefer to make the strap width wise rather than lengthwise, because I read on one of the Ravelry forums (fora?) that that would reduce the stretching. Which seems logical enough, wouldn’t you say? It would also have the added (and much required) benefit of making it easier to sew the edges to the sides, because we could then do one joining stitch in each stitch of the strap. Row-wise, I can *never* pick up the same number of stitches on both sides of something, so this one has lopsided er, sides. Also, the strap has an odd slant, which puzzles me. Perhaps the nature of the hdc makes it bias?
#6 The pattern would have you use needle and yarn to sew the pieces together, but I relied on my trusty hook instead, and have no complaints. I also loved the definition given to the edges by the reverse sc.
#7 My poor bag has no fastening yet. I’ve been saved by the overlapping flap, but I need to find (a) a good fastening (b) a purselet for small things inside. I tried looking for magnetic buttons in Bangalore, but the fellow, despite me talking to him in Telugu which he knew, would have me buy a packet of 100 magnetic buttons for Rs 1,200. That would see me giving out magnetic buttons as hostess gifts for the rest of my active life.
#8 The original yarn appears to have a sheen, which mine doesn’t but that’s ok. Hey!!!!! That reminds me of the sparkly stuff I picked up in B’lore. It’s meant for a bag anyway, so why not use it with this pattern? Huh, huh? Brilliant! Cindy, isn’t that a brilliant idea?
I enjoyed making this bag. Apparently it’s been added to 28 queues on Ravelry, but no one else has begun making it yet. Why not??? Go get your hooks!
This one is #1 in Jaishree‘s doilies. So called because she gave me the thread and the pattern. I only have the pattern, so I’m not sure where it came from. Let me know if you recognise it. It is also in my Ravelry notebook, but that doesn’t have any other information.
I made it with a 1.25mm hook and just over one skein of the local ‘DMC’ cotton, which looked too small, but Jaishree assured me would make a 15″ or so doily. I’ve never seen this thread before but have worked with similar stuff earlier. It has an unmercerised appearance and has a picture of what looks like Shivaji on it, but is mysteriously named “Sultan Supreme”. It is apparently priced at Rs 3.00 and is made by Dass Thread Mills, who are (or have) “Regular users in India” (?!) How economical! A whole doily for just three rupees.
I was attracted by the unusual shape and the fact that it doesn’t require fastening off anywhere to achieve it. Badly blocked as usual. It is about 11.5″ from edge to edge. (not 15″) I had to frog the later rows a bit because I didn’t look at the chart properly (I usually work from my laptop, rather than printing out a copy.
This does not affect my stock inventory of doilies, however, since I gave away my -Along doily (crochet version, I’m keeping the knit one since it was my first knit doily) to a friend who’s been transferred and is leaving for Port Blair.
I have a couple of projects I need to be testing, but cannot get up the desire. Sigh.
Oh, did I tell you, I was away for a week with some girlfriends on a tour of Kerala and ended the trip by staying over at Jaishree’s place and raiding and looting her stash of thread and patterns. That last bit was definitely the highlight. I also stole from her a skein of “Baroque” thread (I suspect they used to supply the original DMC earlier but no longer do so, perhaps), which has 400m of mercerised cotton. I’m really lusting after these and wondering how I never saw any of them before. Jaishree and I are doing a sort of test-along, because my current favourite hook is 1mm, while she uses 1.whatever, and also crochets slightly looser than I do. So we’re making the same pattern with the same thread to see what difference that makes in size. I madly crocheted on the Inter-city express from Trivandrum to Cochin and finished about 15 rows. Need to pick it up again. Sometimes the mojo needs a good kick.
As you would imagine, Jaishree’s place has crochet covering every imaginable surface. She does lovely work.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Generic scratchy acrylic. (Don’t ask me why). It’s about DK weight, and I worked this sweater with two strands held together.
Needles: Size 6.00mm (US 10)
Pattern: Riverstone. It isn’t up yet on Ravelry (but you can see the designer’s Ravelry page for it here). I tested this pattern for Justine. I made the 12 mths size and really enjoyed the unusual construction. I wish I’d used better materials, though. Next time perhaps. Increases and decreases keep your interest going in the yoke area, while the body went pretty fast because I wanted to put on the buttons :p
Time: About ten days, but only because I got into a funk midway thinking I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish. In the end I had enough to finish, plus a good amount left over.
Size: 20″in the chest x 12″long unstretched. The ribs provide a lot of room for growth, although mine are possibly worked at too dense a gauge.
Extra #1 What is it about baby sweaters? I prefer them to babies, actually :p No feeding/cleaning.
#2 I’m very happy with the buttons, which I bought here in Cochin. I think they are coconut shell or wood.
#3 One more baby sweater and not an infant in sight.
Thank you everyone for the warm messages assuring me I am not boring you to death. I hadn’t meant my last post as a call for reassurance (more like an observation), actually, but you still made my day 🙂 You must really love me 😀
Well, not really (more like a run-of-the-mill show and tell), but this one is a Debbie Bliss pattern, which I had an urge to make and providentially a CAT PAC arrived with some suitable yarn in it. I cast on almost as soon as I opened the package.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. Another Red Heart Supersaver clone. Nothing to recommend it especially. I used about a skein and a half for this project.
Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6) for the ribbed button band and 6.00mm (US 10) for the body of the sweater.
Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss. (Ravelry link here). It is also available free here.
Time: Over two weeks. I think I took a while to weave in ends (so what else is new?), but otherwise it is a simple enough knit.
Size: 26″in the chest x 10.5″long
Extra #1 The stockinette does make it curve in at the bottom and cuffs, but I’m letting it be.
#2 Another reckless and pointless knit for me, no babies targetted, but I was compelled to make this one. I don’t know what it is about baby sweaters and me, but they draw me like a moth to the flame. You can learn new techniques without having to spend the rest of your life knitting on something. Also, they have no shaping, usually, and will fit some baby at some point. Now all I have to do is find some babies. (I’m happy to say I gave away my February sweater to my maid, who wanted it for her great-nephew. What use they will find for it in tropical Kerala, I do not know. But it lessens my baby sweater inventory by one).
#3 I’m happiest about the way I picked up stitches for the button band. Rather than picking them up in the last stitch of the exposed rows, I went behind them and picked up the stitches from the inner column. It made for a very neat finish, especially because I had a chain selvage (slip the first stitch of every row knitwise, knit the last stitch). So that was the learning from this thing. I wasn’t very happy about the picking up around the neck (instead of binding off as the pattern advised, I held the stitches on a spare circular). The whole “pick up evenly” thing continues to baffle me and reduce me to scrambling for closure. Otherwise the whole thing is an average project, nothing to write home about.
So why blog about it? Partly because my other projects are test ones which I cannot yet blog about. And partly to squeeze in another post before the end of this month.
I realise my blog has become rather dull and monotonous. Where’s the wit and variety gone, you must be wondering. Perhaps it’s just old age. Or something.
I stopped blogging about books, because I realised no one appears to share my taste in them/find anything new in what I say. And I really don’t feel the need to journal all the books I read. Which pretty much leaves me with only craft to write about. And since I usually don’t like showing works in progress, all you get nowadays are staccato essays following a rigid and predictable structure.
Which makes me grateful for the people who do continue to read. Thank you! I can’t describe the thrill I get out of seeing comments from you. Please continue to visit 🙂
I’ve never added beads to a knit project before, and definitely not without pre-stringing them. Plus for some reason I really liked this scarf as soon as I saw it, so I volunteered to test the pattern for Wendi when she posted about it on Ravelry. I had a really fun time knitting it. The pattern repeat is about 40 rows long, but the wrong side rows are all purl rows, besides which the scarf is only 29 stitches wide. I’m afraid the photos don’t do it justice, but I tried, my friends, I tried.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock, just over a 192 yard skein in Chelsea Tweed. I don’t know how, but the other sock yarn I have is also a similar dark colourway. Never seen any of those fancy handpainted/hand-dyed ones. But then always with variegated yarns, I’m often more enamoured of the yarn/thread in the skein rather than in a project worked up. I’d probably croon over the multi-hued sock yarn and then relegate it to the back of my stash, where I can no longer hear its jeers.
Andrea had suggested I could use sock yarns for scarves, and I’d forgotten that I’d indeed done so, for my Boteh (also Patons Kroy, but in a livelier colour). Plus there’s a UFO somewhere in the depths of my cupboards, started with Wildfoote Luxury. So now I can potentially make 3 scarves and free myself from the guilt of trying to make socks and failing miserably. Yay!
Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6). That was the recommended size, I think.
Pattern: Melusine by Wendi Dunlap. (Ravelry link here).
Time: 6 days or less. I treated myself to one pattern repeat every evening and finished off with 2 and the ends on the final day.
Size: 6″ x 84″
Extra #1 I really enjoyed using a crochet hook to put on the beads while knitting, and not having to worry about stringing all of them beforehand and then getting the yarn all tangled up. Wendi suggested a tutorial found here for the technique.
#2 I’m wondering if there’s much point in becoming addicted to knitting scarves when (a) I don’t know if I can bear to give them away and (b) whether I know enough people who’d wear them. Would you, Dear Reader? More specifically, would you wear this scarf? (I mean this version, knit by me).
Yes, my dears. That up there, looking so familiar, is the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I did it. The entire credit goes to James G Davis (Pandaman) who worked out a stockinette version, upon which mine is totally based. The stockinette gauge is closer to the sc gauge than garter, so Mr Davis’ version was perfect for this. I don’t know why I didn’t do it this way the first time. All I had to do was use sc for every stitch and decide how I wanted to make my increases and decreases. I chose to increase by doing 2 sc in two stitches (an increase of 2), and my decreases by sc3tog (hook through next stitch, yo, pull loop through 3 times, yo and pull loop through all 4 loops on hook). Next time I might change my increases to 3 sc in one stitch. And use some interesting colours instead of this pale pink.
I don’t know why, but I always seem to gravitate towards the same colours for babies. Sigh. It could also be that these are the only colours there are, so it’s not as if I’m faced with a wide choice, not if I don’t want to produce glow-in-the-dark baby clothes. Which I don’t.
Here are the particulars (here’s my Ravelry page):
Yarn: Standard issue baby acrylic, about 150gm or so.
Hook: Size 5.00mm (US H). I went up a size or two from my first attempt, in order to conquer the obvious gauge problem. I made a conscious effort to make the starting chain loose (mine usually tends to be tight) and was immediately rewarded by a gratifyingly right-angled beginning.
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket (link to knitwiki article), aided and abetted by Pandaman’s Stockinette modifications.
Time: I began my first attempt a while ago, as you will remember, and actually started this one a few days ago. Then I got caught up in testing a couple of patterns, doing some work (my job) and distracted by other things, so the project languished a bit. I finally told myself off and picked it up again and resolved not to be distracted this time. The endless rows of sc do begin to pall after a while, which sort of explains why I’d like to do it in a different sort of yarn the next time. And when I grow up, I’d like to try manipulating the gauge for other stitches, starting with dc perhaps. A couple of evenings to finish this normally.
Size: 22″ around.
Extra #1 What can I say? It’s a bit anti-climactic, realising the solution was easy after all, I just had been overthinking things a bit.
#2 I must have counted every stitch on every inc/dec row. I didn’t use markers (because I find stitch markers in crochet to be tedious) and spreading the increases out over 2 stitches made it a bit more tiresome than it needed to be. I don’t know why, when I’d been sc3tog-ing for a decrease, it didn’t occur to me to do 3sc in 1 for an increase! I was fooled by the knitting, where it’s usual to only increase one stitch at a time (unless you’re yo-ing or casting on, and end up with holes). Took me until I was writing down my notes to realise it doesn’t have to be that way, crochet is so much more flexible in that sense.
#3 I added some length to the sleeves after finishing the main part, because they were looking really stubby. I went to the edges and did a few rows of sc on the other side of the starting chain, then decreased stitches twice before ending off.
#4 Not entirely happy with the collar (it could still be added to, but I don’t think I will).
#5 There isn’t a girl baby in sight who’d require warm clothing, but I do have one earlier victim who’s a bit small despite being a year old. She’ll do.
I’m not resting on my laurels, having begun two other projects-one of them is yet again a baby sweater, and the other a dishcloth. And yes, I’ll name them among my FOs. That’s for Sara. If I didn’t count my small projects, I’d have no projects at all.
swakrta.com 