WIP: Sekku Loop

 

This skein of Sekku, a discontinued cotton blend laceweight from Noro, has been sitting in my stash for about five years - one of my many treasured skeins from my college LYS, Smith's. Over two years ago (yikes) I decided to knit it up into a Multnomah shawl, but I found myself really frustrated with the yarn. I found a knot that significantly shifted the color changes, dropped the project for over a year, and finally took a hard look at it and decided that such a lovely pattern would be better suited to a less needy yarn. So I ripped it out, and gave it a quick steam, and forgot about it.

I was cleaning my studio last week and rediscovered the yarn, wound into a cute little ball, and decided to give it another chance. When I touched it, I immediately knew that it didn't want to be knit - it wanted to be crocheted! I thought an open, lacy crochet stitch would showcase the rustic hand and long, subtle color transitions of the yarn, and a cowl would be a great accent piece for all those beautiful colors.

And I was right! I used the same pattern as my Tart Loop - a free pattern from Bad Woman Yarns in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle - because I wear it almost constantly. This project has gone blazingly fast, and I've been feeling a newly rekindled love for Noro - the unusual yet perfectly balanced color changes, the gentle thick-thin character of the yarn, the delicate yet tangible weight of the finished fabric.

It's funny how sometimes projects have to percolate for a while in my brain, and it's really nice to have one of them come to life so quickly - and so successfully.

Happy Wednesday!
<3
Cory

Crochet WIP: Tart Loop

So apparently I'm on a roll!  I finished the Wildflower Baktus on Tuesday and it's just waiting to be blocked, so I started a little crocheted cowl.  It's made from one skein of Madelinetosh Pashmina, which is incredibly soft and squishy and fun to work with.  I'm using a shop pattern called Pashmina Crocheted Cowl from Bad Woman Yarns - the pattern isn't listed on Ravelry but it's free with purchase of yarn at the shop.  I had to recalculate the numbers for the chain row - not sure if it was a mistake in the pattern or my crochet newbitude.  I chained 53 stitches instead of the recommended 50.  Since then it's been smooth sailing - I did about 6 inches at a 4th of July party last night!

Hope my American readers had a fun, relaxing 4th, and that everyone has a happy Friday!

FO: Ice Blossom Crochet Scarf

 

My first real crochet project is done - finished, blocked, and ends woven in - like a boss!  This was a really fun first project, and very simple.  It's pretty much just double crochet and little shells, but it makes a very pleasing vertical pattern.  I think it would be a really fun scarf to layer with other skinny scarves, maybe like the California Roll scarf I knit over holiday break last winter.

I basically crocheted until I was totally sick of the pattern, then pulled the tail through the last stitch.  How cool is it that in crochet, you really don't have to bind off?  I guess the trade-off is that you can't drop down and fix problems a few rows back - you just have to rip it out.  I have a feeling that crochet isn't going to replace knitting as my favorite hobby, but it's really nice to feel comfortable with another skill.  And now I have a growing "crochet" favorites tag on Ravelry!

My Ravelry Page: Ice Blossom
Pattern: Free Pattern from Bad Woman Yarn, not on Ravelry
Yarn: Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace
Yardage: One 440-yard ball - I probably used about 420 yards total
Hook Size: Clover Soft Touch Crochet Hook, Size F - this was a pretty comfy hook, and I'd definitely buy another from the same line!

WIP: Ice Blossom Crochet Scarf

  

So even though there's been stretches of two or three whole days when I haven't been crocheting or knitting lately, I've still made considerable progress on my crochet scarf.  It's actually my only current work in progress, which makes me think I should probably find something new to cast on soon, since I'm pretty close to finishing this ball of yarn!

I also have to confess: although I love working with this yarn, I fricking hate put-ups of yarn like it.  I spent over a half hour this morning untangling a messy alpaca-silky knot that spontaneously formed when a big chunk of the yarn fell off the ball.  Although balls like this are convenient for casting on new projects since they don't involve winding off a skein, I find that skeins are prettier and yarn cakes are much easier to manage.  And that is totally worth the inconvenience of winding.

Oh well - it's looking very pretty, and I'm finally falling into a rhythm with my crocheting.  I'm excited to see how it blocks out!

The Crochet Bug

 

Lately I've started warming more and more to the idea of learning to crochet.  There are just certain fabrics that can be achieved with crochet that knitting can't match.  So a little over a week ago, I tried to start a moebius cowl and failed miserably.  I made my typical mistake: I was too ambitious.  What, a cowl with nupps isn't the best first project ever?  Clearly, I need to be a little more realistic about what kind of projects to start with when learning a new skill.

And then yesterday I was out with my friend at a local yarn shop, and I saw this simple crochet scarf out of laceweight yarn.  I fell in love, hard.

Really, what better way to suck me in than to waggle skinny yarn and a lace pattern in front of my face?  And it's not even very hard - it's flat, it only takes chains and double-crochet, and it's out of my favorite weight of yarn to work with.

So I took my crochet to Purlygirls, and I proceeded to attempt to start it three times before finally putting the hook and yarn away.  When I first chained on, my stitches were way too loose - this is probably a holdover from my knitting experience, where I've found that looser is better.  So I changed my tension, and it started to look better.  Then I did my beginning chain and started the pattern... and ended up with 3 extra chain stitches at the end.  Not one time, but twice.  I checked the math, and the pattern had given the wrong number of stitches to chain for the initial row.  D'oh!  I did a little math and fixed the number, but by that time I was a little tired of ripping everything out.

So I took a few hours off, and then last night around eleven-thirty, I taught Lumberjack to knit a little bit of garter stitch, and I grabbed my crochet, and we both made progress.  I'm still all thumbs and I'm not sure if the rows are lining up correctly on top of one another, but I'm starting to understand a little more about the structure of the fabric.

I think I've successfully been bitten by the crochet bug, because now I can't put it down.

Crochet!

In the past few months, I've started to grow an interest in crocheting.  Although I still prefer knitted fabric for garments, nothing beats crochet for certain types of lace, household items and little accessories.  I've tried teaching myself numerous times and it always seems to end in frustration, and yesterday I finally figured out why:

I am a huge freaking yarn snob, that's why.

I was trying to teach myself with scraps of kitchen cotton in my leftover stash and kept on getting frustrated with how splitty and uneven my stitches were and how uncooperative my fingers were being.  And then I grabbed a little extra ball of Madelinetosh Vintage left over from a little scarflette I knit a while back, and suddenly everything just clicked.

It's an interesting experience to go from a craft where I feel very comfortable doing more advanced techniques to a craft where I am apparently made of thumbs.  I see the little tricks that should make things tidier and I get frustrated easily because I'm thinking beyond my actual skills.  In the end it really doesn't matter that you can do a slipknot-free crochet cast-on if you can't hook an even chain to save your life.

This little motif was for practice, and I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out - although I have to say, it's pretty much the yarn's fault that it turned out at all.  I read the instructions wrong and ended up with twice as many outer petals as I was supposed to, but I actually kind of like it.  I'm definitely going to try blocking it and seeing what happens.

And then, to what purpose?  Doily?  Wall hanging?

Maybe I'll frame it and put it on the wall as an example of my first non-crappy crochet.