Sneak Peek

I'm about to start another secret project for Robyn and come to realize I never posted a link to her sneak peek for the last project! Well the beautiful Blue Sky Royal alpaca I posted about turned into this wonderfully soft and ruffly fall accessory that Robyn blogged about in a sneak preview back in May! Rumor has it, that the accessory was touched and felt and even worn by many staffers at the publishing establishment. I'll let you know when it's really out!

Blog hiatus....

I can't even begin to explain... suffice it to say that blogging time was usurped by the rest of life.

Here's a cool thing called a wordle to begin my return to the blogosphere

Secret Project #4

Did I mention I love being a pattern tester? Well you can add in contract crocheter as well. I have another secret project!! All the WIPs are on hold now as I have a special quick project to crochet for Robyn [Ravel It!]. I can show you the yarn this time. I wish you could touch it...it's amazingly soft and luxurious. And just look at that little Alpaca face..

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WIP: Garden Party Wrap

I just love being a pattern tester! Kim Guzman, aka crochetkim, was kind enough to ask a gang of us at Yahoo crochet-a-long to be her guinea pigs for her first laceweight pattern, Garden Party Wrap [Ravel It!]. Known to most of us as GPW now, this pattern is beautiful, and popular. She really hit it big with this one. It has been holding it's own as #1 new crochet pattern at Ravelry for almost a week now. I thought this would be a cool project to try out my ChainLink 2007 yarn purchase.. Just Our Yarn's "Aziza" [Ravel It!]. A zillion other things have been absorbing my time unfortunately so I have not made it very far on this project. Nonetheless, here's where I am so far...

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The Button Conundrum...

I just can't decide!!! I have to figure out what Purple Haze needs so it can become wearable. Can it handle buttons through the pattern as intended or does it need the structure of adding a button placket? Will a button placket detract from the look of the sweater? Do I start with the somewhat ornate pewter buttons and see if the stitch pattern can hold these buttons? I have 5 of these so I could space them out as shown. I do think these buttons would work if I decided to add a placate, but would they be secure in the pattern holes? I guess I have to try this first.

If the oval buttons don't hold well and I decide the placate changes the look of the sweater too much then I might need a longer button that would stay in place better. I've been searching to no avail and am actually thinking of stealing the buttons off Twyla (these plain pewter, almost toggle-like buttons). In this photo, Twlya is stuffed inside Purple Haze so the button spacing was determined by where they are sewn on Twlya. I only have four of these buttons so I would have to space them out a bit more than shown.

Twyla would then need new buttons! I guess I could see if Twyla's pattern stitch can handle the more ornate oval pewter buttons. I have plenty of the yarn left from Twyla so I could tighten up the button holes as needed.





I also have some wooden toggle buttons or these round pewter buttons.....












Finally, I found buttons to use to make 3 linked-button closures for Drops 97-1. I really like how the color of the pewter buttons matches the edging and how the heart shape blends with the V-stitch pattern. What do you think?

FO: Purple Haze

Can you believe it? I finally finished Purple Haze. Well, almost.... I still have to find buttons. It's been a while since I began crocheting it back during my infamous sweater weekend. Nonetheless, I actually wore it this past weekend with a linked button closure that I created on the fly (just so I could try the sweater) but I don' t like the way it pulls on the pattern. It looks like the sweater barely fits around me but that's not the case. Without closures, the weight of the sweater with the yarn-intensive shell pattern drags the sweater down. I had planned to use a whole slew of these little sphere buttons, but the pattern holes stretch too easily so it needs larger, plain (IMHO), pewter buttons. Either that or I might have to rethink creating a button placket with actual button holes so the pull on the pattern is more distributed. So, I'm still thinking about the buttons. In the mean time here are the details...

Project details:
Pattern: Purple Haze [Ravel It!] by Lauren Irving [Ravel It!] published at Crochet Me
Size: Purple Haze can be made in a variety of sizes - you can mix and match your sizes based on waist & bust measurements.
Style: There are 3 different sweater lengths (cropped, hip length, or peplum hem) and an optional collar. My sweater is hip length with no collar.
Yarn: Gedifra 'Cotton Merino' [Ravel It!]
Colorway: Purple
Hook: Brittany 5.0mm H hook, 5.5mm I hook for edging
Pattern Changes:

• Back panel - as written except for lengthening it by 2 rows through the waist, and raising the back neckline as Lauren described in the comments on the Crochet Me website.
• Front panels - in addition to lengthening by 2 rows, I modified the armhole increases so they would end at the same row as the back panel (I needed that symmetry... sorry Lauren!). The front arm hole increases still start earlier as Lauren intended.

Previous Posts:

• Last Progress report
• My initial struggle to make sense of the pattern

I think the armholes ended up a bit too big in the end, but I think I can live with that. I need to resolve the button issue before I can give my final opinion on this project. I still love the stitch pattern. I used a slightly heavier yarn than called for and with the weight of the shell pattern I think that was a mistake. I'm hoping I can use buttons, with or without a placket, to achieve a better fit.

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FO: Minicluster Lace Socks

In honor of National Crochet Month, the Yahoo CGOA group held a sock help along using the "Minicluster Lace Socks" pattern by Janet Rehfeldt [Ravel It!] which can be found in the book she co-authored with Mary Jane Wood appropriately entitled "Crocheted Socks!" [Ravel It!]. I finished crocheting the 2nd sock while attending a La Leche League Conference this weekend.

Project details:
Pattern: "Minicluster Lace Socks" pattern by Janet Rehfeldt [Ravel It!]
Yarn: Schoeller + Stahl Fortissima Socka 100 [Ravel It!]
Colorway: blue-red
Hook: Addi Turbo 3.5mm
Pattern Changes: Simply put I increased to create a gussett for my ankles and decreased again - keeping with cluster pattern for my long narrow feet!

• Cuff: Absent mindedly changed the cuff pattern to fpdc-bpdc instead of 3fpdc-bpdc.
• Leg: As written with 26 miniclusters. Began heel leaving 14 unworked.
• Short row heel: I worked 24 sc into 12 miniclusters and followed the pattern for the deacreases. As I read the pattern, when begininng the heel increases, one is to add an extra sc (in the side of the step) on each of the first two increase rows - not taking the first and second rows over 2 steps each as others have interpreted the pattern. I continued then increasing one step at a time so that in the end I did more increase rows and had 4 more sc than I had when I started. This increase solved my need to increase the number of stitches around my ankle.
• Gussett/Foot: Switching back to miniclusters I had 2 extra - now 28 miniclusters. I worked 3 rounds of 28 miniclusters and then worked a decrease across 1.5 miniclusters at the side of the sock on each side so 3 miniclusters became 2 miniclusters.
• Foot: 10 rounds of 26 miniclusters - repeat the decrease on each side - 15 rounds of 24 miniclusters. Completed the toe as written.

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CGOA Chain Link

I love the fact that our National meeting takes place 40 minutes from my home. I can take classes with famous designers, shop at the Market Place, enjoy the company of fellow fiber enthusiasts and still come home and see my family at night! The only sad thing is that I forgot the meeting was moved from the beginning to the end of July so our family vacation is bumping into the front of end of the meeting. I won't be able to attend the Professional Day (wah!) but I will get there by Friday. Online class registration opened on Monday and I was ready at the computer with my finger poised on my mouse at 10am. So here's my class list:

Friday morning: F107C-Half Double Happiness with Karen Klemp
Friday afternoon: F204C-Design Your Own Stitch Pattern with Marty Miller
Saturday all day: S307C-Designing on the Vertical with Dora Ohrenstein
Sunday morning: N102C-Crocheted Tips, Tricks and Hints with Lily Chin

I can't wait!

Felted Memo Bag revisited

This is the Felted memo bag [Ravel It!] I made as a CAL at Yahoo crochetchallenge in October 2006. In this previous post you can see it pre- and post-felting. I used an old belt as a strap, but I never liked the look of the ripple flap on top of the striped bag. For the past 18 months it has been hanging on the door knob of my yarn room. I thought of this bag while felting this past weekend and came up with a solution for the flap. I turned the ripple flap into an inside pocket for the now flapless bag. I like it a lot better now. Here's the old version for comparison,
and a few photos of the new inside pocket.

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FO: Lacy-Flap Felted Bag

I knew this would be a quick project! The Lacy-Flap Felted Bag [Ravel It!] by Lauren Irving [Ravel It!] of Little River Fiber Arts was a CAL at Yahoo CrochetChallenge. I'm decided to leave off the flowers, but the bag itself I love. I showed the pre- and post-felting photos with all the dimensions in a previous post. I did off course make a few pattern changes so here are the details.

Project details:
Pattern: Lacy-Flap Felted Bag [Ravel It!]
Main Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool [Ravel It!]
Colorway: Dark Gray
Flower Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes [Ravel It!]
Colorway: Hush
Hook: Brittany K - actually ~6.75 - 7.0mm
Pattern Changes: Just a few!

• Bag size was a bit different from pattern. My K hook is a bit larger than 6.5mm so my base piece was about 2 inches longer (5" x 17"). The bag itself was not as tall as the pattern - I crocheted until I ran out of yarn (after making the flap and strap).


• The shaping was a bit more dramatic, because it started wider and I feared running out of yarn, I started making the decreases every row instead of every other row.


• Strap was made with hdc instead of sc.


• I felted the bag and strap more severely than the flap. I wanted to maintain the lacy look of the flap and wanted the bag to be smaller and to lose stitch definition.

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