CROCHET

Anything to do with my favourite occupation

I’ve been doin my thang …

/ MR / 16 Comments

Do you remember this ?

It was my last failure. I wanted to try making a cardigan from cuff to cuff; but I didn’t keep the edges straight, so I frogged it entirely.

This is how it’s (almost) currently looking, but that it now has a biiiiig cowl neck added, and I’ve run out of yarn for finishing the other sleeve. Must await ordered ball. This is a pattern I bought – the last:

This is the stitch, which I positively enjoyed doing: it’s called Closed V-stitch, in case anyone asks:

And here’s something I would be really happy with were it not for the horrible yarn. I ordered 8-ply from Oz Yarns, and what they sent me – indeed being the yarn on their lists that I ordered – was 10-ply and almost 12-ply. Bloody bulky.

So bulky is it that I couldn’t use my favourite stitch pattern for the sleeves as well as for the body  and had to change down to dc for the neckline in order to set up matching fabric. Why I’m happy with it is that I now have a template – as it were – to make another in real DK yarn.

Please note the side stripes, done so that I could crochet the sleeves in the round and not have to join the underneaths. I was tickled pink with how this worked; and it’ll look brilliant in a single colour !

Here’s a quick jumper done in that lovely stitch, using horrible Mandala (never never again !):

My cousin’s lady saw me wearing it and claimed she would like a colourful one with green as the main shade – hence the above sweater.

This one was made to get rid of the very nice to work with but over-loud yarn. I wear it with a pink under-thing; although it could be worn with any of those colours.

I haven’t added my off-white cardi. I should, as it’s part of this tranche of crochet. I’ll take a shot of it when Boodie gets up off my lap.

You see clearly that my lack of creativity as a designer makes me rely on the yarns and the stitches for variation …

Helpful …? – take II

/ MR / 17 Comments

This is meant to make it easier to comprehend what I’m on about.

It might not help at all !!! [grin]

The news is BAD. I somehow or other managed to increase the number of stitches along the working edge before decreasing for the left sleeve. Which means, of course, that I lied when claiming that all edges were ‘even’ (but it wasn’t an intentional porky – only one that shows how far from top level I am).

The stitch I’ve been using doesn’t have a recognized name – meaning it’s insufficiently used to’ve gained one. I call it Strung Beads coz that’s sort of what it looks like; and I had laboured under the happy but foolish delusion that it’s one using which I can’t miscount … for, as with reading, my concentration lapses without my realizing it. But now, having been caught out and doing a recount, I find that occasional carelessness gave rise to a kind of double double on several occasions, leading to creeping but relentless incrementation.  😦

No point finishing. Either I’ll have a cardi with uneven-length sides below the sleeves, or I could frog back the second sleeve and made it wider than the other one. Being a perfectionist (which you will find surprising), even though

PERFECTION IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD

and having no idea where in the looong rows I increased, I’m stuffed. At least, this project is.

Lesson learned regarding cuff-to-cuff garments, from several points:

  1. use only stitches that cannot be in|decreased without its being seen at the time
  2. be prepared to become bored by the endlessness of it all
  3. remember that it’ll become pretty fucking infuriating having to keep turning a bloody hefty THING all the time, and it’ll sweep things off your side-table as you do
  4. it’ll get extremely heavy as well as large !

So, as the wonderful Robert Graves wrote, goodbye to all that.

 

Back to my roots

/ MR / 21 Comments

No, not these roots that are white(ish) once again —

(and look ! – I’m showing you my shellacked nails, that actually needed to be filed right down so as to be same height as my fingers coz otherwise I couldn’t do anything !) but my … ahhh … occupational roots.

Which is to say, I think I remember starting up my blog again, however many years ago it was, with the intention of devoting it to crochet. Possibly knitting as well, back then; but I don’t do that any more on account of hand arthritis. Well, I MEAN ! – just look at those ancient hands … Sighh … But also grrrrrrrrrr ! owing to the fucking blood-thinners I am told I must take, which make all veins stick out like dogs’ balls. Stringer taught me that one: blame him. [grin]

ANYWAY … Here’s what I’m rabbiting on about:

I was seized suddenly with a desire to make a cardi from one cuff to the other. I know I’ve seen several of these designs on YouTube, but if you think I could find a single one for reference, you’re wrong.  So I had to work out the number for meself. Simple, eh ?

Nup. Far from. For a start, the cuff circumference has to be set by drawing an imaginary straight line up from the ‘edge’ of my somewhat gigantic hips as I see in the mirror, straight-on, which is because they are my widest point (scarcely surprisingly !) and the width of the front and back panels is reflected in that measurement. This means that the length of the sleeves is going to be measured from that same imaginary line to the cuff, not from the point of the shoulder. And you should try getting that point without anyone to hold the tape-measure !!!

Once that’s done there are all the other sums to be worked out, but they’re all just a matter of logic.

Here’s a better shot:

and you don’t need to have it explained why … but there’s my constant companion, the Boodster, shedding fur and being curious.

It looks unbalanced, but that’s one of the many failings of my detested phone, the Oppo somethingorother: not possible to get a shot wherein an object isn’t stretched in at least one dimension. I assure you(se) that both horizontal edges are … horizontal.

Having discovered a second yarn I LOVE working with – the first being Lion Brand Mandala Ombre – which is Fiddlesticks Superb 8 Prints (no idea what the solid colour yarns are like), the next one will be a jumper, with ribbing added afterwards. The challenge there will be the neck-hole, and how to make a roll-neck. Much studying of others’ patterns, I hope !

Thinking … and even doing

/ MR / 32 Comments

Thinking’s an interesting activity – far more so than most of the regular ones on offer to anyone like me.

Sighh … and now I’m obliged to define ‘like me’ – what a dickhead I am !

Well, that’s a beginning – I’m a dickhead, for starters. And then, I’m no longer young; no longer in possession of any noticeable degree of tolerance; no longer fat; and the key thing I want to get across is that I’m definitely no longer interested in watching drama on screens of any size.

Tonight when I’d finished glomming down my favourite food – Woolworths frozen (but thawed in the microwave !) blueberries and Greek-style yoghurt – and this combo has been eaten for brekkie and dinner every day since last October … when I finished, as I say, I realized that Boodie was ensconced on my recliner with me, tucked tightly between my knees. Now, as any cat person understands clearly, having a cat sitting on you means that you cannot change position. Well, not until the cat does, anyway. I’ve finished crocheting the back, the two fronts and the two sleeves of a new cardi and had intended to start assembly; but it’s all on the crochet table and out of reach.     😦

So I hauled up the laptop, opened my browser and went to my BritBox shortcut. After some wandering about its CRIME DRAMA menu I re-found a program I’d been watching and picked up from where I’d left off. A British police crime story set in Dublin (which looks truly dreary, I hafta say) about a Mancunian policewoman trying to solve her daughter’s murder and care for her two Irish grandchildren. (It was easy to remember what was going down when I’d last switched off. At least, I thought it was; but I’d remembered a totally different program !)

After ten minutes Boodie shifted position, distracting me; and I realized I was thinking about a new coffee shop in the CBD I discovered on Google and how I’ll go and look at it tomorrow, and— you get the picture. I had lost interest in the program roughly two minutes after starting it up.

I’m pretty sure this loss of interest in the final stage of an activity in which I once participated to earn my living is a result of being old. I’m not whingeing nor going to whinge coz I’m not characterized by my age, and there is a second possibility – the failing I’ve written about before: loss of ability to focus / concentrate. That failing was posted about in relation to reading; but it strikes me that watching stories on a screen (fact or fiction) is the same kind of activity as reading them on a page, requiring one to Pay Attention. And I don’t seem to be able to do that except when I’m conversing with a person or persons.

And yet that statement is actually untrue and uttered prior to thinking about it: I can Pay Attention to things I do on my own – of course I can. If I couldn’t I’d be where my eldest sister is now, in a care home.

So OK, so it must be how much interest I have in whatever it is, mustn’t it ?

But no: that would mean that I’m not interested in reading … oh, say, my favourite author’s novels – and that’s not at all true ! I remember when I first discovered them, through one my second-eldest sister sent me that made me buy all the other eight immediately. I was in love !!!

Still, since then I’ve been able to buy six of them as audiobooks; and the readers are pretty good … Hmmmm … sheer laziness ? Delight in discovering that a good reader can bring a book to life and let you find out all the little bits you missed because you skip when you’re reading ?

So why don’t I give a rat’s arse about television or movies any more ?

I PROMISE this will be the last (for a while, anyway !)

/ MR / 27 Comments

My second attempt at the new way of crocheting sweaters and cardis took a bit longer than it should’ve, owing to the fact that I did an unutterably silly thing and used my whole bust measurement rather than half of it for the cardi’s width !!

You will possibly imagine my language when I realised I had crocheted so far past the mid-point where I was due to turn and go back (to start to create the open front) that I was almost at the far side .. Even Boodie looked shocked, and after these nearly five years that’s saying something !!

Anyway, I frogged the part I didn’t need by using my yarn-baller – which activity was so fraught with rage-inducing tangles that I wished I’d just pulled it out and made a big pile of yarn – and duly made the split.

So that’s it, the new cardi. Being worn by a very old person – although I do make a possibly unreasonable claim that the lift’s overhead light doesn’t do me any favours !!

It’s done using a stitch called “Reverse Blanket Stitch”, and I made (again) a shawl collar – although not as wide as the last time. I like shawl collars – they’re .. well, adaptable ! 🙂 I graduated the sleeves, having made ’em by starting them across the mid-points of the sides and decreasing as I went. LOVE less seaming ! –  not good at seaming, me.

OK, now I show you a comparison between how I used to make cardis and this one. Anyone who says s/he can’t see the difference is bullshitting me. The ones immediately below are voluminous, basically. The one at the top actually FITS.

So this is the New Way crocheter signing off for a pretty long time. It’s a marvellous adventure I’ve embarked on, this using my own yarn and hook and design and then swatching and off I go !

Oh, and btw: I drew the lounge blinds to try to make a better background for the photo taken in the bedroom, of which the wall is glass. Hence semi-gloom. Even when I have a full-length mirror I can’t take decent photos. Sorry.

STOP PRESS: so here’s the cardi spread out on the carpet, for want of anywhere else to spread it. At least you get some idea of the stitch pattern ! – and can marvel that I even managed to get the stitch/row counts right when dealing with a 5-stitches on a 4-stitch base pattern. WOT ? – you have no idea what I’m raving on about ? Lucky yous.  😀

Good GRIEF ! – it works !!!   :D

/ MR / 21 Comments

This first sweater – started on Friday and finished today – I even put it on and went out to Aldi ! – was an experiment to see if I can follow Frannie’s directions and produce a garment in CORRECT fucking size.

And I can !!!

Yesyes she said testily – I KNOW I’m doing that lean again ..

Well YOU try taking a shot of your own back view ! (Will accept any how-to ..)

Shows how everything fits, see ??

Looks like the bazoomas really are bigger than the bum now !! Astoundin that !

The next garment will be longer – I couldn’t be fagged doing more vertical chains than 172 sts for an experiment – and a totally different yarn and stitch. I shan’t go on and on about it because you’ve already fallen asleep with your mouths open.

Were I wealthy I could heap dollars on Frannie. But as I’m a pensioner I can only thank her for putting up her post on this marvellous idea of doing your own gauge-making (sort of).

Hoping to avoid klutzness ..

/ MR / 18 Comments

Sorry to everyone who’s bored shitless by my going on about crocheting sweaters; but as it’s currently obsessing me – both the problem and any solutions – I am triggered to keep posting about it. You may pray this solution works, so that I will shut my face on the topic !

By happenstance I found a lady who sells wigs mostly (but also crochets) on YouTube talking on A Very Timely Topic –

How to Design a Crochet V-Neck Sweater | Make It Your Own Design Series

and fell upon it with huge relief. Watched the entire thing and finally grasped how it can actually be done. Very, very simple, team ..

One creates a large-ish swatch (i.e., test piece) of crochet in a stitch one would like to use for a sweater and a relevant hook. Any yarn, any hook: it’s the swatch that sets the standard. Then one measures 10cm X 10cm within the swatch, counting how many stitches (horizontal measure) there are therein and how many rows (vertical measure) and writes ’em down.

One takes certain measurements off oneself – or should that be ‘on’ ?? Anyway, these are upper arm and bazoomas since these are the biggest measurement for sleeves and for body, and also desired length. Neckline depth ditto.

And it’s possible I need say nothing more, because you get it, right ? – it’s just maths from now on !

In the sketch above, I’m doing both back and front in the one long rectangle, not two separate panels.

Please add me to your nightly prayers, OK ? –  know you do ’em coz I do, regular. Well, maybe rather than adding ME, add my latest crocheting effort. When I go to heaven I’m going to ask God if you did, so mind ..! [grin]

I did it again: I am A KLUTZ !!!

/ MR / 29 Comments

Sometimes I wonder about myself. Fairly often, to be truthful ..

Every jumper or cardi I make, I check my gauge and change hooks where needed (it always is). And then I find I’m not meeting bloody gauge after all. There is something about trying to make one’s stitches match those of the garment designer that is beyond me, and I fucking wish it weren’t !!! It maketh me very mad indeed.

Here we have my latest FO – you wouldn’t recognise it from the original – a cardi called “The Working Girl Cardigan”

by Veronika Cromwell.

Am I falling over ? – you ask: no, merely trying to show how big I’ve made this cardi. Am I a turtle halfwit, you follow up with; and I’m obliged to nod miserably.

Still, at least I got the shawl collar right this time, by dint of reducing the number of the pattern’s stitches around the inner edges by a third. And I had to re-crochet the sleeves, too, because they were gigantic. Now they’re only enormous. Sighh ..

One of these days, Alice .. (Who knows the source of that quote ? – I mean, other than moi ..)

Ah, the simple things ..!

/ MR / 10 Comments

There was a large part of my life when you could never have persuaded me that my happiness might hang on .. a hanging thing. [grin]

What you’re looking at there is the newest addition to my crochet tools collection: it is a truly wonderful thing called The Wool Jeanie.

It’s the most bloody momentous aid to hit knitters and crocheters in the last .. oh, only the gods know when the previous ‘best thing’ occurred. To be able to sit peacefully with one’s yarn simply arriving without fuss of any kind at all is fucking MAGIC !!! And for someone like me, who guides her yarn in with her right hand (I am unable to find the words to tell you how unspeakably wrong this is !) as well as using her crochet hook with the same hand, it’s simply bliss. BLISS !!

Now I never need re-wind a ball of yarn to pull from the centre again; and the sole use of my swift and yarn ball winder will be for the few times when I buy my yarn in skeins – which isn’t often.

Hannah ? – BUY ONE. You, my only craft-oriented reader, really need this gorgeous tool. I have spoken. (I cannot include the mind-boggling Midnight Knitter, for she is so far out of my league as to be æons away – like the current and beautiful Blue Moon !)