Ocean Scarf

Holy cow, it has taken me a long time to get organized to post this!  But here it is, the other handmade gift I made for the holiday. This is a lighter-weight scarf I made for my Aunt Becky which I call the Ocean Scarf (Ravelry link). I was quite sure there was NO WAY I was going to finish it on time, though I tried. I ordered the yarn before Thanksgiving, expecting it to take 5-6 days to arrive so I could have 3 weeks to work on it. Nope. The yarn took nearly 3 weeks to arrive, leaving me with just over a week to finish the scarf. Since I am not a super-fast crocheter, I really had to convince my fingers  to fly to get it done! But I did.

I call it the Ocean Scarf because, well – the colors in the yarn are exactly those you might see on a beach. Witness the photo I posted a couple weeks ago:

You see what I mean about the colors?  I was quite afraid I would not like the pattern of the colors when I started this project (it’s a self-striping yarn when you use it for socks). For the first 15 rows I was convinced it was going to look horrible. Even my husband had doubts. But after about 60 rows or so it made a lot of sense. The yarn is Berroco Comfort Sock yarn in the Southland color way, and it is made of 50% super fine acrylic and 50% super fine nylon.  I am not sure, but it’s possible my aunt is allergic to wool like my mom and I are, so I wasn’t going to risk an animal fiber.

I used a size E/3.5 mm hook. The sock yarn/E hook combo is a new favorite. I’ve been getting tired of bulky and worsted weight yarns. It takes longer to make something with a finer yarn, but I think that’s what I’m in the mood for.

I can assure you I will be purchasing more of this silky yarn from Berroco, and trying their Comfort DK also. It is VERY hard to find good sock yarn in a non-wool. This problem baffles me, because I truly cannot imagine wanting to wear wool socks (my husband and brother are addicted to SmartWool socks, which I think is weird). It is probably a function of my lifelong allergy to animal fibers, but just thinking about wearing wool socks makes my feet itch.  The mental picture I get is of sitting on a horsehair sofa – also quite uncomfortable!  I just wish this yarn came in more colors.

Last but not least – and probably I should have started with it: the pattern is June Gilbank’s Gossamer Lace Wrap Crochet Pattern. I was pretty confused during the first three rows and convinced I was doing it wrong, but I figured out the pattern and from then on it was quick and smooth sailing. I memorized it and whipped through those repeat rows like they were going out of style. It’s a great pattern – I want to make one for myself next. Simple with a noticeable but not too airy pattern. I’m going to go back and make more of her accessories if this is the type of thing she’s going to come up with.

I chose to use a heavier yarn than the pattern calls for. June wrote the pattern for laceweight yarn (hers was alpaca) so her instructions speak about how much the design will expand once it is blocked.  Mine barely expanded at all when I blocked it, which I figured would happen, so I crocheted probably 75 more rows than she suggests to get the length I wanted.  I think she said to crochet about 60 rows beyond the first few … I’m pretty sure mine has about 140 – 150, but I stopped counting. It’s long enough to wrap several ways around your neck, depending on if you want it to be warmer or not.

Well, keep your fingers crossed that old Miriam-pregnancy-brain can keep it together enough to work, craft AND remember to blog. This post has taken since last Wednesday to get together ….

Is it still the holidays?

Happy New Year folks!

It seems like I’ve read about 1,001 “Here’s what I did in 2011″ and another thousand “2012 Goals” posts in my daily blog circuit. I am going to forego both. I’m sure I did a lot of stuff, and I’m pretty sure I’ll do more stuff this year – and I’m going to leave it at that.

This past 3-4 weeks have been very busy for me, crafting-wise, despite the fact that I ended up mostly working over Christmas (luckily mostly from home). But for the time I had off, when I was contemplating what to do with my vacation days, I realized that I could actually do holiday crafting over the holidays. What a concept! So I did. I made a felt mistletoe ball one day (fun and simple!), and another day I made four stacking fabric Christmas trees from stashed holiday fabric. I also used that last pattern and made fringed felt Christmas tree ornaments with bells. However, since it’s after the holidays now I’ll probably wait to show you until next year  (if I remember)!

What I haven’t shown you is the gifts I made. First up today, here are the linen sachets I made for my grandmother. They are filled with lavender and roses and smelled awesome (Ravelry page).

Each one features a motif I crocheted for decoration, which I then hand-tacked onto the backing fabric. I cannot lie, this is not my idea but rather one I saw on Etsy from namolio. I did consider just buying some (all her stuff is gorgeous), and I probably will, but the big difference between this mine and hers is color – quite honestly I wasn’t sure my grandmother would appreciate the lack-of-color-natural-materials aesthetic. And I knew she’d rather have something I made, so make them I did.

It wasn’t super difficult to make these – and I enjoy doing up little lace motifs in crochet with thread. In 2007, I think, I made starched crocheted snowflake ornaments for people in my family. This was much the same thing, I just tried to use motifs that didn’t scream snowflake. I think I like the way the green motif (Pretty Snowflake pattern) look best, but the white circle one (Regal Snowflake pattern) was the most fun to make.  The turquoise motif I made up myself as I went. I think it turned out pretty nicely too!

I think I’m going to hold off on my other gift project for another post, lest this one becomes unwieldy. Meanwhile, there seems to be a lot of 2011/2012 cleanup to do on my blog ….

Until later!

Stitch find

Craft just posted this article today about a British POW’s subversive resistance to his German captors … through cross stitch. It’s a great piece. Also of note is the original article from the Guardian. Definitely worth a read, in my book.