Is she looking at me accusingly?

I suspect it’s becaue she knows I started a new project when I’ve already got half a dozen in the works. I think my next post might have to be a “confession” post about everything I’ve got going, and the stage it’s in.  Might be good just to get myself a little accounting. I think I forget about things after a while. (Actually, Callie’s hoping I will feed her here, and confused about the yarn I’ve put in front of her face that she knows she’s not supposed to touch.)

So this sweater is loosely – and I do mean loosely – based on a sweater in the May/June 2009 issue of Crochet Today called the Summer Breeze Cardi by Elena Malo. It’s a fairly simple 3/4 sleeve cardigan, but the part I’m truly using is the yoke. I can’t find a decent link/picture, so here’s a picture of the cardigan from the magazine.

The changes I’m making to the pattern (dangerous!) are:

1. I am not making a cardigan, I’m doing a single front piece with a back piece, and I plan to do some shaping to it so it won’t be just a straight sweater.
2. I’m cutting out the bubble stitch detail. It’s just not me.
3. No button (obviously).
4. I made up my own stitch pattern for the body and sleeves. The way the picture is shot doesn’t show you there’s extra detail at the waist and on down to the hem, and I guess that just turned me off of using this mostly plain pattern.
5. I will be attaching a simple charmeuse shell to the inside. It’s not a closed pattern at all.

My stitch pattern is simple:  Row 1 treble crochet, Rows 2 and 3 single crochet. Repeat.  This is what it looks like. The yarn I’m using is pedestrian. It was handy: left over from my flower blanket, the humble and yet pretty Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red. I really love the color of this yarn, actually, and I have three extra skeins (I got carried away). So yarn snobs will just have to sniff at my acrylic, and I will itch tremendously at their wool. It’s a fair trade.

The things I’m keeping about the pattern are:

1. The open-stitch yoke. I like how far down on the shoulders it comes. I may even only do two rows. I do hate things that come up too far on my neck.
2. The split in the yoke. Although I’m not making a cardigan, I’m going to split the yoke in front. I like the detail.
3. The 3/4 length sleeves are staying. I will need to remember to make mine fitted like that.
4. The construction of the arm and body pieces. I think the pattern is fitted together pleasingly.

I am not very far along on this, so we will see.  If all goes well, I predict I will have a sweater to wear in October (what, you don’t think I’ll keep at this continuously, do you?). The timing is really fine, because no one in their right mind wears a sweater during the summer months here when it’s 95 – 110 F all the time. It would just be awful to sweat that much.

Lastly, I leave you with me and my coworkers from last Thursday. It is an odd pic for me to post, as it is of people which I have never done before, but I’m feeling a bit nostalgic (already) because the one on the far left is leaving us. I’ve spent a lot of time with these three folks over the past three years. These have been my friends and cohorts in fundraising and putting on that enormous 550-person lunch I talked about: Abby, Margaret-the-wonder-boss and Will. Yeah, and that’s me in black, with a small flower in my hair. Abby’s going to be so surprised to see this here! She sometimes ready this here blog. Hi Abby!

I’m going to go figure out what all of the projects I’m working on now really are.

Circle-in-a-Square Granny Square

I have started work on my flower afghan again.  Hard to believe, but I last talked about this afghan on March 26 of last year, as far as I can tell.  I worked on it for a solid 2 months and got 40 granny squares completed.  I thought I was done at the time, but when I pinned the squares to a wall, it was too narrow.  I had to break off from this to finish my charity project and never returned. So now, in my usual early-in-the-year-spirit of project completion, I have picked it up again. It’s no longer a lap blanket, but has turned into a queen-sized afghan.

This post is about the circle-within-a-square pattern I created for the brown squares.  It is designed to echo the circular floral motif of the colored squares.  I have not ever written down something like this before, BUT  someone once requested that I do so, so here it is.  I probably overdid the explanations. It’s only an 8-row square, after all.

**General Warning:  No one has tested this but me, about 25 times now.  I welcome you to try making it if you feel so inclined, and I might even bribe you if you try (reasonable offers involving yarn accepted) and tell me what you think.**

Circle-in-a-Square Granny Motif

H hook and worsted yarn used for the sample.  Note: The  ch-3 at the beginning of each Row in italics is equivalent to a dc.

Chain 5, slipstitch into first chain to form a ring.

Row 1: ch-3, 7 dc into ring, join to ch-3 with a slip stitch to complete row. (8 dc.)

Row 2: *ch-4 (not a dc), sc in next dc. Repeat from * around 7 more times.  Slip stitch into first ch-4 to complete row.  (8 loops of ch-4.)  Flower shape.

Row 3: ch-3, 2dc in first ch-4 loop. *3 dc into next ch-4 loop.  Repeat from * around 6 more times.  Slip stitch into first ch-3 to close row, then slip stitch into next three spaces, ending between 2 groups of three dc. (24 dc.)

Rows 2 and 3

Row 4: ch-3, 2 dc into the same space between groups of 3 dc.  ch-3.  *Skip next 3 dc and  3 dc in next space. Ch-3. Repeat from * around 6 times.  Slip stitch into first ch-3 to close row, then slip stitch into the first ch-3 space. (A total of 24 dc + 24 ch = 48 stitches total.)  Completes central circle motif.

Row 5: ch-3, 2 dc,  ch-2,  3 dc in first ch-3 space.  Skip 3 dc, then 6 dc in the next ch-3 space. *3 dc, ch-2, 3dc in next ch-3 space (corner).  6 dc in the next ch-3 space (side).  Repeat from * around to the end another 2 times.  Slip stitch into ch-3 to complete row, then slip stitch to first ch-2 space.  (A total of 48 dc + 4 ch-2 spaces = 56 stitches total.)  Completes an almost-octagon shape.

Rows 4 and 5

Row 6: ch-3, 2 dc, ch-2, 3 dc in first ch-2 space (corner). *Skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space between stitches, skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space (i.e. in between the middle 2 dc in the 6 dc row), skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space, skip 3 dc (one side from *).  Repeat 3 more times: corner (3 dc, ch-2, 3 dc) in next ch-2 space, then side stitches to complete square. Join to initial ch-3 to complete row with a slip stitch, then slip stitch into first ch-2 space.  (60 dc + 4 ch-2 = 69 stitches.) Now there’s a pointy-ish square shape in a standard granny square stitching pattern.

Rows 7: ch-3, 2 dc, ch-2, 3dc in first ch-2 space.  *Skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space between stitches, skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space, repeat until next ch-2 space (completes one side from *).  Repeat corner (3 dc, ch-2, 3 dc) in next ch-2 space, then repeat side three more times around. Join to initial ch-3 to complete row with a slip stitch, then slip stitch into first ch-2 space. Lumpy square!

Rows 6 and 7

Rows 8 and 9: Repeat row 7 twice more around to increase the size of the granny square.  Square becomes more flat-sided as you work.

Rows 8 and 9

Square complete!

By the way, if you’d like to print this, I have a sweet CSS file that allows my posts to be printed without creating the usual enormous crapola that comes from printing web pages.  Because I really hate that, and I like adding gadgets to my blog.