Fiber Monday

 

In Which We Are Finally Done With The Blue Shawl!!!

You read that right, folks, in a nearly three hour marathon of work, I have finally completed the blue shawl!!!

It's probably hard to tell in this shot, but it nearly spans
my twin mattress in every direction!

A more refined shot of it crossed over itself

This thing is at least as wide as my armspan and does indeed reach down to my tailbone.  I finished the top by making a 3dc, ch2, 3dc shell in the 3rd chain of every chain space of the final actual row. That was the longest part of the final jog to the finish.

There's probably a couple yards of thread left - not enough to make anything bigger than an ornament or something like that. I'm very very pleased with this result, and once it's finally blocked and the ends are sewn in, it'll make a fun addition to my shawls.

If I had been sensible, I would not have made a mesh shawl with such a small gauge of fiber and such a tiny hook, but no one could ever, ever accuse me of being sensible lol.

The final count of time spent on this shawl was twenty hours, one minute, and around twenty nine seconds. That's a timer of 20:01:29!

Here's where I tell you how much this would cost if I charged minimum wage for this very shawl: $276.35

It's a nice shawl, to be sure, but I'd probably never find a buyer for such a simple garment at that rate. This is why crochet you find in department stores makes me cringe. Since crochet is to complex to automate, that means a human being had to make that $25 handbag, and they had to do it by hand, and they probably got paid pennies to do so.

It makes it very hard to sell handmade items when mega corporations are wage-slaving the craft so they can pump consumers for profit.

How do crafters price things? I honestly have no idea how much the shawl would be worth.

Regardless, I'm really glad to be done with this project, and I can't wait to start on the next pattern.

I did have one more thing to discuss before going the hickety heck to bed, and that is this: I have finally found someone who actually understands those vintage patterns I'm so in love with.

The YouTube channel is called Just Vintage Crochet, and the lady who runs it is an absolute delight. She has a calm, clear voice, she explains things clearly, and sometimes, she randomly crochets things up from vintage patterns without knowing what she's making until she's done. If you've ever wanted to learn how to read properly vintage patterns, absolutely check her out! I maaaaay be trying out a pattern or three from the channel eventually.

As for me, I'm going to rest up. Tomorrow I'll be back to blather. How are all of your own projects going, folks?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC