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

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Finished The Shawl!!!

I did it! The shawl is 100% finished!

Laptop for scale

Yes, that says 54 inches (137cm)

It's shockingly warm, and I only have a couple feet of yarn left! 10/10 would crochet again.

And how long did the whole shawl take? 6 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds. Or so. About 7 hours and a full Mega skein of yarn! It'd probably be several regular sized skeins of worsted weight yarn with my J-hook. I did have to switch from double crochet to half-double crochet on the last round, though. I would've run out of yarn 3 inches from the end otherwise!

And what did I do after finishing one obscenely cozy shawl?

I started a second one.

We'll see if I actually have enough thread for this, but it's being made with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn/thread in a cotton/poly mix. It's very soft, but also very splittable and it yarn barfs terribly, but that's just life sometimes.

At a little over an hour in, this is still only about the size of a cellphone. It's not big, but it is deliciously delicate and flowy and drapey and it'll be lovely for spring/summer. Why another shawl? Why not. It's what I grabbed and started, after all.

As for the leftovers from the last project, I think I'll take a K-hook and start turning it into a neckline for a Goblin Sweater. We'll see how that goes. I'll try and record the Goblin Sweater, too.

Next week, I'll have more crochet to show you - the lacy shawl, maybe that Goblin Sweater, who knows what else!

For now, though, I'll be adding another hundred words to my manuscript, maybe sketching, and then? I'm going to bed.

I am hilariously sleepy lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Finished A Thing Again!

So last week, I finished a lacy shrug that was in one of the colors for a wedding I'm going to in... 5 days. Yikes. And this week, I finished something else, just in case the DA Lady Sibyl shrug isn't quite broad enough for my linebacker shoulders.

Remember my sudden obsession with hexagon cardigans? I actually finished one!

And she is an 80s daydream!

If you can crochet a granny hexagon, you can crochet this sweater, and you can probably do it better than me. Just make sure you actually have enough yarn! And buttons! I gave the sweater 5 button holes, but... I only have 4 pearly buttons from an age when you could get 4 buttons for 49 cents. They'd be perfect, but such is life. It looks better open, anyway!

The sleeves reach a bit below the elbow on me, but you can make them way longer or shorter by adding more rounds to the hexagon or just adding more rounds to the sleeves. If you are not packing a gut like I am, you'll probably want to do less rounds on the hexagon and more rounds on the sleeves/bottom, but it's so simple you'll probably figure it out on your own. As for the neckline... you may want to sew the sleeves up about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way instead of halfway like I did. That neckline is waaaaay too wide - which is why I skipped the chain spaces on the neckline along the back and reduced in even intervals from shoulder to shoulder.

How I fastened the two hexes!

I strongly recommend the Hex Cardi hack, guys. It's so incredibly easy, and if I had enough coordinating yarns, I'd make enough for every single person in my family. They're comfy, they're cute, and they're really fun to make!

Basically, I just seamed up the sleeves, then seamed together the back before adding three more blue rows in single crochet around the sleeves (skipping the chain spaces, so the cuffs were slightly smaller), and then running three rounds of single crochet around the inside opening (around the collar, down the left front, around the bottom, then up the right front, I think? I might have said that backwards). If you're adding buttons, leave some chain spaces open for them on one of the front sides, then sew the corresponding buttons onto the opposite side.

My version of seaming, by the way, was to slip stitch, chain one, then slip stitch into the matching stitch on the other side, then slip stitch in the next stitch, chain one, slip stitch into the matching stitch on the other side, etc. I did this for both sleeves and for the back. This made something like a rick-rack pattern!

I might use this basic pattern for the Goblin Cardigan idea I've been playing with.

Which is a topic for another Monday, I think :)

Now, if you've got any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments - I check them every time I post, so it may take a day or two for your comments to appear, but I'll give it the go-ahead when I see it! And I'm going to go see how much more I can get done in five days...

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Today Has Been A Day, Has It Not

So... Facebook.

Amiright?!

That was fun.

Anyway, today was my crochet day, but most of the morning was actually spent looking for our hot glue gun so I could secure the eyes into Mystery Project #1, which... I FINISHED!!!

Sort of.

See, I ran out of yarn for the tail, so instead it has none. If I ever find a good deal on the yarn I'll pick a skein up to make the tail (and possibly a friend for this lil dude!)

The lil dude in question:

He's so cute!!!

This lil guy, believe it or not, is a "Dumpling Kitty" by Sarah Sloyer on Ravelry. It's an easy pattern, but I had to go and be creative (or something) and do one without 1) stripes and 2) a mouth, so that required a bit of thinking (pro-tip: the color changes count as a stitch!). Mine came out kinda looking like a rabbit, but that doesn't stop it from being hecking cute. It is so stinking cute! And I don't miss the tail (which, uh, is good because I'm 100% out of this yarn).

If you weren't here last week, you're maybe wondering why I can't just substitute in another worsted/heavy DK weight white acrylic yarn for this project. If you were, you probably want me to prove that this stuff does what I said it does...

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have GLOW!!!

Yes! The glow looks great even after only 15 seconds of close exposure to my bedside lamp! If I have any complaints about this yarn it's that:

1. The skeins are tiny (like, maybe 100 yards tiny)
2. The yarn itself seems to be polluted with sharp bits of plastic that can really hurt
3. Splitty, splitty, splitty yarn

I did a little more work on the other Mystery Project, though, and for that, we can either look next to the first pic of that lil critter or I can show you this:

Wow... Not a big difference from last week, huh...

And yet there is a significant difference.

There's at least 6 new rounds, and I'm taking it up to around 150 stitches around before next week, I hope. If not 180!

Okay, you may be thinking, but this is getting a little... big. You'd be right. I have plans for this bad boy and they don't involve it being microscopic... no matter what a 1.9mm hook might suggest :P

Anywho, that'll about do it for me today. I'll have a lot to blather about tomorrow involving my cat, the internet, and more, so stay tuned, folks!

And don't forget to

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: FINALLY

 

In Which I Have Finally Finished the Stocking
(Kind Of)

Despite all of my procrastination, seasonal depression, unrelated stress and anxiety, and just plain not knowing what I was doing 90% of the time, I have finally finished the stocking! Kind of.

The stocking is done! I have the whole body made up, just have an end or two to weave in, but I haven't even begun to think about where to put the name or just how I'll do it. Do I do a 5x5 stitch cross-stitch? 3x5? Serif or sans serif? Lots to think about.

But that's Tomorrow Me's problem because Today's Me is proud of what I've accomplished!

LOOK AT IT!

I'm so pleased with how the antlers came out, and I can't wait to add the name. It was suggested that I put it on the foot, and I may go with that :) Regardless, it's done and it's huge and I know there's nothing there for scale, but I measured it at about 32 inches (81cm) top to toe!

I'm thankful to you all for bearing with me, to my sibling and nibling for their patience, and to my joints, which have gamely stood up to several months of use for this project. I only have a handful of that original skein of blue yarn left now, though both the brown and white are much more plentiful.

I feel like I've earned a few days away from the hook lol

What do you guys think of this project? Is it too big? Should I have made it bigger? Should I have put less space between the borders and the snowflakes? Should I put the name on the foot or do I monogram it around each snowflake in a V formation (one initial to the upper left of the snowflake, another to the upper right, and one at the bottom center)? Whaddaya think? :P

For me? I'm just gonna....

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Sunny Beret

 

In Which I Finished That Scratchy Hat!

So last week or so, I started working on a hat! This hat was actually a beret, and I was making it out of a particularly scratchy, weird yellow wool I'd bought ages ago and had no idea what to use it for.

Well...

That hat is done!

Yes, I had my boy Dedbert model the beret for you. Yes it's too big for him.

Blurry semi-action shot!

The beret actually feels pretty decent, though it's a tad big for me (which is weird, because I used the Small/Medium pattern, but my family tend to have small skulls, so there's that...), and you don't notice the scratchiness of that wool when it's on top of your hair. I really like the yellow color, and I kind of wish I had enough yarn to make another one for me, because that? That hat's going in the Sell Box for when I A) get my Etsy shop set up all the way, or B) Covid chills the heck out so I can maybe go to a craft fair!

I still have some of the yellow yarn left, but I think I might turn that into a handbag or a small yellow stuffed animal? Whatever I do with it, I think I have come to terms with its scratchiness against my fingers, and I'll be able to work it up much more quickly!

The reason this blog is up so late, by the way, is because somebody decided today was a writing day and wrote two pages towards the middle of their novel. Somebody is me. I wrote two pages of my novel. I'm in the thick of it now, and I'm super excited!

That'll about do it for me today, guys. Expect some extra writing tomorrow (particularly about my writing!).

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 244: Pumpkin Spice Reveal!

In Which I have Finally Finished the Pumpkin Spice Set!

 I bring you tidings of great joy!

I'm done with pumpkin-related accessories! Yay!

Here we see the set altogether - Scarf, Fingerless Gloves, Hat!

My biggest challenge today was finding spots for all the leaves and making several corkscrews to serve as vines. If you're wondering how to make one, here you go:

1. Make a chain - however long you like or depending on the project at hand. Smaller corkscrews can be super cute, even useful as piggy tails!
2. Make three (3) Single Crochets in the second chain from the hook and in every chain after. These groups of three will make your corkscrew!
3. When you reach the end, tie it off. You're done!

Easy enough, right? That's why you see it from me. I'm too lazy to do anything spectacular, lol!

Here's the top of the hat.
I used two different kinds of leaf, so I'm not sure how cohesive it looks, but there we are...

The fingerless gloves have brown along the cuff to simulate a stem (like on the hat)
I had two different sizes of small leaf, so I used those to differentiate one from the other, lol.
The one with a smaller leaf has a slightly longer corkscrew, too.

Finally, we have the scarf, which has also been edged on one end with brown
and has two different leaves and a long corkscrew.
One leaf is actually from a pattern for a coaster, lol!

So that's it for the pumpkin spice project! They're a cozy trio of accessories, so if you're looking for something to make for a present for someone, just pick up an H/8 (5.00 mm) hook, some worsted weight yarn, and check out the previous weeks.

If you're looking for various leaf patterns to work from, I used the search "Free pumpkin leaf crochet" and found a lot of random patterns.

I also basically just gave up and started using maple leaf patterns, lol.

This means that I need to pick a new project!!!

I'm pretty excited, guys :)

That's all from me!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC