Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did More Work On My Pouch!

Well, I've got 1400 stitches in on both the back & gusset for that pouch now, and I cannot wait to be done. Single crochet is tedious if you have attention issues, like I do, and my silly buns decided to build a whole project of just single crochet. The same rows, over and over, stitch after stitch... it wears on me.

Which is why I'm only up to 1400 stitches per piece instead of a heftier 2100.

On the back, I have 28 rows, but on the gusset, 1400 stiches translates to 93 rows plus 5 stitches. This means I have officially finished one side of the gusset (81 rows) and started on the bottom (54 stitches wide).

My goal for rows on the back is... steep. The front is 80 rows, so I'll need to do that, plus however many rows it takes for the gusset, plus however many the closure flap needs in front (probably 15-25 rows). This means it could be anywhere from 110-120 rows. Of which I've done 28. So probably only about 23.3% finished.

The gusset, on the other hand, will probably take anywhere about... 216 rows? Total? Maybe? Which means that with 93 rows completed, we're at about 43.1%.

So the gusset is going almost twice as quickly as the back panel!

Yeah, this is taking a lot of math, and my English/Arts brain isn't very happy about it lol.

So here, I've photographed both the gusset (a tall, skinny rectangle), and the panel (a much shorter, wider rectangle) on my laptop keyboard. Both pieces are a measly 900 stitches at this point...

Unfortunately, this image got flipped, so the top piece is the gusset
 and the bottom is the panel...

The second picture I took today was the correct orientation, and I took

1400 stitches each, the gusset (left) is now almost as long as my keyboard
and the panel (right) is just taller than my track pad!

I'm still spinning, still stitching other things, still working on a pattern for sewing pocket linings for both this pouch and another (potentially a purple pouch!!!). I'm keeping plenty busy, fiberwise.

That'll about do it for me today. Hopefully I'll have anywhere from 2100 to 3500 stitches done in each one next week. We'll see lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

Y'All Ready For Some Shawl?

Because yeah, I worked on the shawl for a whole... hour and 26 minutes this week, bringing my efforts up to a total of 6 hours 53 minutes or so.

And it's not even halfway done.

So if I was to charge an hourly rate at my state's minimum wage ($13.80/hr), I'd have to charge over $95 for this thing just based on labor!

And this, kids, is why there's no such thing as a "fair price" for handicrafts and artwork.

But enough about that, you'll want to see the shawl!

Yup, that's my knee in the shot at the bottom left
and my laptop in the top right.

I've got quite a bit of work left to do on this shawl, and while it's one of the easiest shawls you can make, it's also incredibly slow going with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight cotton.

It's really pretty though.

I kind of wish I had another cake of the green lace from this brand so I could make another shawl in a more springy color... maybe add some cute little pink & white sakura blossoms onto it as décor...

But nay, I shall finish this sucker!

And then I shall make another project!

Who knows what that shall be. We'll find out.

Anywho, I'm gonna go brush my teeth and put a hot pack on my neck for reasons I'll explain tomorrow (they're very silly reasons). I hope all your projects are going well!

That'll do it for me tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

At Last! Progress!
Just not on the Mushroom Bag...

A month or two ago, I started work on another iteration of the Downton Abbey Lady Sibyl Shrug, this time in a beige cotton thread, and I am excited to announce that....

The body is complete!

Now, before you ask, no this doesn't mean I'm anywhere close to being done with the orange/coral version. I... honestly am not sure where that project bag is. I do, however, now know that, without a doubt, it needs to be a bit wider for a linebacker-shouldered bird like me.

After trying this shrug on, even with the added width (I made my rectangle 17" long instead of the recommended 15"), it was a bit of a struggle to get on and off. Perhaps a 22"x17" (56cm x 43cm) would be better suited to me? Or perhaps it is merely the fact that I was trying it on with an unfinished border and a thick t-shirt, rather than a slipperier dress? I'm not changing into a tank or a dress to test that theory, and the border is... unique.

Why do a ch3, sc around into each chain space when the chain spaces are 4-5 chains each? Why was the foundation essentially 4 chains between sc? I don't understand so many choices with this piece, and I'm sure any errata I looked up could explain things, but...

I'm not in the mood to go looking things up, and honestly, I'm feeling too sludge-brained tonight to go hunting down explanations.

I may have had a fairly hectic day.

It may have involved my cat going on an ill-timed nautical adventure.

I may have pictures to share of this tomorrow.

Anyway, here's the first & second rounds of the border, which I've only got about... 30% finished around the body and have not even begun on the sleeves. How is this even going to work on the sleeves. I'll find out. Regardless, I have some work to finish, still, but this is real, visible progress!

I kind of like the 7dc shells, but...
Not sure how I feel about the rest.
We'll see.

Now, obviously, if I hate the edging, I can just frog it and start over. If you have any suggestions, feel free to @ me on Twitter or leave a comment on here.

Unrelated, but there's still time to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi and convince me to do art in a category of your choice (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Geometric, Word)!

I will be taking the rest of tonight to stare at a cursor blinking on a manuscript.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Seeeeeecret Project is finally updated!

I'm sure you're tired by now of all my excuses so behold:

One Very Annoying Strap.

The strap above is made entirely with slip stitches and that is why it took for-freaking-ever. But now it's... done? Maybe? We'll see when I start to attach things. I also started a similarly slip-stitched loop for the top of the mushroom cap! I've been working on this bag for so long that I keep losing track of how to do things, but if you look up the "secret project" tag, you can find the whole pattern up to this point!

I've also been struggling a lot to try to structure this project. You see, crochet thread? it's super duper floppy. It won't look good in glamor shots if it's super floppy, so how do I hold the mouth of the bag open? I tried so many ways to do things - wires, strengthening things with plastic, and even zip ties! And yet none of them worked well.

Today I just went ahead and did it - I added wire.

Fortunately I had some cheap $1 jewelry wire that I used on the mouths of the lower part of the bag, and then I used thin copper wire around the bottom of the cap. The thin wire is purely aesthetic - I'll be stiffening the base of the cap with thin plastic of some sort (or possibly craft foam if I find some), and that will hold it against various things being stored in the cap!

The plastic tie failure - they were only top-closure, I'd need side-closure

The jewelry wire is still quite pliable so I doubled it up!

And I attached the wire using single crochet through each dc from either mouth

I think it came out pretty well!

The copper wire was harder because it's thinner, softer, and I measured wrong!
Measure twice! Cut once! Then you don't poke yourself with twisted wire lol

The bag assembled & reinforced!

Hopefully today's blog has helped someone trying to figure out how to create structure in a project. Here's some additional advice: grab sandpaper to round off the cut ends of your wire so it hurts less when it pokes you.

So now we just have a few more things to do!

• Finish/attach straps
• Make and attach spots for the cap!
• Add the final structure elements
• Make a closure for the stem (maybe a braided cord?)

That doesn't seem like so much when you look at it that way!

And that's gonna do it from me for tonight. I'm pooped!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 324: Ever Onward

In Which I Continue Making

Sometimes, it's hard not to get lost in the repetitive motion of a simple multi-row-repeat project like the DA Lady Sibyl or this soft rectangular something (will I have enough yarn for a shrug? Maybe?) based on a towel pattern from Lady Jay. So that is exactly what I've been doing this morning - progressing through soft garments and thinking about the next part of my book. Yesterday, I wrote just over 1k words, and I hope to get just as much done tonight, though we'll see. This might be a characterization day rather than a scene-to-scene day...

But today's not for writing (that's tomorrow lol), today is to show you my work with a hook and some yarn:

This is some sock yarn I found somewhere. Maybe it's Heart and Sole? I don't know.

I'm slowly increasing along one edge with every repeat because if it does become a shrug, it needs some body to it or it will only really fit my forearms, and I hate having open sleeves to the elbow. That sucks. I have another ball of the yarn, too, so it's a distinct possibility that Size 2 yarn + 4mm hook = a wearable garment. Even if said wearable garment is in bizarrely Eastery colors...

And the Lady Sibyl still grows slowly

I've added another half inch, but we'll see how much longer this takes...

I love the Red Hotdogs color on the lace weight yarn I'm using for the Lady Sibyl, but I do kind of wish I had a nice cloud gray or a sage green or a warm umber to make other versions out of. Maybe a silver color would be nice? Regardless, I'm very into rectangles-you-fold-and-sew-to-make-clothes right now.

I'll keep you all up to date on my progress with my silly little projects, and hopefully someday soon you'll see an item or two up for sale somewhere on here. I'm workin on it ;)

How are all of your guys' projects going? Are you sewing masks? Are you stitching clothes? Knitting socks? What's up out there?

I'd love to see or hear about the handcrafted projects you're working on, so feel free to tell me about them in the comments or something.

Go Enjoy Something, guys
FC