Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Scarves again


Thanks to the Crochet Geek on G+, I have gotten more into scarves. Here are three more or less from her.
The first one came as just a diagram that I had trouble converting ton work. She kindly redid the diagram -- twice! -- and I finally got the rhythm of it. Of course, with my sense of rhythm, there are a few flaws.somehow I added a twist so that the infinity scarf became a Möbius one as well. And somewhere I missed the step up to the next row and so turned the whole into a spiral. Still it is rather pretty and my wife likes it.




I had no trouble with this one, which ended up looking like the picture.



This one is my memory of a pattern which disappeared into the depths of G+, never to return. I don't think it is what the original intended, but I like it and am working on another version already.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

mi prami la Crochet Geek
My favorite thing on G+ is Crochet Geek, who has a new pattern almost every morning.  Some don't interest me (I know no babies for booties, e.g.) but many are cute or clever or teach great techniques.  Or give me starts for "improvements".  Here are a few I've enjoyed and either improved or screwed up interestingly.


This was a shot at a waffle weave, but I misread the crucial line and so didn't get the strong differentiation of the original.  Better reading next time, but this isn't bad looking.


A couple of changes here: magic ring rather than ordinary ring (I wish I could remember who taught me that trick) and a sharper point .


By-the-book butterfly.


By-the-book flower, but I would like the lower petals (or whatever they are) to alternate with the upper ones rather than underlie them.  I tried that by screwed up elsewhere but finally got it right



Another trick from CG is the difference between working with whole loops or only the front loop or only the back.  When you alternate blocks of FLO with blocks of BLO you get a nice rib effect:




upside down hat.
I start at the crown and work down, adding stitches row by row.  And I usually end up with a hat that is too big or too small or has strange angles in it.  So, against the size problem, I started one at the edge and worked up.  The angles are worse, but the size is about right (though I won't use Tunisian crochet for the edge again -- no give).
Chemotherapy means hair loss, so one actual use for crocheted caps is a cover-up.  I made one for an autumn, who decided against it and another yet to be presented.



Summer time, so lighter hats called for (if any, of course)






We all make mistakes, but some turn out interesting.  I am not sure how I came to turn a hat around at a join and crochet a row backwards.  But I like the effect and have done it deliberately several times now for a terraced effect,

In a neat yarn shop in Monterey (name long lost, alas) I got two great things: the irl of Ravelry, the source for all things yarny and a view of a couple of baskets crocheted with two strands.  I went home and tried that and, while mine didn't stand up as well (loose stitches? lighter yarn? bad proportions?), I liked the look and tried a couple of hats that way.