Cowls cowls cowls!

Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!  Cowls!

Cowls are neat-o!  I didn't own any, so I thought to remedy this unfortunate situation.

A girl at my work has been wearing some spiff cowls done in a shell stitch long ways.  Does that make sense?

I couldn't find a pattern to match, so I made one up!  Shell stitch is pretty basic, so any nerd can do it.

The ingredients:
Some yarn.  duh. 
I used 2 skeins of King Cole Riot in "Dude".  Kinda wishing I'd chosen one of the other colourways.  Oh well.


prettyyyy

 You could use any yarn for this cowl, just adjust your hook size accordingly.

I used a 6mm hook,

The method:

Make a chain the desired length of your cowl. OR if you're really clever make a foundation single crochet chain instead.  This is what I did, because it gives you a bit more stretch.  Your chain should be a multiple of 6, plus 3.  Thats the length of the pattern, plus an extra bit to join the pattern together (see the image below). 

I wanted mine so I would get two loops around my head, but not too tight.  Just hold the chain together and test it out.

I was a bit off with my count, but I'm a big fan of fudging to get the result you want :)  If you're getting to the end of your chain and your numbers are off, just fudge it by skipping 1 ch instead of 2 as required so you can join your pattern.

Join your chain with a slip stitch to make a loop. 

Then its just *dc, sk 2 ch, 5tr, sk 2 ch* and repeat from * to * until you come back to where you started from.
Here is a chart of the stitch pattern:



Thanks Wikipedia!

When you get back to where you started, dont turn, but keep doing your shell stitch around and around.  the 5tr go on top of your dcs, and a dc goes in the 3rd tr of the 5 tr. 

My join is not very neat, here is kinda what I did:

Starting in the black, shell stitch around.  The red shows where you'd come back to the beginning.  To continue with the pattern, you will end with a dc, then 5tr into your starting dc.  The green is the next row.

The most important thing, when you finish your first row of shell stitch and are going onto the next row, make sure your work is not twisted.  I learnt this the hard way and had to frog about 4 rows before I realised.

I did about 14 rows, then ended off and did 14 rows on the bottom of the chain, to make the cowl symmetrical. 

I steam blocked my cowl, but it still wanted to curl.  I think it looks spiff anyway :)  It's about 140cm around.  Ravelled here.


Before blocking



Blocking attempt.

And wah-lah!  Very snuggly, stays in place beautifully, unlike a scarf which can flap around all over the place.

I have another (possibly daggy) cowl on the hook now.  I hope to have it finished by the weekend! 

FO! Wedding Shawl...

Part 4 and final part!

I finished this baby the Tuesday before the Sunday wedding.  I gave it to the bride-to-be on the Thursday, and I was super relieved that she was happy. 

Ravelled here, but final stats are:

Weighs just over 100g. Around 1000m I believe. Ms Gusset is obviously very generous with her yarns, as I still have a bit left over from one skein!

Highly scientific and accurate weighing mechanism.

Unblocked: 55” along the top, 25” deep.
Blocked: 65” top and 34” deep.

The pattern said to block it to 70", but I couldn't get mine to stretch that far.  In any case, 5" is not very much.

I already posted (a rather crappy) picture of it unblocked, so here it is blocking/blocked:

Edging detail.  I estimate I used about 100 pins to block this sucker!

The Kitten always gets in  my crochet shots!

And the best pictures of them all!  I think the shawl, and of course my friend, looked stunning.  These photos looks like they were from a magazine!

In conclusion, I am really happy with the result, and was very relieved that my friend loved it so much.  We both agree it was perfect.

I'm so jealous, now I really want one!!

More photos on my Flickr!

My queue of yarny crochet goodness.

So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time.

I'd rather be crocheting.  All. The. Time.

I'm pretty sure my yarn stash is quite modest compared to some.  Even so, there is SO MUCH OF IT.  The thought that I have to do things with it stresses me out, as does the fact that I have no time to do those things, and those things take lots of time!! 

Yes, my life is so hard, and these are my problems.

In an effort to alleviate my stresses, I thought I would make a list of the things.  Here are some of the lovely things I want to make...

Tea wrap by Lion Brand.   Its not a pointy triangle shawl, as so many are, but a crescent shape, which I haven't done yet.  Lion brand's picture is pretty ugleh, but some of the projects of this are stunning.  Looks nice  8 ply...

....so I might use this 8 ply merino/alpaca/silk yarn  I picked up in the BWM bargain room.

A couple of cardis:

The Stepping Stones Cardigan (not sure if it will look as good on me because I am not so skinny..)...

...and the Chevron Lace Cardi (Crazytruffle's one is gorgeous)... 

...both in some black 8 ply cotton, again from BWM.

For my mum, this fetching Aran Toggle Wrap by Coats & Clark / Red Heart...

...in some Shetland, again BWM.

The lovely, lacey Elise Shawl...

.... in some luscious Handmaiden Fine Yarn Silken I managed to score from the Australian Knitters Oz Destash Thread on Rav.

South Bay Shawlette, which I think looks quite nice in 2 ply, so...

...I will use some of my remaining Ms Gusset silk of wedding shawl fame!


And maybe... Simple Scallops...

...in some random 5 ply, from the BWM bargain room.

Not sure if I feel more or less stressed now.  I definitely feel excited to start all these projects, but when dammit?? WHEN!!!

Also, this list doesnt take into account the granny blanket I need to make out of this...

(I know this post is cheating a bit.. where is my own work/creations?  Just because I say I'm gonna do something.. how is that special!?! 

I have some FOs I haven't had time to photograph though, so that is my job for the weekend so I can have a lovely showy offy post next time!)

FO! Sidewalk (aka Pineapple) Shawl

I largely finished this a couple of weeks ago, but becuase the wedding shawl happened, I couldnt get around to end weaving, fringeing or blocking this until last weekend.

I'd seen this shawl before, and put it into my rav favourites a while back.  But I got the sudden urge to get this on the hook over easter, and went out and bought a bunch of yarn to get started.  I opted for acrylic - why not?  This particular brand is squishy and smooshy, and very soft!

I'll confess I never did get the pattern memorised. This took me AGES because a lot of the time was spent going backwards, frogging to correct a mistake that I'd made 4 rows down.  On my last repeat I refused to frog anymore, the rows were just SO LONG!!  I made some mistakes, so just fudged them rather than fixing my errors. I'm sure no one can tell!  My tips for avoiding mistakes with this pattern:

• watch those 3ch spaces (in the pineapple bit), it's very easy to miss one and then have to frog 4-5 rows because you don't notice to later.
• similarly, count your little 3ch spaces to make sure you're always doing the correct number.

I drew up a chart to make it easy to see where I was at at a glance:

Shawl stats:

Yardage:  Shawl weighs in at about 550g, using just over 7 x 80g skeins (yeah, I know that doesn't quite compute!) for a total of 1185.7 yards (1084.2m) (according to Rav) of yarn.

Pattern repeats:  The pattern calls for 4 repeats, but I think I did about 7.  After a rough count of the rows I got 72.  This might be a bit off, but you get the idea. 10 completed pineapples across in any case.

Unblocked:

77" (195cm) wide x 33" (83cm) tall

Blocked: (I used the steam blocking method which I trialled a while ago)

101" (256cm) wide x 47" (120cm) tall

I think I've blocked it incorrectly.  Looking at the project gallery for this pattern on Rav, I don't think the top should curve downwards, but should be straight.  Might try re-blocking, but it is acrylic so I may have already killed it!

Some action shots of steam blocking:

Unblocked:

Blocked:



Trying to look awesome, and failing >_<



I think I really love it.  It doesn't sit properly on the shoulders though.  Will require a shawl pin.  Ravelled here.  An obscene amount of extra pictures on my flickr. 

The Kitten and her insolent face.

Around the internets

Some cool things from blogland and the internets...

If you've never thought about dying your own yarn, you will after checking this post out by pea soup of the day (I know I am!)





I just did this! Srsly.

 

I just discovered Fuck Yeah Crochet Goat. I love memes.  And I feel this one was created just for me.  Thank you internets <3

Recipe for fresh lemon loaf via Be by Belinda. This is on my baking agenda for this weekend!

I guess I have a bit of a thing for poufs.  The one pictured is particularly lovely, via Laurasners

I'm not one for useless items, like throw cushions, however Handmade Romance spotted these ones at Craft Hatch.  How did I only just find out about Craft Hatch?

I saw this a while ago but it's still awesome enough to share - baby Who via Mateo and Me.

Still on the Who theme, Forbidden Planet have just released a 10 shirt!  So nerdalicious!
I've recently been really frustrated with sewing lately, it takes so damn long and it's fiddly.  Though this blue cowl dress by Jorth is making me have second thoughts.

Crochet Stockinette via Sweet Little Stitches.  Must give it a try!

Crochet tartan by The Adventures of the Gingerbread Lady.

Lacy crochet bracelet spotted by tangled happy.