FO Friday

The Blog that hosts the meme, WIP Wednesday, also hosts a meme called FO Friday. I recently finished a couple of projects. FO Friday seemed like a good time to post about them. I finished the Chevron Lace Cardigan and the Kittyville hat. I am happy about how the sweater turned out. When I was making it, I wasn’t sure I had enough yarn. As it turns out, I had a skein and a half to spare. I made it a little longer than the pattern shows. I wanted it past my waist. I wasn’t sure I wanted to put in a buttonhole, I decided not to. Of course once I finished it, I realized it would look better with a button on the top of the body. I also wasn’t sure how long I wanted the sleeves. I haven’t seen many sweaters with ¾ length sleeves. Once I tried it on, I could see that full length sleeves would look all wrong. So I made it with three quarter length sleeves

With the hat, I wasn’t sure I wanted to add the ears. Once I finished the hat and earflaps. I tried on the hat. It looked awful on me without the ears. So, I added the ears. I found out that adding ears or earflaps to a hat is not difficult. You just need to pick up stitches. I also learned to do an I cord. The cord on the hat is an I cord. If you look at the hat, you will see that one of cords looks much better than the other. That is called learning a technique as I go. The pattern called for pom poms at the end of the cord. I didn’t add them because I don’t like pom poms. The hat was a little small. If I made the hat again I would use size 8 needles. I knitted this hat using size 7 needles.

WIP Wednesday

In the past couple of weeks, I finished the Kittyville Hat and The Chevron Lace Cardigan. I will be blogging about them on Friday. I have started to make good progress on the Galaxy Top. Just last night, I crocheted 5 motifs for the project. I started the project, Short and Sweet from the book, The Happy Hooker. I have wanted to crochet this pattern since I bought the book several years ago. I am crocheting it using Knitpicks Shine Worsted. I like the yarn. It is splitty at times though. I love the color. Purple is my favorite color. I like the stitch pattern but it takes concentration. So far, this project is working up pretty quickly.



I also have started The Easy Triangle Shawl. I haven’t been working on this much. I wanted to make a shawl to put over my shoulders when aggressive air conditioning made me cold. A few years ago, I bought some Lion Brand Homespun. I bought it to make a scarf I lost in a move. I liked this shawl better. The original scarf was row after row of Single Crochet. This is the crocheters equivalent of endless rows of stockinette stitch. The shawl looks more interesting to me. Besides, I have never knitted a shawl before. If you want to see what other people are making, make sure to check out the other bloggers participating in WIP Wednesday.

Favorite Quote

"Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act." - Leonard Cohen

WIP Wednesday

This past week, I changed my blog design. I am happy how it turned out. Now, I want to add a banner. Just yesterday, I finished the Chevron Lace Cardigan. This has been my favorite crochet garment pattern. I just need to block it and take pictures. I am now trying to figure out what I want to crochet next. I am leaning toward this jacket called Short and Sweet. I have wanted to make this jacket for a long time. With all the crochet in fashion right now, I think this could be a good project to work on.



Last night, I started a Bruges lace scarf. However, I am frustrated and confused with this pattern. I am going to leave it for a few days. I may work on motifs instead. I have Edie Eckman’s book, Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs. I keep meaning to go through the book. I don’t feel very comfortable with motifs. The first chapter of the book is basic instruction on motifs. In the past, I have seen a couple of beautiful projects that involve motifs. One was a shawl the other, a jacket. I have been too intimidated to do them. Before this I have only done a few granny squares and a bag I made by joining squares. Here is a picture of that project.




Other than that, I am trying to finish my hat soon. I am already eyeing this shawl pattern that doesn’t look too difficult. I have never knitted a shawl. It seems like a good summer project. A shawl seems like a good thing to wear on cool summer nights. I am also eyeing this t shirt. It looks like it would be pretty easy. However, it is a lot like a sweater I have already knitted.

New Design

The past few weeks, I have thought about changing the look of my blog. I had been feeling that my blog was too dark and dour looking. I wanted a design that was lighter and more colorful. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do or where to start though. I also wanted to add a badge for Work in Progress Wednesdays. Today, when I figured out how to add the badge, I started playing around with my blogger template. I am very happy with the result. I am not done. I want to add a new banner. I have been taking pictures of images I may want to use as a banner. Here is one that I liked, I am not sure I will use it though.

WIP Wednesday

I haven’t posted in WIP Wednesday lately due to a move. I haven't been knitting or crocheting as much as I would like. I am still working on the sleeves on the Chevron Lace Cardigan. I have made a little progress on the Kittyville Hat and the cable scarf I posted about earlier.

The final work in progress I am working on is the Galaxy Top. I wanted to do this project for a long time before I started it. I found the project a few years ago when I had first started crocheting. I found it on the site, Crochetme.com. This was before Crochetme was a part of Interweave press. It was an online magazine run by Kim Werker. It was one of the few sites I found with cute crochet patterns. The finished project looks so cool to me. However, is made by crocheting dozens of circle motifs. I have gotten bored with this. I have been off and on with the project.