Day 157 and Purse Chain

Did you ever see those chains that are used as a handle on leather purses? It's always just a bit of leather woven through a basic metal chain. I figured I could recreate that on a much larger scale with the biggest darn filet crochet mesh boxes you ever did see. I used double treble crochet (which I guess would be treble treble in Euro terms?) and chained 10 and did a single column of boxes. It took next to no time at all and now that it's over, I wish I had used a metallic yarn. There's always tomorrow ;)

Day 156 and Rings

This was a lot more fun than it sounds. One would think that having to make each ring separately would be a complete pain. One would think that sewing all the ends in would drive a body mad. One would think an impatient person like me couldn't handle it.

One would be incorrect. With tapestry needle in hand, it was actually a lot faster and a lot less annoying than I anticipated. And since you can crochet over the beginning yarn end, there is actually only one end per ring.

As for the actual construction, I just improvised a pattern, but this motif is quite old and usually called something along the lines of "wedding ring stitch." I used a size M hook and doubled simply soft to make it happen, changing colors at random for each ring. Getting the right proportions between the size of the ring, the number of stitches and the number of beginning chains took some ripping and re-hooking.

Chain 14, join with slip to beginning chain. Chain 3, 26 dbl crochet into the ring. Join the final stitch to the beginning chain by sewing it in place and hiding the end.

All the rings are made the same way, but before joining the chain, thread it through the previous ring. The trickiest part is making sure all the rings face the same way. Always thread the chain in the same direction (eg. back to front) and it'll come out fine. The outer edge I fudged a bit, but in general, I did 6 DC into each ring along each edge and (DC3, DC inc) 3 times, DC3 for each end ring. You might find fudging to be the best course of action as well. It's a very organic stitch, but I think the results are worth it.

Day 155 and Barbershop

The way the colors swirled around made me think of a barber pole. While you COULD choose to just wrap the two thin scarf pieces around each other, they wouldn't stay twisted nicely without guidance. By tacking them together with a slip stitch at every twist, they stay put, but are still mostly separate to give the right impression.

This is also a bittersweet loss of yarn. I believe this particular yarn is discontinued and I was very sad to know that there was so much less in my stash. I'll miss you, pretty metallic yarn.

Day 154 and the Structure

I was going one way with this scarf before it took a turn and ended up somewhere else. I'll tell you about what I was originally planning later because it's still a potential future scarf.

I happened to be using a combination of hook and yarn which I noticed had a lot of negative work space despite the weight being a match for the hook size. Something about the structure of the yarn made every single stitch a separate entity. Seeing this, I took an opportunity to use the stitches themselves to stand in for what would otherwise require specific shaping and finishing.

The stitches stood with enough space around them that I began tapering by means of your classic double crochet decrease in order to end with a very clear point. The size and shape and stitch definition made it so I could thread the point of the resulting triangle through the very stitches as if I had designed a keyhole in the first place.

I suppose this is a clear case of the improvised doghouse outshining the heavily planned treehouse. Yes I know that's not a phrase, but I just said it; you're now free to use it!

In case you want to duplicate this scarf the basic recipe is thus: Katia Somoa Yarn and a size K crochet hook. Chain 20 and work 3 rows of double crochet (american). On the fourth row, make a decrease at the end of the row followed by 3 more rows worked even. When you only have 4 stitches, decrease every second row and tie off when only one stitch is left. I expect other woven tape style yarns would give a similar structure. If they're on the thin side, use treble crochets and decrease slightly more often.

Too Awesome not to Share

No, they aren't scarves, but I had to take a time out and share these HILARIOUS little finger puppets! I'm in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup Group on Ravelry and this was a quidditch project. I can't hardly stand how stinkin cute they are!

Day 153 and Generations

Whenever you sort of make up a stitch pattern or in this case a motif, you'll feel the need to play with it a little bit. In this case, I used the bump from the heart from a couple days ago and used it as a scalloped edge for a simple straight forward scarf. I learned that the bump takes up FAR less yarn than the traditional shell scallop would have and I expect I'll be playing with it a couple more times before I'm satisfied. :)

Day 152 and Entrelac

This I can honestly say is my first taste of Entrelac (interlace knitting) and I can with confidence say that I get it... mostly. I couldn't get my end stitches to match what my instructions told me it should be so I had to fudge a bit, but the main bit of knitting was just fine. If you don't like picking up stitches or turning your work A LOT then this probably isn't the technique for you. If however you can knit backwards as well as forward and love lots of increasing a decreasing, then I suspect you'll have quite a lot of fun with entrelac. It seems like the kind of knitting where familiarity begets usefulness. Right now I can't make more than a rectangle, such as for this cowl, but I can see where a little practice will go a long way and you'll hopefully see something a little more impressive later in the year.

One other thing. If you've never tried entrelac (there are lots of videos and tutorials all over the web) my single best piece of advice is this: Don't use more than one color for your first try. I wish I hadn't because there are SOOO many ends to weave in at the end and there are SOOO many ends to get in your way while you're knitting, and there are SOOO many loose untied pieces that you have to hold tension on while turning the triangles and rectangles. If I hadn't given myself this scarf challenge, I would have frogged this first attempt and pouted for a week before trying again (in retrospect, it's kind of funny). Next time I do this technique, I'll surely use a single color just until I feel more secure.