Toes

Hiya from a,

I have something very exciting to show you today.  I am pleased to present my first pair of completed crocheted socks for your viewing pleasure:

Now it is a rather gloomy day here so the photo is a little overexposed so they look a lot more blue than they are.  If you look closely you can see that there is also a green swirl running through the yarn.

Now one of those weird things you hear out in the universe is that you can't crochet nice socks - I mean look above, obviously you can.  The trick is not trying to get them to look like knit socks.  Now matter knit items and crochet items look and act differently.  You need to use a great yarn and a pattern that plays to the strengths of crochet (I got this pattern from Interweave Crochet).  The yarn is also the star here.   It is by fly designs and I just fell in love with it.  For me this yarn cost a fortune - it was 18 dollars for one ball.  I was okay with this though because of a great article I read on how it is not the price as a whole that you need to look at but rather at the price per yard.  In my case the ball of yarn was something like 546 yards which means that the cost was pennies to the yard.  Plus I had more than enough yarn to make the two socks with a bunch leftover.  It is a yarn brand that I can't wait to play with again.
Anyways I really enjoyed crocheting socks, and they feel really neat on my feet (heee, rhyme) so I think it is a project that I will undertake again.
Take care.

Strips and Lines

 Hiya from a.,

So I have my second completed quilt sort of project to show you.  I have two other things that I've worked on that I know I will never finish, or at least it is doubtful you will see.  Here though is something that I did finish, and I am fairly pleased with how it came out.  As always things are a learning curve and this type of sewing is coming along, although I think that generally I am going to stick to sewing skirts and bags, as those remain my favourite (with the occasional foray into toys, which I also enjoy sewing).  Anyways this was my attempt at the traditional basketweave pattern:

We have solid bars of purple, pink, and black.  The patterned strips are black trees, day of the dead skulls and pink motifs things.  Here is a close up, so you can see some of the patterned fabric better:

For the quilting part I did a really simple wide spaced diagonal, as I didn't want to take on too much (which is what I usually do).
It is interesting quilting.  I like it, but don't love it.  In theory all the fussing and cutting and detail required for it is right up my alley (as was said by r. this morning "you're not at all obsessive are you?"), but it can be a little much.  I think the thing with me and sewing is, that a skirt or a bag, even a super complex or fancy one can be made in a day or two and it seems that it is at least a week for a quilt project.  I use sewing to create the quick results that I don't necessarily have with crochet and spinning.  Still I did enjoy making this and I know I am going to attempt to make a quilt that is adult size, but I think that for quilting/patchwork projects overall I would stick to more random sampler things, or using the style for pillows and the like.  We will have to see, when it comes to crafting opinions always change.
To close here is a photo of when the project was in media res and a certain someone just had to help:

take care.

Lacey Motif Thing

Hiya from a.,
Sorry for the slightly longer than average pause in posts, but we've been mired in phd rewrites here, so there has been a lot of projects that have been worked on, but not a lot of things finished (plus a week ago we had worker guys in our apartment for three days which threw our whole rhythm off).  So there is an almost done quilt thing, 1.33 socks done, a few more squares added to the big thing, half of a short skirt for a thing that is happening Monday night, .30 of a shawl in crochet thread (which by the way I love working with crochet thread, but you'll here more about that when it is done).  But there is also one completed project.  There was a pattern I loved by Robyn Chachula so I did the ravelry download.  She is actually one of my favourite pattern writers for crochet out there.  A lot of her work is about joined motifs making something awesome.  Now here is the something awesome:

Pretty right?  I did the central motifs which were a join as you go and then you build the chain stitch around all those joined motifs.  According the pattern there were supposed to be more middle flowers but I was using both a thicker yarn, and a bigger hook, so I met the measurements for the center a lot quicker. 
It looks even better when worn:

So there it is an actual completed project, which for the last couple weeks of scattered crafting, makes me happy.
Take care.

By a Wire

Hiya from a.,

This was a week where I ended up trying a bunch of new things, one of which is ready to show you (the other two will be up in a week or two).  With working on that giant blanket which is an unending march of granny squares, in my other projects I've wanted to branch out a bit more creatively.  This led to my first experiments with crocheting wire.  Now I crochet pretty tight, which is a problem when working with unforgiving wire - even the super malleable 30 gauge jewelry wire.  I felt like I almost had to relearn the crochet motions, as to pull this off I needed to exaggerate my movements.  Everything I read was to use a small hook, but for my first project that just wasn't possible.  Instead I used a g hook, and after a couple practice goes of varying success, I just dove in and made a thing.  It is hard for me and my aging camera to show shiny silver well, but you should get a decent idea of what this looks like:

Here is a little bit of a closer look:

And there is a crocheted wire bracelet with beads scattered through.
Pretty neat, right?
Take care.