New Respect for Crochet

The night before Thanksgiving, I stayed up late putting my Ultimate Sweater Machine together and giving it a try. I didn't have a suitable table so I attached it to the breakfast bar. (See the glass of beer?) I'll post on that whole experience later.

Here's the fingerless glove I made one evening, based on a pattern at Crochetme.com. My partner had been asking for it for weeks. I used leftover Knitpicks Merino Style, nice and soft. I'm modeling it on my much smaller hand below; it barely fits over his knuckles.

This is my progress so far on the Frou Frou cardigan. (The color faded b/c of the flash; it's a much darker green.) Some technical issues because I deviated from the pattern when starting the collar. We'll see how it goes.

I was going to work on it over Thanskgiving (and my dissertation too) but there was so much do hair at my partner's parents' house in Ashland, I kept it tucked away. But I did work on a scarf using Elann's Luna Collection and a Moda Dea eyelash yarn I got at Long's. The colors coordinated very well.

It turned out all the women present (mother in law, sister in law, brother-in-law's girlfriend) either crocheted or knitted. We all bonded over that. I was crocheting the entire time--working on either the scarf above or a wool scarf for my father-in-law's birthday, which I gave him on Friday. Soon the other women joined in with their projects.

My sister-in-law was really impressed with the lacy texture of the fuzzy scarf, comprised of shell stitches and v stitches. She said it was much more intricate than anything she knew how to do in knitting so far. Funny, 'cause I've always been envious of knitters. Anyway, I gained new respect for how crochet really lends itself to interesting textures. And when I finished a wool scarf in a few hours--Cascade 220 Heather #9454, a wonderful earthy purple, double-stranded, in front loop hdc stitch--everyone in the house was amazed.