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.

Frou Frou Trouble

I've been madly crocheting the Frou Frou sweater from The Happy Hooker every evening. (Pics later.) Recklessly, I veered off the pattern after completing the back up to row 26 of the sleeves. Started the v-increase sooner than instructed for size M, figuring I'd have a collar that laid flat rather than hugged the back of my neck.

Er, the collar just got wider and wider... I dig myself deeper and start working on one half of the sweater, decreasing at the back of the neck sooner than instructed. After decreasing at the neck edge every row, I'm almost to the front. Uh, guess I'll wing the decreases for the front panels, which are supposed to end in a point.

Other projects: One fingerless glove for my sweetie, who insisted no new yarn. A fabulously cute brimmed beret in black, bordered with a shiny red, in time for Halloween.

Came home today to find a big box on my doorstep. (drum roll please) The Ultimate Sweater Machine! $30 off at knitting-warehouse.com, and only six bucks shipping. My dastardly plan: to save my wrists for typing my diss and still crank out homemade gifts. Visions of crochet-embellished machine-knit scarves and hats dance in my head. Is this cheating? Will my partly-machine-made gifts sparkle less because they didn't result from painstaking handiwork?

Sweetie and I are driving to Ashland, Oregon for Thanksgiving with my partner's family. Four days is a long time with in-laws, so we'll see how it goes. We'll both be working a bit. But lots of time for crochet, I hope, to shield me from my father-in-law's hairy dog stories.