Did I forget to mention "spin"?
I dropped by our local library on Saturday to see spinners and weavers participating in Worldwide Spin in Public Day (annually on the  third Saturday of September). I had never heard of it before, but I was then inspired to drag my Ashford wheel up from the basement, dust it off (literally, it was very dusty!) and give it a try.  In case you are wondering, it turns out spinning is like riding a bike, once you know how you never really forget!

Most of my wool is New Zealand fleece, ordered and mailed directly to me from a sheep farm in the late 70s! I also have bits and bobs purchased at craft fairs and such. It is mostly still "in the grease" so after it is spun it needs washing.

and drying!

Then what to make with it? The colours really do remind me of the 70s, brown was very in then. Now, not so much!

Photos of finished cotton summer shawl with fancy edging.

The body of the shawl is double crochet with some v stitch rows for increase purposes. It seems to go on forever.

 

I have never done a border like this, it attaches sideways as you go.

 The pattern is Crescent Lace Shawl by Tian Connaughton in the summer 2015 Love of Crochet. I mostly behaved myself and followed directions. The hook recommended was 3.5mm and I used 3.75mm. I did not do as many rows as specified because it was big enough. I used a mystery cotton on a cone (thrift store find). The only information is a small tag on the inside saying 3000yds  2 ply. It is very fine and slubbed.

Finished a few things this week.
The Katniss cowl , using "inspiration" from two different sources is done and the photo has been approved by planned recipient!

As a change from something warm and practical I also made this:

Described as a summer cowl It is intended to be made in a much finer yarn, and would presumably then look much more "air-y".












And the really slow one, because this is made in a pattern appropriate yarn:

beginning to block. How are we supposed to block cotton anyway?
Detail:

I did not exactly time this but I do know that the last 90% or so was done while watching 4 Masterpiece Mystery s, and the entire rebroadcast of Ken Burns "The Civil War". It is forever going  to  remind me of that dolorous violin background music!

On a more practical note (no pun intended) I whipped up a warm neck cowl.
My pattern, drastically modifying one I found online.

And after all that I am back to making baby hats. Posting next time.

An actual cowl that looks a bit like a Katniss cowl seemed like a good compromise to figure out some of the kinks in the pattern. So I found a free pattern online and made this.

 Caron "one pound" in taupe 8mm hk, thick size [4]

I need a better model than the newel post!



















Next project will be to take that texture and add it on to a bland double crochet version of the Katniss cowl , again a free online pattern.
And of course I am not following instructions about which yarn, or what thickness, or size of hook. That would make things way too easy!

The yarn for all this, and many more future projects came from 2 visite to Goodwill my last trip away.


True treasures here, as well as some trash (how did I miss that Phentex wrapper?) And the difficulty of judging feel with out actually being able to, well, feel the yarn leads to some buyers remorse too.





Other  recently finished:

Newborn sized hats for newborn patients in two locations.













and just for looking...

At the Regina Folk Festival craft booths I saw an item of crocheting that was very interesting. I thought, as I often do, I could make that. And usually that is the end of it, but this time I decided to give it a try. No photos just do this from memory. Well my memory is not that good, but it turns out the artisan has a website and a photo of a similar piece was online. Now I had a name for the item! Now I could google it and lo and behold it is one of the iconic accessories from a very popular and cult recent film. Naturally I am behind the times on this.
Now I can make this. "Vaguely inspired by" by way of Regina. Yarn from Goodwill in Calgary.

It may be a bit too symmetrical to be authentic, but I was actually aiming for useful. Fall bike riding?
Oh and its name? Hunter cowl.

Tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, snow peas, beans, potatoes, basil, apples, raspberries...
Which is why I haven't been as much with the hook, throw etc.

I did get a crescent moon shawl done. Or at least mostly done

The pattern is apparently in a book which is out of print and written in Japanese. I found a chart online and worked from there. There are two versions, one with dongles and the other with shell edging. I picked b. There are still two rounds to go from where I am here, one of 3- dc clusters and one of picots, but this is big enough already and I am happy enough with the way the edge looks so I think I will stop here. This has not been blocked but it already looks fine.
That pattern took concentration, lightand reading glasses.
While watching TV I have been doing easier crochet.

Not sure yet where, but these are for donations.

I have been puzzling* about why crochet is so dispersed. There are at least 2 major systems for describing the basic stitches ( UK and US), at least 3 sizeing systems for hooks ( UK, US, and metric) and seemingly unlimited number of names for more complex patterns.
I will see a "new fancy pattern" to make something "new" and "wow"  when I carefully read the instructions I find it is the same old stitch with a new name. And most of the names don't even relate to the appearance of the pattern.
Don't these people read basic crochet books? Do they think no one has made this stitch before? Are they scamming us, hoping we will think it is "new" when they actually copied it out of an old book?
Maggie Righetti wrote "Crocheting in plain english: the only book any crocheter will ever need". In it she points out that there really are not 500 different stitches, despite what some books imply. There are only so many places to put your hook, so many times you can wrap the yarn, so many directions to go.
I also like the Readers Digest Guide to needlework. It has a brief description of all the basics.
So when the stitch you are trying to sell me is in both of those, no it is not new, even if you have given it a new name!
Here is one example:
In RD there ia a stitch called bushy, and yes it is somewhat bushy, so reasonable name.  I have  a book called Crochet Stitch Bible, in it the same stitch is called Paris stitch, say what? Why Paris for goodness sake?
And on a blog it was called forget-me-not, and no it does not look like a flower.
This rant does not even take into account different stitches being called the same name. It is starting to remind me of why Linneus came up with his scientific nomenclature system!

Knitting seems to have an international naming system. Everyone knows what purl, knit, garter, stocking ( or stockinette) refers to.
Why is crochet so different.
I read today online somewhere that there are just 3 basic knitting stitches ( I am guessing knit, purl and ? I don't knit so I don't know the third one) and there are just 7 basic crochet stitches. I do crochet, quite a bit, and I have no idea which ones they meant!
When I am in charge of the world I will make us all do crochet the same way.  Metric hook sizing , US names for simple stitches, and no new  stitch descriptions unless you can show they are not in other mainline sources.
And if you are writing a pattern you will call the stitch by a recognised name. I am thinking here of something like the IUPAC organic chemistry naming system,which has logical rules based on structure.  ( actually this exact analogy just came to me. I think I may be on to something here. Can we get a committee together to work on this?)










* OK "banging my head on the wall" ,might be a better way to put it.