In other news

These hats were donated to Alberta Children's Hospital April 17, 2015.

 

Not everything crochet has to be wearable.

These 3 are made from 100% wool, intended to be made into aran sweater back when they were in fashion. To keep the fabric firm they are crochet with 2 strands held together, with 8mm hook.  They fit together reasonably well just as made, but I then blocked them by fitting each over an appropriately sized container, and spritzed each just to damp. Once dry they nest together perfectly.

Actually this wool has been here before. Another instance of the benefits of ripping out.

Previously:

Sweaters Part 2
or 3 or 4...
Both sweaters I did earlier have now been changed. One I completely ripped out and made entirely differently, the other I just took the sleeves apart and redid.
Actually it is very liberating to know that once something is all finished, it really is not set in stone. Once you sew something, or at least once you have cut fabric, you can't un cut it. But crochet can be changed. rip it out and crochet again!

The plain blue acrylic is now a cardigan, instead of a pullover.

being blocked

An odd looking cardigan which looked fairly straightforward on the model!

The "summer sweater" of cotton had very wide sleeves, again much more odd than in their photo. I wish I could hold a sample made from of these patterns! Or turn them over, or have more photos. Some do not even give a photo of a model wearing it and when they do the model is clearly six feet tall and 110 pounds! So it can be difficult to guess what the sweater will look like on an average shaped person. I decided after a few wearings that the sleeves really were too wide. So I ripped them out and made simple one colour somewhat lacy sleeves.

original finish. the sleeves look OK but were 18 inches around at the cuff.













and so....

 And then...

I did not have a pattern for theses new sleeves, but I knew I did not want them to be very wide and flappy, so I started with a rib, then used the same stitch I had used for the blue on the original sleeve. A modified v stitch.

begin on a base of single crochet, skip first sc, *(sc, ch3, sc) in next st, sk one sc,* rep. jn with sl st,
 ch1, *into loop made with 3 ch, (sc, ch 3, sc)* rep into next lp 
etc

And now a (sort of) new sweater

This post is my submission to the Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015. Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies. Visit www.deramores.com for more details.
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Actually April 2,
part the first


I have just been reading a book which says conscientiousness is a trait which helps to fend off Alzheimer's.
My crochet activity does not bode well on that score. I am currently flitting around between 5 different projects!

Two were inspired by a knitting book, but I have switched them to crochet, one is a sweater that I am not sure if the intended recipient is interested in, so I have slowed down on that, another is trying to find SOMETHING to do with that pink yarn I bought in 1984, and a donation hat I was working  on while watching TV.

Part the second
now it is April 6

I finished 2 of those, so am feeling a bit less dispersed.

 Containers of some kind. The directions to which assume your wool is shrinkable. Wool is no longer shrinkable so they will have to stand up on their own. Starch maybe?

And in addition to finishing the one in earlier photo, I have done a couple more donation hats. Lots of TV to watch these last few days!

 

Pottery beads with a crochet cord. Fusion craft!

Sweaters, another look.
The striped one did get finished, and worn in two provinces, although it is so heavy I may not take it in weighed baggage!

The blue pullover proved to be not as planned, and did not look anything like the photo with the pattern. So it has undergone metamorphosis!

 From this

To this!  >






And so it begins again!

Finally home for more than 48 hours!
A few pots home from the kilns.

I spent all of pottery class loading kiln, cleaning shelves, organizing kiln room and cleaning a trap. Another day will be needed to actually touch clay!











Somewhere there are a few crochet hats, must look for them and make photos.

Everything but sewing today.

I finally took photos of the new kiln. It is so pretty.  It also works well as the open photo shows!

The first load was run Thursday night to Friday morning, and unloaded Sunday.


Some glazed pots are shown in the next photo. Quite a few are mine. Well if it was going to explode or anything, it might as well be my stuff!  But it behaved very nicely and has now joined its friends as a kiln workhorse at the guild.




Sometimes glaze does not behave as you expect.
Too thick a layer has untoward consequences!







Not only the mug, but also the shelf was damaged, but I repaired it and  we are not going to mention that!










This batch of mugs is intended as gifts.













In other news concerning application of heat, I baked lemon cookies Saturday

And, no heat involved, slow progress is being made on the latest sweater. This one is kind of my own pattern.
Other projects keep getting in the way, but the end is in sight.

Just the second sleeve to finish then all the joining!

Sweaters old and new.
I finished the warm blue sweater, and now have crocheter's remorse, as I find it too warm and close fitting. It makes me feel like a sausage roll, hot and tightly wrapped. I will try to flog it to a daughter!

 Making progress.

Blocking, don't forget blocking!

Done!
Well I can still add a ribbed bit along the 
bottom, if someone wants one.









Crocheting the sweater reminded me that I had done this before. Long, long ago. In the 1980s in fact as attested to by the '80s hair on the pattern models!
I also still have the sweaters. I may be able to send to thrift stores clothes I bought when they are  no longer used, but not so for things I made.

 This is actually knitted, and I don't knit! it is almost entirely in garter stitch, I may have had to get help for the neck and edge ribbing as purl and I do not get along.

 These 2 are crochet. When I did the pink one I was not listening to the dictum that the more complicated the stitch, the plainer the yarn. It is very slubby cotton blend yarn and it was fussy to crochet. It also now has a small hole where the very fine part of the yarn broke, so needs repairs.

 The aqua one is better because it looks very complicated, but when I finally found the pattern it is just half-double crochet done sideways. I couldn't believe at first, looking at it that it was such a simple stitch.

Here again knitting took over, again garter stitch, with crochet neckline. The cotton yarn is too heavy for the stitches and this one tends to drag down.







Now this is a triumph of knitting skill. And I did not do it!

Because wool makes me itch, this is almost entirely cotton, with bits of other fibres. My mother knitted this for me, also in the '80s. Each colour row is a different stitch. I would like to find this pattern and try to convert it to crochet!

In a very simple way I am now working on a second sweater. Inspired by the multi yarn one above.  This time with "cotton blend" no idea what it is blended with!

These were in the "value" bin at a discount store, in bags of three balls, each bag one pound.

I tried the yarn on hats, and it seemed OK so I bought one more and started a sweater.

This is intended as a summer evening type sweater. Each colour stripe is also a different stitch. I hate weaving in ends so I am carrying them up the side, they will have to disappear into the seam.
I had a couple of patterns that I liked the shape of, but when I tried a big swatch of each stitch,  I did not like it. ( I am learning, slowly!) So I invented my own pattern stitch combinations, and am using an approximation of the pieces. Basically this is going to be 4 rectangles. More as it happens!