Rainbow Infinity

Well, I'm back in the province and pretty much caught up again. I can now post about another gift I made before we headed out, this one for my mother-in-law who, unlike my own mother, is computer savvy. I didn't want to spoil the surprise by posting photos before we left. ;-)

The yarn I used was one I picked up a while ago. I started to use it for another project, but things just were not working out. For starters, I found a total of FIVE knots and breaks in the yarn. I've never found so many before or since. That meant a lot of yarn was wasted trying to match the colour sequences properly. :-( Also, the yarn has an inconsistent thickness. At some points, it got so thin, it ended up breaking on me when I had to undo some stitches.

Despite that, the more I worked with the yarn, the more I loved it. I loved the colours and how they blended from one to another. Even with the cost and the fuss, I would enjoy using it again.

The pattern is a modification of Lily Chin's Molly Ringwald Stole, in her book Couture Crochet Workshop. The original was worked back and forth from the middle of the stole, and it took very little to modify it into a moebius.

The finished garment can be worn several ways. Here it is on the shoulders, as a stole, front view.



Just a light covering. Here's the back view...



Of course, it can also be worn as a wide scarf.



Or doubled up as a neck warmer.



And finally, it can also be worn as a cowl over the head.




My MIL was quite pleased when she received it. :-)

Not quite the same with my own mother when I gave her the Ruffled Reading Jacket. I had been concerned about the fit, but my mother is very uncomfortable accepting gifts and didn't want to try it on. I let it be so she could try it in private. Later on, she told me it was too small, but I saw she wasn't sure how to put it on. I think it really did fit, but she wouldn't let me help her put it on all the way. It's not really the sort of thing she likes to wear, I guess. When she started talking about undoing it to use the yarn for "something useful," I just took it back and suggested I give it to my MIL.

Which I did, and she loved it. So now my MIL has two reading jackets (that reminds me - I still need to get a picture of the first one I gave her! *L*), including one wide enough to cover her back completely.

It all worked out in the end. :-)

During this trip, my mother passed on to me some wonderful items that belonged to her aunt. I will be getting photos of some of them to share here. What a treasure! I wish I'd known her better. She was a remarkable crafter!

Surface braid hat and cowl set

Time to go back to some pieces I made before taking our Christmas season break.

First up, a matching hat and Moebius cowl set.  The hat is inspired by one I saw on Ravelry.  The free pattern and an instructional video on how to do the surface braid stitch is available at The Laughing Willow.



I didn't follow the pattern on the site, but worked it using the same basic pattern I use for most of my hats.  The crown is a flat disk (I started with 8 hdc in the ring) worked in a spiral, then when it got to the diameter I wanted, I stopped increasing to do the sides.




The cowl is done in the same surface braid stitch (which is just a half-double crochet worked into a bar on the back of the previous stitches, instead of the top loops).  I don't know that I even counted how many stitches were in the foundation chain; I just worked the chain until it was long enough to fit around the neck as close as I wanted it to, then closed it up with the Moebius twist and worked as many rows in surface braid stitch as it took to get the width I wanted.

The twist can be moved to the back so that the cowl can be worn over the face to better protect from the elements.



When finishing off the ends in the hat, I made sure to hide them well so that the hat is reversible.  You can see what the inside texture looks like in the bottom half of the cowl.

This stitch makes for an amazingly stretchy and flexible fabric, and is very comfortable to wear.  I think it's a stitch I'll be using a lot more often.

Finished - Moebius shawl

This week's Feature Friday is being taken over today with a couple of posts.  First up is my finished Moebius Shawl.

Actually, shawl is probably the wrong word for it.  Wrap, maybe?  My younger daughter has graciously modelled it for me in these phots.  First, worn around the shoulders.





The yarn is Bernat Baby, a 100% fingering weight yarn (superfine, 1).  It's machine washable and dryable.  It took two 50g/1.75 oz (about 247 m / 270 yards) balls to make this.   I used a 5.00 mm hook instead of the suggested 3.50 mm.  It turned out light and airy, just as I wanted it.  The foundation chain for this was 220 stitches (the pattern I chose was a 10 stitch repeat).  Because of the Moebius twist in the foundation, that made the first row of double crochet 440 stitches. 



The wrap is light enough to work well as a scarf/neckwarmer.




It does pretty well as a cowl, too. :-)

I think my daughter is hoping it doesn't sell over the weekend.  She really likes it. :-D

Building inventory

Our co-op has an annual spring garage sale. We hadn't been living here long when the first one happened, but have signed up for a table this year. With the feedback I had during our Christmas Craft Sale last year, I decided to test the waters a bit and include some small crocheted items, plus a couple of bigger pieces.

Working on those has kept my hands nice and busy. :-D

Most of what I'm doing are quick, useful things like dishcloths, pot holders and can cozies in Handicrafter cotton. Here are some of the pieces I've got so for. There are a few others that I forgot about when I took the photos, but I'll do those another time.






The cloth is done in tunisian stitch. I started off doing single stitches, as I had been with the double ended hook technique, but found the fabric curled up quite a lot. I didn't want to have to block a dish cloth, so I switched to double stitches. I ended up blocking it anyway, as tunisian tends to slant to one side quite a lot.

So far, this is the only tawashi I've done, but will be doing more with multiple colours when my skeins of yarn start getting too small to do full sized items.




I started getting tired of doing simple squares and rectangles, so I did my first ever filet crochet, finding a heart motif in one of my craft books, and a star motif using only single crochet and chain stitches that I found in another of my books. I just made it bigger than the pattern in the book, then finished is with a single crochet edging, adding picots to the tips to make them ore defined.



This herringbone pattern is from working in the back loops only. It's a bit like working a single ripple of a ripple afghan, without reducing at the ends of the rows.

 

I'll be making more of these potholders with the double ended hook. I've made a variation of these that resulted in a MUCH thicker fabric that I'll be giving more info about in its own post.



Just some simple dishcloths using double crochet stitches.



The basketweave pattern makes this ideal for potholders, while still being flexible enough to be a nicely textured washcloth.



The texture on these was created by alternating sc and dc stitches all the way across, then working sc into the dc of the previous row and dc into the sc of the previous row.



More can cozies! I love these things. I've been experimenting with textures, which serve as extra grip when being held.

Here is a more intricate piece I want to try out; a Moebius shawl (also spelled Mobius and Möbius) in fingering weight yarn. Usually when joining a long chain into a loop, great care is taken to ensure there are no twists. Here, a single twist is deliberately introduced to create a one-sided form.




This is less than half the width it will be when it's done. I spent quite a bit of time flipping through my pattern books to find something that was lacy and open enough to wear in the summer, yet dense enough that it wouldn't be too fragile. It's meant to be worn with the twist in the front, around the shoulders as a shawl, or as a cowl or neckwarmer.