Blitz - mohair stole

Some time ago, I found a treasure of yarn at a local Goodwill. A bag full of fancy mohair blend yarns, including 9 balls of one type. Enough to make a very decent sized project. I've been hanging onto it for a while, thinking of what I could use it for. Because of the light airiness of the yarn, I was thinking of a shawl or a stole.

After looking at the various patterns, I ended up not using a pattern at all and just did a mesh pattern repeat. Here it is, modelled by my older daughter.



The yarn is Gypsy, from Jaeger. It's 71% mohair, 13% wool, 9% nylon and 7% acrylic; hand wash only.

To make the stole, I used a 4.00mm hook (mine is labelled F, but other brands label that size a G). I worked outwards from the centre foundation chain, in 5 ch loops. Because I had 9 balls of this yarn, I worked the first half until I finished 4 balls, which turned out to be 45 rows. Then I just matched the number of rows on the other side. When I completed the last row of loops, I kept on going around the entire stole, using up the last ball of yarn. Each long side has 2 sc into the ch and dc spaces along the edge, while the ends were done in scallops of (1sc, 1hdc, 3dc, 1hdc, 1sc) into each loop.

This project took me two evenings to finish. The finished result is incredibly light and fluffy, and surprisingly warm, considering how open the pattern is. I'm quite happy with my first stole. :-)

Blitz - beaded bracelet

This is a pattern from the Fall 2009 Crochet magazine. The original used gold metallic yarn with alternating green and pearl beads and a toggle clasp. It also called for a 1.80mm hook. I used a 2.35mm hook, as I don't have a 1.80mm, though I do have smaller. Too small for the yarn. I have a rather large size gap in my thread crochet hooks that I need to fill!



The yarn is the same Phildar Sunset brand I used for the filigree choker and earrings set. The beads were taken from mixed bead sets I got at DeSerres some time ago.




I used a magnetic clasp instead of a toggle clasp, too. That did make using a needle to attach the clasp and sew in the loose ends interesting. The clasp kept sticking to my needle. *L*

Because of the larger hook size, the bracelet is somewhat wider and looser than in their sample. This actually worked out well. The bracelet fits my daughters, but it's got enough elasticity to it that I can wear it, too.

I'm very happy with how this turned out. :-)

That should be it for the next while. I still got another project I didn't get a good photo of, so that will wait until later. For now, it's back to work! :-D

Blitz - mittens

These are a variation of a free pattern I found at the Bernat website. The original instructions were for Softee Chunky yarn and a 6.00mm hook. I kept the hook size, but I used Northern Chunky from Kertzer, which I picked up at a yarn store I recently discovered. It's 100% acrylic, machine wash and dry-able. The colour is Cranberry Cocktail. It's a very lovely yarn to work with.




A couple of modifications were made from the original pattern. The pattern called for 2 colours. The first was used for the first couple of rows, then a second colour was added, and the rest of the pattern was to be worked up with 2 strands on the hook. I chose to stick with just the one colour.

To the pattern itself, I didn't change anything other than doing the thumb in a spiral after the first joining round. I didn't want a "seam" on the thumb.




The Bernat pattern also didn't have a ribbed cuff. I added that on myself, as longer cuffs offer better protection against the elements. I started by doing a row of sc into the foundation chain at the wrist. Then I chained 6, then worked back along that foundation for 5 sc, slip stitching back into the row of sc along the edge. Then I did another slip stitch before working 5 stitches back up the cuff, working in back loops only.

My daughters really like how they turned out. I will probably be making more of these for ourselves after our trip.

Blitz - Son of Skully

This is a variant of the Skully I did before. The pattern itself is the same, except for changing the total number of dc stitches per row, and the total number of rows. The yarn is the same worsted weight yarn I used for the Biker Beret, except that I used 2 strands on a 9.00mm hook.




With the extra thick yarn, closing up the top was slightly different from before, too. I only needed 2 rounds of sc and, rather than doing two sc together every few stitches to decrease, I did on sc into the "hill" of back-loop crocheted rows, skipping the "valleys" in between. For the last round, I reduced it the same way. With the yarn this thick, it was better to skip stitches completely than to bulk things up by doing 2 stitches together.

Blitz - pale hat

I made up this hat using a yarn I picked up at a yarn and fabric exchange a couple of years back. I have no idea what it is, but it's quite nice. A bit difficult to work with, as it's made of of two strands of white yarn, and one squiggly strand of pale yellow that was almost like a string, wrapped loosely around the other two strands. It made for an interesting texture, but tended to get missed by the hook as I worked.



For this, I used 2 strands together on a 6.50mm hook. The main part of the hat is done in basic double crochet, with the last several rows done in alternating front and back post double crochet. With this yarn, using the two strands together resulted in a very squishy feeling texture that's quite warm and cozy.

Blitz - hat and scarf

These two were a bit of a frustration for me. I only had two balls of the yarn I used for these. It's a gorgeous yarn, Maxi Tosca from Lang Yarns. It's 55% new wool and 45% acrylic. It's even machine washable, though in cooler water, gentle cycle and with detergent for fine wash and no softener. No drier. At that point, I figure hand washing would be better. *L*

I picked it because I loved the colour gradients (I like the slow transition of colours better than variagated yarn) and how incredibly soft and light it felt. I choked a bit at the price, but I loved it enough that I considered getting more so that I would have enough to make something wearable; something where I could enjoy its beautiful softness.

By the time I was done this pair, I was glad I changed my mind!!



The hat is a simple double crochet hat, very much like the Biker's Beret I'd done previously. I changed the increases per round and number of increased rounds slightly, to suit the yarn. I used a 5.50mm hook.




The scarf was incredibly frustrating. I ripped this several times before settling on a basic double crochet pattern to match the hat (I originally wanted to work it lengthwise, but that didn't work out) and finding a width that let me get a decent length with the amount of yarn I had left over, including what remained from the hat. Once I did find the dimensioned I needed, I just kept adding rows until I was out of yarn.

By the time it was done, I discovered welts on my arm, where I would drape the scarf as I was working it. It turns out I'm allergic to this yarn! I thought I'd developed an allergy to wool. At the moment, however, I'm working on a stole using a blend of wool and mohair, and I'm not reacing to it. Granted, it isn't "new wool" like this is, so maybe that is making a difference? I have no idea.

I did find it strange that I developed hives on my arm, but that my palms and fingers, which had much more contact than the back of my arm, didn't react at all. Either way, now that I know, I'm glad I didn't hang on to it for some future sweater or something!

Anyhow, this set worked out all right, and I still love the colours and how soft it is.

Blitz - update

I'm about to go through the photos I took of my latest blitz projects, but I thought I'd do a quick update, first.

I hit a bit of a slump a few days back. First, I tried another pattern from 24 Hour Crochet Projects. This time, a brimmed hat. Now, I DID check the gauge when I started: 2 rounds = 2 inches. Well, for some reason it didn't quite work out. The pattern worked fine and the hat was adorable - but it was baby sized. Thankfully, I know a baby, so my husband took it to work with him to pass it on. I hope it fit. I'll have to ask the parents about it, but haven't had a chance to yet.

So that lost me a day on my goals. I went looking through my pattern books and found a pattern for slippers that were different from anything I've done. Usually, I make slippers that are kinda like toe-up socks. They take a bit longer than I want for right now. These were like the Mary Jane style I've seen around but have never tried.

They worked up fast, but I'm not happy with them. Although they're worked identically for all but the very last row, one ended up looser than the other. Then there was the strap. This is worked in at the very end of the last row. Since the button closure is on the outside, that meant one foot's last row was done in the opposite direction of the other. In one of them, the strap ended up further back on the slipper than the other.

So that lost me another day.

We were back at the library, so I went through what books I could find on the shelf, looking for inspiration. Most of them were patterns that took a lot more time than works for my goals, but I did take a few out, including one on making crochet jewelry. I wasn't too inspired, though, and it was starting to frustrate me.

Then we went out again that evening, and I found the fall issue of Crochet magazine. It's a special gift issue, I guess, as it's not on their site right now. Not that it matters. That one magazine has more in it that's of use to me than all of the books I'd looked at at the library put together. It definitely helped me get things going again!

As for now, I need to go through my photos and see which ones turned out. More posts to come. :-D