Project Gallery October 2013

Joy has been busy making accessories.  She used a merino/cashmere blend fingering yarn to make this Swallowtail Cowl in Tunisian crochet.  The cowl is crocheted flat and seamed in the back.  This photo depicts the cowl inside out to show the seaming; the tails have been flipped up to show the pretty stitchery pattern of the cowl.  This fabric has a soft cushy feel.

Joy’s second cowl was crocheted in a chunky yarn—quite the change from her usual thread.  This cowl is crocheted flat and buttons closed.  She used Tunisian crochet to make a narrow scarf.

And now for something completely different.  “Beastly Crochet” is the pattern source for these little guys.  A pear-shaped blob with arms is crocheted with two white bars (beast on the left).  Then the blob is felted and an opening cut for a mouth; the white bars then become teeth (beast on the right).  Joy is looking for just the perfect eyes to apply to these little buys.  The beasts could serve in any way you might you use a small basket.  As for me, I think they should be filled with Halloween candy.  Here’s looking at you, kid!

Melanie crocheted these Adirondack Socks (Interweave Crochet, Fall 2009) using a Malabrigo sock yarn.  They worked up surprisingly fast due to the shell pattern.  Since crocheted socks don’t have as much give as knit socks, Melanie had to make an alteration to the heel to allow for a better fit.  Bet you wish you had a pair of these.

Gail came up with a clever solution to a vexing problem.  She was working on these mittens for a charity project and wasn’t sure she had enough yarn to finish the pair.  How could she make her yarn go farther?  She left off the thumbs.  She will use a solid color yarn matching one of the colors in the mitts to make the thumbs.  She turned what could have been a project breaker into a fanciful design element.  Nice solution, Gail.

Mary used Vanna’s Glamour to make this lovely gray shawl.  If you are unfamiliar with this yarn, it has a thin metallic thread in it, giving finished projects a little sparkle.

Mary is looking help with a problem that is all to familiar to most of us.  She started a thread crochet project ages and ages ago, crocheted up a large pile of motifs.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have enough thread to complete the project and has no idea where to find more of it.  Here’s a picture of the label front and back.  Any suggestions?  How about using a modern thread in a different color to crochet the rest of the motifs, then assemble the bedspread in a way that uses the new motifs to make a make a design within the whole?  It would be a shame to waste that pile of motifs.

Hillary crocheted this bunny lovey using a Sirdar baby bamboo yarn.  The lovey is soft as can be and has lots of little things for small fingers to grab onto.

Hillary also made this work-in-progress, a scarf using short rows.  Short rows like this show off self-striping yarns; the subtle stitch pattern gets lost in a solid color.  Hillary shared with us a new book by Marion Madel, “The New Crochet,” which features process shots of all sorts of stitch patterns; if you are a beginner and don’t know how to execute various stitches, this book shows you in photos every step necessary to make the stitch.

Theresa didn’t even want to show us this easy market bag project but we begged her.  Plastic bags are cut into loops, which are then linked using a lark’s head knot.  The crinkly sort of bags work the best for this project.  Just make a chain to desired size, hdc around the chain to make a base, then crochet a mesh to make the sides.  The best thing about these bags are you can hose them off, they dry quickly, and dirt falls right through.  Too lazy to recycle your plastic bags?  Crochet them into door mats!  When they wear out, throw them away.

If you have ever used a walker, you know you need some way to carry your stuff around.  Carol made this carry walker carry bag.  The middle and two outer loops secure this bag to the walker.  The other two loops close the bag.  All this one needs is to have the buttons sewn on.

Carol finished her “unsquare” granny sweater.  This sweater does have three squares in it—but also hexagons and rectangles.  The very large grannies allow for drape and stretch, minimizing the shaping usually necessary in a plus-sized garment.  A large rectangle creates the front of the sweater and shawl collar.  Plymouth Encore Colorspun worsted was used to make this prototype.  Carol is already at work on design refinements for the next version, which will be in a DK weight yarn that uses V stitches instead of the standard three double crochet.