Thread tablecloth: three-quarters done!

I have 9 out of 12 rows done. The end is finally within my grasp, enough so that I can now think in terms of motifs left to make instead of rows left to finish. I finished row nine last week, and I then had three rows, or 45 motifs, left to make. I'm now down to 38. Woo! I might get this bad boy done before the end of the year.

New Project!

I get antsy if I don't have at least two projects going at once, so it's felicitous timing that my good friend Raquel, after many years of trying, and all manner of technological intervention, has finally managed to get herself knocked up. So I'm making her a baby blanket, to her specs. And the yarn came in the mail, just as I was finishing the thread cardigan. Woo! As you can see, Raquel is not interested in your typical pink and blue blanket, which is a sentiment I can fully support. That big thing there in front? The 10.5-inch long crochet hook. Yowza.

This blanket will be made using the Tunisian, or afghan crochet technique, which is relatively new to me. It's kind of a cross between knit and crochet. Instead of working with only one loop on the hook at all times, you pick up loops all the way across the work, and then crochet back across, ending with one loop on the hook. I like the way it looks. The only drawback I can see is that the piece will have a definite front and back, much like knitting. This yarn, made by Berroco, is super soft, but made with acrylic and nylon, so it's machine washable, which is something you want in a baby blanket.

This is also a technique that demands deliberation and a slow pace, which is pretty far outside my wheelhouse. It's a challenge! Also a challenge? Getting used to the ungodly huge hook. Here's the Tunisian hook and the hook I've been using for the thread tablecloth. Tunisian crochet is not likely to result in The Claw though, so that's a plus.

And finally: here's the other thing that came in the mail. Crochet So Fine ... oh my god the delicate yarns, the tiny hooks, the massively complicated diagrams! I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into this book. Yum.

Thread cardigan: done!!

I spent the bulk of the weekend finishing the thread cardigan, to the point where I had The Claw by the end of the day Sunday. The very last row went around the entire perimeter of the thing, and took a full hour and half.

But it's done! And it looks more or less like the picture I was going from! AND, the most important part: IT FITS. Now I just need to find some fun half-inch buttons and it'll be completely done. Woo!

Here it is looking all pretty in the dappled sunlight. Note thread tablecloth, still in progress.

A slightly more close-up shot:

And me, trying to hold it together where the buttons will eventually be. The Mighty T-Rex looks on in approval.

Thread cardigan, moving right along

I now have the bottom of the cardigan done, up to where the shaping begins for the arm holes, blocked at this mid stage because the flowers were still really curled and the whole thing had taken on a disturbing parallelogram shape.

This is where it gets complicated and where I usually throw my hands up and quit because I just don't understand how garments are put together. Fingers crossed.

New toys!

Here we have a hairpin lace loom, which sort of combines crocheting and weaving, I suppose, which is cool. And also a set of four double-ended Tunisian crochet hooks, with which I understand you can crochet two colors at once.

Here's what you can make with hairpin lace.

Here's what you can make with Tunisian crochet.

And here's my very first new-to-me loom, a rigid heddle loom! I haven't had a single second to play around with this, except for this little sampler. Once my thread projects are done I will turn my attention to the rigid heddle.

Thread cardigan: slow and steady

I'm making incremental progress on the thread cardigan. I hadn't realized before I started that each flower has to be attached to the previous one and then fastened off. Thirty-four times for five rows. Good times! Here's a small tidbit of advice: work your ends in as you go. They add up fast and are a PAIN to work in with a small needle.


Here's a shot of what I have so far. At the bottom is the foundation of the cardigan. The flower rows will attach to it. I need to make one more flower row before starting to attach them all. Then it's on to the shaping...the rows below are just for the back.


The petals of the flowers curl a LOT before the chain row that connects them all (top row) and still curl quite a bit after. I'm hoping that'll straighten out when they're all put together and draping.



Here's a fuzzy shot of a flower row, spread out to try to deal with the curling petals. Also, I'm not usually a fan of variegated yarn, but I think it works with this thread. From afar it all blends together.

Thread cardigan, here I come

I bought the thread. It'll be a while before this:

turns into this:

But at least it'll keep me out of trouble for a while.

Tablecloth take two

One quarter done!

Am I crazy?

I've been bitching and moaning about how I can't make garments. And then I saw this and was gripped with the desire to make it. Thread! In my favorite color! Gah!!!

Pretty sweater

Too bad it doesn't fit me either! This is the latest UFO to be finished. I left off a couple of years ago because the instructions for attaching the sleeves didn't make sense. I finally figured it out, but either I did it wrong or all those hours in the gym have made my arms too huge for the underarm area. Technically it fits me, in that I can get it on, but I need help getting it back off again and it's not exactly flattering.

But it looks just like the picture!

It's made with some gorgeously soft alpaca. It's lovely and I wish it fit me. I have to stop kidding myself that I can make garments. Really.

I need to find a small-armed, small-chested friend to gift it to I suppose...

Vest -- done!

Doesn't exactly fit me, even after blocking three times, but I guess that's just more evidence that I should never attempt to make garments.

Knitted vest

Here's another UFO that's been haunting me for some time. According to the receipt in the bag, I bought the yarn for this project in February 2003. I don't even have the pattern anymore.


I believe that I gave up on it after I accidently joined the shoulders wrong way out. I took the shoulders apart.


Because I'm not a natural knitter, this thing is TIGHT. So I'm blocking the heck out of it, then will see if it will remotely fit me. If not, I think I'll figure out a way to crochet in a side panel, and then crochet the neck, and hopefully it won't be too awful. Stay tuned.

Bitten by the thread bug again

Next up on the UFO list, this. Apparently, according to the receipt in the bag and the date on the pattern I printed out, I started this three years ago this month, and stopped sometime around April 2007. I actually managed to finish 5 of 15 rows before I either got bored or burned out.

Naturally, in the intervening 3 years the thread I was using stopped being made, so I've ordered some from a different manufacturer in the same color. Here's hoping it's remotely the same.

It's giving me the Claw Hand again, and my eyes are old now so it's hard for me to see all the stitches, but I can't help myself. I love working with thread.

Anyhoo, I thought it might be fun to show the evolution of a motif. Here goes:

And there you have it. A thread motif in 14 easy steps!

Wool bag

I have decided that this will be the year that I clear out my bag of UFOs (unfinished objects). Some I abandoned because I got bored, but most of them defeated me at one point or another, and I will not be defeated any more.

First up, this crocheted wool bag. Something about the way the pattern is written had me completely flummoxed, each of the previous four times that I tried it, but this time I was determined to figure it out, and after much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth, I cracked it.

Here's a long view:

Here's a view with handles (knitting needles for placement only). The pattern suggests some lovely hardwood handles, but they're $22 for the pair. If anyone has a source for a nice, cheap(ish) pair of straight handles I would love to hear it.

And finally, a view with some hooks in one of the two pockets.

I'm not one to carry around little totes like this, but I'm still quite pleased with this bag. Not yet sure what its ultimate fate will be.

Yummy socks!

I bought this delicious yarn while visiting my sister in Bellingham, WA, over Thanksgiving. I was seething with jealousy the whole time I was there: Washington, DC, has one halfway decent (albeit outrageously expensive) yarn store and no weaving stores. Bellingham has I don't know how many yarn stores, but has TWO weaving stores! And a guild! Life is so unfair.

Anyway, I decided the second I saw this sock yarn that the resulting crocheted socks would be for me. I love them and wear them all the time at home.

I love bamboo

For Christmas presents this year I made four scarfs from Aunt Lydia's bamboo crochet thread. It was a really easy pattern, and one that I could do on both of my looms, so for a while there I had a scarf going at home and at the cabin. I was in a weaving frenzy.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. This thread wove up incredibly silky and the scarves have great drape. And although the pattern is quite simple it looks way more complicated than it is.