December progress

This should be a little more interesting than the last few months!

This is the first time I had to work the week between Christmas and New Year. It was a good time to work - not too many distractions, but I normally get a lot of lace done this week and that obviously didn't happen this year. At least I started making lace again on the weekends and in the evenings.

Bobbin lace:

Finally finished the piece I had started this spring. I hope to have the next pricking ready to go soon.

Tatting:

Finished my large WIP that I had been referring to recently. Pictures will be posted soon.

Worked a bit on some of my other WIPs, but don't have anything to show yet.

Needle Lace:

Nothing.

Teneriffe:

Nothing.

Knotted Lace:

Nothing.

Puncetto:

Nothing.

Crochet:

Not quite lace, but I completed two hats. These were the first hats I ever made.

I also finished two more small motifs, pictures coming soon.

Clouds

I finally finished my bobbin lace that has been on the pillow waaaay too long! I started this pattern in the spring and ended up not touching it all summer and fall. I finally picked up my bobbin again late Nov./early Dec. and managed to finish it yesterday.

It may not be all that obvious from the scan, but it is quite obvious in real life, but the thread used in this pattern is two different colors. I knew that I was about to run out of thread on the spool, but I wasn't worried since I had a second spool, or so I thought. After winding several bobbin with the new thread, I started using them in the pattern. It wasn't until several days later that I realized that the new spool was a slightly different color than the original spool! The initial thread I used was more of a cream color whereas the new spool was more of a bright white. By the time I realized what had happened, I had made quite a bit of the lace. At that point there were two options:

1. Take everything off the pillow, unwind all the bobbins that still contained the old thread and rewind them all with the new thread

2. Continue as is

Obviously I went with option 2. I am not really all that crazy about the pattern and the thought of starting over did not exactly appeal to me. I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, but that's OK too.

Moral of the story - check spools of thread to make sure they are the same color before starting a project!!!

As an aside, I don't like the new thread as much as I liked the old one. It's not as smooth and feels rougher for lack of a better word. The thread does not glide as smoothly when extended the lead on the bobbin as the old one did. At least the size appears to be the same, or if not the same, very, very similar.

Working notes: the centers of the flowers don't look all that great. The first and last ones actually look the best. I tried something new with the third one and it failed miserably. At least I think I know what I am doing now...

Pattern from Idrija Lace.

Crochet Hat

My husband liked the monster hat I made for our nephew so much, that he asked for one of his own - minus the teeth, eyes and spikes! That's a pretty round about way of asking for a hat.... It was quite obvious that a hat would have to make its way under the Christmas tree:)

Since I thought the fabric of the monster hat made with double crochet was a bit loose, I decided to go with single crochet for my husband's hat. In retrospect I would have also remade the monster hat with single crochet, but I was afraid of running out of time. I didn't really follow a pattern for my husband's hat - I looked at several free crochet patterns on line and saw that they are all pretty much constructed in the same way.

If I had to remake the hat, I would probably make a little bit wider. My husband swears it fits, but I suspect a few additional stitches wouldn't have hurt! I would also have made it longer from the get go. On Christmas morning, I had to add a few rows:)

Made with Red Heart Soft and 0.5 mm hook (size H).

Despite the recent flurry of crochet activity on this blog, I am not about to become obsessed with crochet. I do like knowing that I am comfortable enough with crochet that I can pick up some thread or yarn and a hook and start making something, however I realize that I do still need a lot of practice and I am not sure I really want to invest the time right now. Counting stitches still occasionally gives me fits, but even that is slowly getting better. Over all though, I think that for winter accessories (hats, scarves, mittens, etc.) you can't beat knitting. Although I have more practice knitting that crocheting, I am more hesitant to pick up knitting needles, especially if I have a tight deadline. Crochet just seems easier. My mom discovered that when she was in elementary school and I never quite believed her until now. Having said all that, there are a few more motifs I completed that I have to scan and post. I am not quite off the crochet wagon yet!

Monster Hat

Although it may not seem like it, the crochet samples I recently posted had nothing to do with the project I just completed. I just never got around to posting those samples until recently...

Not too long ago (towards the end of November, I believe) I stumbled upon this monster hat crochet pattern. It really reminded me of my 2 year old nephew for some reason:)

This is the first time I have ever crochet something other than a small motif. It was also the first time I made a hat. I did have a bit of a hard time deciding to crochet a hat since I grew up with knit hats, never crochet. Since I had never made a hat before, I decided to follow the pattern as written and not to try and come up with something knitted. I'm sure I could have used any basic knit hat pattern for the hat itself, but I was not about to figure out how to knit the eye and the spikes!

I had considered other colors, but in the end decided to go with the same colors as the original pattern. Most of my nephew's winter outerwear is blue and his favorite color is orange.

Made with Red Heart Soft and size H crochet hook.

Happy holidays!

Motif No. 36

Motif No. 36 for the 25 motif challenge - round 2.

I completed this little star a while back - either late April or early May. No excuses for posting it so late!

Made with Kreinik braid no. 4.

It's very sparkly!

Crochet experiments

I don't really know how to crochet. I never felt like I needed to learn since my mom crochets so well. Every few years I get the urge to pull out my crochet hooks though. Unfortunately since I literally pull them out every few years, I have to reteach myself the basics each time...

Early this summer I pulled out my crochet hooks, a ball of cheap crochet thread in size 10 (and I really have no clue why I even bought this thread...) and the handy Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.

The motif shown below (eyelet square) was the first thing I made. At one point I lost track of the rounds...

As soon as the first square was completed I moved on to the next one - Hawaiian square. With this one I lot track of the stitches going from one round to the next. As I was making each round I thought I would catch up, but somehow I never did.

I haven't touched crochet since then, however each time I pick up the hooks, I feel more comfortable crocheting. I would definitely want to move to finer thread though. This size 10 seems huge!

Actually the above paragraph is not 100% accurate. I picked up crochet again early this month to make a Christmas gift. It was very much different from what I had shown above. That project will come later.