1: Dahlia
This project is now a bit too big for my work bag so I have had to shelve it a bit since I have smaller projects to take with me on the go. I just need a lot of time now to get cracking on it, but I still love it atm.
As this has quite a low scoop on the front, the cash iroha was making quite a saggy neckline. In order to fix that I decided to crochet the picot edging on instead of having to pick up all of the neckline stitches and also, the hand dyed silk I've used has made it a bit more substantial to counteract the sagging.
This is a closeup of the picot edging. The silk is a blend of green and teal so goes quite nicely with the cash iroha.
This overview shot was taken at my moms on the sofa! At least you can see here how it's slightly tightened the neckline up. The crochet edging wasn't that difficult to be honest and I'm a real novice with crochet!!! However to show you the source I used for this crochet mastery.....
A not at all clear pic of the page from Debbie Stoller's 'Happy Hooker' book.
I find the diagrams they use for crochet pattern shorthand quite confusing at the moment but a combination of written instructions, diagram and clever pictures has helped me immensely with starting to learn crochet.
Which leads me onto my next project......
2: The Garden Scarf
By just looking at the finished product, I thought it would be super-duper difficult to do. Though last night I decided to stop being a chicken- it's not as though I'm gonna get 40 lashes for getting it wrong is it?! And so....
Voila!!!! My first crochet flower! I know seasoned crocheters could scoff and laugh but I was immensely proud of my little achievement. So there! I mean... I saw the diagram for the flower and thought "yeah right" and nearly fainted!
It looks like some fancy pentagram-style cult symbol that should be painted on the floor in goats blood! Ok so I watch too much made-for-TV sci-fi but it's scary nonetheless.
Hopefully the finished product will look like this:
I think as I've used the same silk as I used for my Dahlia neckline edging that I'm going to use blues and greens in different combinations and it can be a semi-co-ordinating scarf for the spring.
3: Fetching
Another addition to WIP city is Fetching. I'm being lazy and not adding in links today but nearly eveyone will know it's from Knitty.com! Way past jumping on the bandwagon (that left years ago) I've started this a zillion years after everyone else has and really it's more a work WIP that will fit in my bag and confuse everyone in the tea room as they think I'm knitting using a shiny pink porcupine!
All the details for these projects are on ravelry btw but I'm using 3.75mm dpns (pretty pink metallic ones I got free!) with Rowan Calmer in that purple shade. As I have rediculously small wrists compared to the rest of me I have made these smaller but have added rows into the pattern repeat so I still get the length required. I've only got 1 and a bit repeats to do before the shaping and fiddly bits come in.
** I had to abandon posting for a sort while to go and put the sunday roast in... completely forgot about putting the beef in the oven so we're in for a very late dinner!!!**
Ok, beef is in and I can get back to showing you what Seth and I have been doing this morning.
Here Seth is painting with Crayola "Mess Free" paints that are white until they react with the special paper that shows up the colour. Fantastic concept though "mess free" is a stretch, if you get the paint on anything it's not coloured. He also has the "soft sticks" which are like crayons int the same concept. I managed to get the two packs for £3.00 each in the sale from the Early Learning Centre- a bargain when they were originally £12.00! I have seen the marker option in Morrisons for £4.99 so might get those as well at some point. The colouring paper and books in the range can be used with any of the media as well so it's sort of interchangeable.
In my day we had these markers that came with a 'magic' white marker that could change the colour of the ink if you went over the colours. I think black changed to pink, red to yellow... and so forth.
Here is Seth playing with his chalks as well. He likes the chalk and this clever book means he can erase what he's done and colour (scribble) on the pictures again and again! I know the majority of the pictures I've put up are Seth and art but it's pretty much the only activity he stays still enough doing that I can get a picture! He's usually charging around causing mayhem!
Ooh... Good News!
I have finished my degree. The dratted cursed Honours Project has been marked and I shall be officially graduating in May with a BSc Biomedical Science (Hons) most likely to be a 2:1. The remaining obstacle is my professional portfolio to make me an IBMS state-registered Biomedical Scientist. Hopefully it will only be a few more months. Yay!
On that note of bliss and happiness I shall go and try and get some of the dinner prepared! I think my DB will cry when he finds out dinner will not be ready until 4!
mwah x
4 comments:
Hi, Dahlia is looking fab, as are the fetching handwarmers. I wear mine all the time, but need to make some more as I gave them to mom when she was in hospital as her hands were freezing all the time.
The garden scarf is one of the first crochet things I made, I got a little obsessed about it. I actually find it a lot more intuitive than knitting, I can't really fathom the charts yet, but after a couple of rows or rounds it just kinda makes sense... and it is really easy to undo mistakes! Hope the beef was good :0)
well done on your degree.
The crochet looks wonderful, as do the Fetchings.
Seth looks like a sweetie.
Congratulations on your degree :) And Seth is coming on in leaps and bounds. Love the knittting/crochet. I love those crochet diagrams, much clearer than written instructions.
The neckline in the Dahlia is such a flattering shape and the yarns really complement each other.
I love Seth's paints - remind me of the magic painting books we had when I was a child - you painted them with plain water and as if by magic the colour appeared.
Congratulations on finishing your degree - you must just want to skip!
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