Category: Crochet (Page 1 of 3)

Misbehaving Hexies

June 14, 2025 / Deb / 0 Comments

So I have some of the pieces to Jewelled Star sitting here…I finished all the hexagons then ran out of steam:

For one, they aren’t overly hexagonal, which I thought might be a problem, and two, they are slightly different sizes which makes joining them miserable, and three I really, really don’t want to make the stars and have been putting it off for something like a year and a half. So I decided I’d just make something with the hexagons and immediately ran up against the problem of their irregularity. I have no idea at all what I’m going to do with the damned things.

I suppose it’s time to put them back in the naughty corner until I have a burst of inspiration. Hopefully I’ll figure out what to do with them, but it’s a relief to declare the blanket a failure. Some projects just never come together they way you think they will, and that’s ok.

My kitchen needs rugs

May 27, 2025 / Deb / 0 Comments

So I’m making one.

We’ve needed a mat in front of the sink and for some mysterious reason, we’ve never bought one. We’ve always just thrown the dirtiest towel within reach down on the floor to sop up the water that escaped. This makes us sound like loons, but we got in the habit of spending very little on the nice-to-haves back when things were truly desperate and we’ve never entirely broken free of it.

This would be better if it had some nonslip material of some kind, but even plain cotton beats the hell out of a random towel. It’s coming along nicely:

This is painfully simple: chain until it’s long enough, do rows of sc, hdc,and dc in whatever order depending on what you feel like. Go until the damned thing is big enough.

I love this kind of project, minimally structured and great for watching TV.

It’s also a great way of getting back in the game. I’ve been slowly adding more crochet and knitting into my day, even if it’s just a bit before bed. I can’t work for all that long before my hands just aren’t having it, but that’s ok. Not a perfect world.

After this I plan to go on a finishing spree so stay tuned!

the more wips the better

October 1, 2024 / Deb / 0 Comments

I’ve noticed something peculiar over the last few months: the more wips I have the more I work on them. This leaves me with projects that each take longer but overall I’m making much more progress. so now I’m embracing my desire to start one more thing and I’m much happier. I love bring able to pick up whatever I’m in the mood for and just go.

WiP…Friday?

January 19, 2024 / Deb / 0 Comments

This week has been all about Jewelled Star. I got obsessed with it and went from this:

To this:

Not too far to go until I start the star motifs. I’m so excited to see how this turns out!

And…that is absolutely all I’ve worked on this week. Sometimes it’s good to just work and work and work on something. And it’s always good to go where the work leads you.

Tension

January 12, 2024 / Deb / 0 Comments

I’ve been switching back and forth between knit and crochet recently and it seems to be doing funny things to my tension. I really noticed it when I finally went back to Jewelled Star—I had to drop down a hook size to get the same gauge because my crocheting had become so much looser. It’s a problem I’ve never had before but it was remedied easily enough. I’m thankful that that is all it took to fix the problem; it would have been a pain to start over.

I’m seeing it in my knitting, too. I made this pair of ugly worsted weight acrylic socks just to prove that I could indeed still make a sock (thank you Silver’s Sock Classes!) The bumps and distortions from changes in tension didn’t even wash out. I think I was so stressed about keeping everything on the needles that I was knitting way too tight (the challenge of the gusset decreases proves this out) and every time I started to loosen up I’d tighten up again. This left some unattractive ridges, but I got a lesson and two socks out of the deal, so it wasn’t so bad.

The other factor I’ve noticed is just life. A bad day will leave me gripping my yarn for dear life, until I remember that even the toughest project should be one that brings me some form of happiness. I’m going to resist the urge to turn this into a big ol’ metaphor, but you can easily see how life outside of the fiber arts and life within them can sometimes do a delicate dance and how tension affects tension.

May all your projects be tensioned just as you want them, and all your crafting be calm. 🙂

WiP Wednesday

January 10, 2024 / Deb / 0 Comments

Wherein I try and fail to make progress:

1. Grain: I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with the simplicity of this knit. It’s great TV knitting and I’ve gotten faster and smoother at cranking out knit stitch as a result of working on it, but there’s just so very far to go and I’m just so very bored. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this one.

2. Al’s Mitts: I’ve been having trouble getting these fingerless gloves done since I first started them. I’m not quite finished with one and making the second one seems daunting even though I think I’ve figured it out now. These are simple moss stitch crochet worked so the stretchiness encircles the and and wrist. They’re worked as a rectangle and will be seamed up the side. I don’t know why I’ve had trouble with them, but it’s like that sometimes I suppose.

3.Jewelled Star: Talk about love-hate relationships! From trying to get a reasonable assortment of colors to how much I don’t like making one of the motifs it’s fought me back the whole way. This one I plan to win, though. I’ve just got too much invested and too much love for the finished project. Not to mention that the process of deciding what colors to put together is an absolute joy.

There are a couple more but those are the big ones. They’re all driving me nuts in one way or another and probably need to be put in time out lol. Or maybe I need a smaller project or two that can be finished quickly to get my mojo back. We’ll see. But for now I’m chugging along and making some progress and is something that I’m really happy with.

this & that

January 4, 2024 / Deb / 0 Comments

Just now made another mistake on Grain. I dropped a yo instead of knitting it I think? In any case, everything’s secure, just odd looking in a spot. Won’t even notice in the fo.

Got some stitch markers from ChiaoGoo that are making things much easier where I’m using them. Proper tool for the proper job. You wouldn’t think a stitch marker would make much of a difference but it really eliminates a friction point.

I got my latest purchase from Knitivity today. It’s gorgeous as always. Pictures to come.

I got some Scarfie this week as well and thought I’d picked a pattern for it but changed my mind when I actually started working it up. So that can be stash for a bit while I work on other things.

I’ve been doing a lot of gaming this week. I think my hands appreciate being asked to do something else.

And there’s even more going on but that seems like a good list!

a job for the mandala thick&quick

December 30, 2023 / Deb / 0 Comments

I’ve been noodling around with this yarn for a day and I found what I want to do with it. It wants to be a bag. It needs to be a bag.

I’m working it up like this: with a 10 mm hook I chained until it was the right size for what I want to do with it. Sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in each ch across, in last st 3 sc then sc in the other side of the chain back to the start. 2 sc in last ch. (3rd sc is what you started with). Work in a spiral with a sc in each sc around.

I haven’t decided on the strap construction yet.

Working with this yarn and hook combination is challenging my hands, but the yarn’s so bulky that it’s working up really fast. I’ve needed a smaller bag for a while so I’m excited to finish it.

mandala thick&quick

December 29, 2023 / Deb / 0 Comments

I don’t know what to make of–or out of–this yarn! I got an order today and have been noodling around with it ever since. My 10 mm hook seems smaller than I might want, the inelastic nature tells me that something structural might be a good use, but it’s so pretty I just want to make something warm.

It’s a nice problem to have, really.

processes and products

December 28, 2023 / Deb / 0 Comments

I’ve always though of myself as a product knitter, which makes a ton of sense given that I used to work in the design space where the final product was the entire point. I suspect this bled into everything I did, and I can’t remember ever slowing down and just enjoying the making of a thing.

Since I returned, though, I find myself as interested in the process as the product. Sometimes I get impatient for sure, but just as often I find myself more patient, not minding the time it takes to finish a row or the complexity of a stitch, enjoying the colors as they slide along the needle or admiring the fabric as it flies off the hook. It’s a whole different world working for the experience as well as the result, and for me it’s a fantastic change. Does this make me a newly minted process knitter? I don’t know. But I’m having fun with my yarn, and isn’t that the point?

So I’m making one.

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