I admire that craftiste who, upon finding the pattern of something which she desires to make – (say, for argument’s sake, the crocheted jacket on page 10 of Margaret Hubert’s “Runway Crochet)” – opens the cupboard containing her yarn stash, frowns a bit, then says “yes, that’ll do nicely” to some skeins of something and, just like that, starts to make the (again, just as an example), close-fitting long-sleeved Juliet Jacket.
I admire her because she has made up her mind about the pattern , she has the right amount of the right yarn, she knows the right size, her tension is good, and she just – starts. It’s not like that for me.
I bought Margaret Hubert’s book at Colonel Light Books, a marvellous second hand store along with a copy of “Knit Your Own New York”. I had to leave other lovely craft books behind. Should you be thinking of adopting, there are many very appealing homeless craft books there.
Have I now started the Juliet Jacket? Oh no way! There’s a lot of pain to get through before I get to that stage, silly. I have hummed and ha-ed and carried on like a pork chop about how to make this jacket, out of what type of yarn, in which colour, on what hooks, what size and blah blah blah. I have made swatches from this yarn and that one and another one. Here are two examples –
I have now bought a ball of pretty blue cotton from Spotlight (only ball they had, of coure) and ordered a ball of Debbie Bliss stuff from Deramores to experiment with (in picture above). Why don’t I just use the recommended yarn, you ask? Too expensive ( these experimental yarns are free of course) and it looks too thin, particularly with my tension problem. I SO want to make this jacket but I need a break from the boredom of swatch-making and so it has gone on the back-burner.
http://www.fabulousyarn.com/artyarns_silkrhapsodyglitter_light.shtml
My tension problem? Not high blood pressure. My crocheting is too tight and too “short”. When I crochet a swatch, although it might be the right length, it is always too “short”. I have recently found an excellent video which I hope will help – I must remember not to be a yanker.
On Facebook I saw a beautiful part-finished rug in Bouvardia Tokyo yarn. The pattern is Frank O’Randle’s Galaxy of Change. So lovely! So different fom my usual rugs. Being inspired, I started the rug in Tokyo and it was just dull. So, being inspired by another example on Facebook I started the Galaxy of Change again – this time in Bouvardia Lollypopp. I think I lilke it. Do you?
You can see that it is bubbling because of my poor tension but I am not worrying about it too much. I can improve it a little with blocking and it is a rug, after all. It doesn’t need to fit like a Juliet jacket. Sigh.
See further progress on the Juliet Jacket and other bits and pieces here.
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