Two New Cardigans

This week I have been thinking about UFOs, so this turquoise cardigan turned up in the sewing room.  The lace portions had been hand knitted and were waiting to have the stockinette portions done on the knitting machine.  I managed to get that done in one day, so now it is being sewn together.  I basted it together and tried it on, and so far I think I'm going to like it a lot.  The sleeves are the right length, and the fit is good.

In addition, after the big rip fest, I am almost done with the yoke on the berry-colored Soft Serve cardigan.  Notice the new addition to my library, the Doris Chan Everyday Crochet book that my daughter gave me for my birthday.  I've never had a purple cardigan before, so I am trying to think of ways to wear it and what colors to wear it with.  Because it's all about the color.

Frogged

After a week of crocheting on the Tall Latte sweater, I made the underarm extensions and tried it on.  It was wavy and ginormous, plus I didn't like the pattern stitch.  It is useful to be brutal in moments like these: you can soldier on and hope it corrects itself (which it probably won't) or you can stop struggling and rip it out.  Starting over isn't always bad.  This time I am making another Soft Serve and am already halfway done with the yoke.

African Flower Half Block Experiment

The first attempt at a half block was just half of a regular block, but I didn't like how it looked in my afghan, so I invented this one.  I still have to figure out what I want to do with the edge, but right now it looks pretty good and doesn't detract from the colorful blocks.

Two thumbs up for crocheting the blocks together instead of sewing them together.

Tall Latte Started

The Soft Serve sweater is almost done.  I had to go out and buy some clear buttons to put on the back side of the band when I sew on the fashion buttons.  This is a trick I use to keep the band from sagging or pulling.  The sweater looks pretty good and will be finished as soon as I sew on the buttons.

The sweater is on Madame Merp, which isn't the dressform I use to sew for myself, but it's handy for picture taking. I just happened to have the coral shell in my wardrobe.

Below is a view of the border edging, backwards single crochet:

I was so pleased at how this turned out that I started another Doris Chan design, Tall Latte.  I'm changing it a little to make it a cardigan instead of a pullover.  In other words, I wanted a Soft Serve with a V-neckline.

When I'm not working on the new sweater, I try to add a few motifs to the African Flower afghan every day.  I spent one morning trying to figure out how to fill in the spaces between the top motifs and the bottom motifs to make the edges even, and I think I was successful.  I'll show how I did that when I get around to that step.  There are going to be half blocks in the cream color to fill in the sides.

It is incredibly hot here still, but Accuweather says we are due for a cool down which I am certainly looking forward to.

One Sleeve Finished

Last week we had some construction going on in the house, so I was staying with my daughter on the peninsula.  I needed a portable craft project so I took the Soft Serve sweater and got a lot done on it.  Today I finished up the first sleeve:

It is surprising me how well the pattern turns out, and I still like this coral color even after looking at it for several weeks.  It's been a long time since I made a crocheted button band on a sweater.  These bands look nice, but they have a tendency to curl up at the ends as shown on the left side, below.

The right side is where the yarn ended, so I wove it into the back of the band at the bottom, and this provided enough extra structure to prevent the curling:

When I finish the second sleeve, I will go back and reinforce the back of the left band.  I think I'm going to like this sweater a lot, and it should get lots of wear.

Another Yarn Caddy

 I am crocheting away on the Soft Serve Sweater, mostly while I sit in the living room watching TV.  My yarn kept falling on the floor every time I bumped my handy folding TV table, so I made a yarn caddy cover for the table.  My first version is shown above.  I like the way the pockets hold the yarn skein upright so that the yarn can feed out easily.  However, I needed another pocket to  hold the growing project so that I could use the table top for my instructions.  I added a large pocket with a box pleat onto the side.  With this pocket available, I can put the project away safely while I am off doing something else.

At first, I had the instructions flat on the table, but then I remembered this book holder that I found at the local thrift store.  I only paid $3 for it so it was worth a try.  It is excellent for instructions but not necessarily for book reading since it is not very convenient for turning pages constantly (you have to lift back those page  holders every time you turn the page).  In addition, the back section of the book holder is like a bin, so you can keep your pincushion and pencils back there.

The nice thing about this sweater is that it is crocheted from the top down so you can try it on as it grows larger.  I am having to make some adjustments to the length of the yoke and the length of the underarm addition, but so far, so good.  I am loving this color, too.

I finished all the flowers for the afghan and am ready to start putting it all together next week.  I need to plan the placement of the colors first though.

September

My unexpected interest in  crochet continues.  I got this book out of the library, and I am very impressed with Doris Chan and her designs.  They don't have that clunky look crochet garments often have so I decided to actually try one.

 This is the 'Soft Serve' sweater.  I saw a picture of Doris Chan wearing this sweater in pink and she says it is her favorite, most-worn sweater.  I am going to close it with three buttons instead of the tie because I hate ties.  Someone online mentioned making this out of Simply Soft, and that seemed like a good idea because it is drapey and fits the pattern requirements.  I found this pretty apricot color and have already started the yoke.  The instructions could be clearer, but I am figuring it out.

So far, I am finding Simply Soft a pleasure to crochet.  So much more relaxing than thread crochet, and the available colors are wonderful.

We recently celebrated our anniversary.  Both daughters took us out to the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco, and I enjoyed it very much.  After dinner, we went over to A's house for dessert.  She had made a chocolate mint pie with whipped cream and it was delicious:

The chocolate pie crust stuck to the pie dish resulting in lots of humorous efforts to pry the pie out.  The effort was worth it, though because the pie was excellent.  Those are mint 0re0s crumbled on top.