Circular Shrug

It's been a great day. My husband took us out to a great lunch and then Michaels afterwards to buy new yarn! My husband watched my daughter while I was alone in Michaels looking at yarn! :D When I got home, I finished sewing up the ribbing on the sleeves and weaving in the ends. I've been dragging my feet on this project (I get bored with single crochets!) but now it's finally done! Yeah!!!! I'm always very happy to finish a project!

The circular shrug is from the book Positively Crochet! by Mary Jane Hall. I used 1 skein of Caron 1 lb. in sage. It was crocheted with a size K hook. The pattern was easy to follow. I had to redo one sleeve because I forgot to do a sc after each round. When I get distracted or too tired during crocheting, I tend to make mistakes. I had trouble keeping the right tension? because I have several little holes in it (I tried to sew most of them up)! I'm not too crazy about the color I picked but it's a good pattern and a good fit.

Here's a photo of my new shrug!

My Current Finished Crochet Wearable

This is my current finished project. It is called the Lush Lace Pullover. I started this while I was (and still am) working on the Circular Shrug. I had purchased this yarn, Wool Ease, to make another frou frou but decided against it. This is the first time I used Wool Ease, and I just love it. It was soft and easy to work with. I wanted to use a pattern specifically for this yarn. This is from a free pattern from the lion brand website.

I used 5 skeins of the Wool Ease in wheat. It is crocheted with the J hook in a size xs. My guage was off, so it's actually a size small. I was a little intimidated by the pattern at first because it was an "experienced" pattern but it's a fairly easy pattern. The were only a few minor changes I made. For the cluster, I did not use the last loop of the triple crochet and I only made the funnel neck 6" instead of 8".

I'm happy with the fit and it doesn't feel "too" heavy. I probably would of wore this out today but it's in the 70's today but feels like it's in the 80s! Sorry folks - to those who are in the cold country!

Here's a photo of me in my new pullover:

Life

It's been a fairly busy week. Thanksgiving is behind us and my Birthday and Christmas is right around the corner. I have not started Christmas shopping yet but I will probably buy most of the gifts on line!

My computer was down last week! Yikes! I'm so loss without it. We bought a new computer but ended up returning it! It took a long time to load up a page. The program in it is NOT really compatible with dial up. (There is no DSL in this area and we were considering satellite internet). I love this computer so I decided to get it fixed.

Crochet has been put on hold for most of last week. I have 2 projects I'm currently working on. The circular shrug and the Lush Lace Pullover. I can't seem to get motivated on the circular shrug. Maybe it's all the single crochet stitches. I only have to sew up the sides and make the 2 sleeves! I've been slowing getting back to the Pullover. I'm about 75% done! I love the wool ease I'm using and it's an interesting pattern. I'll write more about it on my next blog post.

Here's a photo of my daughter in one of her Christmas outfits. She's soooo cute!

Shroat

I finished this on Thanksgiving. I'm in the middle of working on my circular shrug and found this. This is a GREAT project. It was super easy, done in all double crochet - and fast! I started it on Tuesday and finished it on Thursday.


I love this pattern. The fit is great too. This is from the DIY network called Shroat. (Go into the DIY home page and search for shrug or shroat). It is done in 3 segments. 1st is the shrug then it's made into a jacket (callled shracket) then finally the shroat. It's fun to see how it turns out in the different segments. All 3 are really cute and it's worth making all three! I really enjoyed making this piece. The only change I made to this was leaving out one row of the bell sleeve. I made this using 2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in Dark Orchid using a P hook.

And a photo of me wearing my new shroat:

Update on my frou frou: I washed it several times to soften it up. It now has a much nicer drape and fit. I like it even more! :D

Frou Frou

My Frou Frou is complete! I was up really early this morning (around 3am) and I finished sewing the sleeves and sides today. I worked on it quite a bit today trying to get the trim done. Finally, it's finished. This particular one took a little over a week but it seemed so much longer. This was kind of a pain to do. Right from the start, I frogged this 2 other times. I also ended up frogging the collar, which turned out to be correct! It just didn't look right to be, the collar was so thick and bunchy. I re-did it the 2nd time thinking that maybe I had followed the wrong directions. Wrong, frogged it and 2 days later ended up where I left off....oh well. With the fronts, I couldn't get it to decrease following the directions of doing 2 ch then sc so I did sc decreases in the first 2 stitches .

Overall, it's not a hard pattern but I found myself having a lot of trouble with it. Interpretation maybe? I just wasn't clear on the directions for example: am I putting the stitch marker in the right spot, where's the decrease - it's the same direction as the granite stitch pattern, and I had to re-read the directions on where to crochet the 30 sc. Okay, it says right front but reading the directions confused me. It really helped looking at other people's frou frou on Ravelry and Craftster. The people were helpful too and help clear up some questions I had.

I really do love the look of this cardigan. It's so pretty but it fits me terribly! I'm so envious of the people who's frou frou look so great on! All along, I was a bit nervous on it being too small. Switching to a size N hook definately did the trick. The gauge and measurements were right on! If your making this be sure both are correct. The 2nd one I frogged, the gauge was correct but not the measurements!

I used Red Heart Super Saver and a total of 4 skeins in brown. Brown is not the color I wanted to make this in but it's the color I ended up using. I actually bought some Wool Ease to make another one but with the fit, I'll end up making something else with it.

I'm disappointed in the fit but size is perfect. It's bunchy in the front and the arm area. It may be the yarn I used which does not gave it a great drape. Still, I feel a great sense of accomplishment with having sticking it out and finishing this project. It really is pretty.

My current project

I was looking for a sweater or coat to make and I decided on this. This is from the SnB, Happy Hooker called frou frou. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I decided it would work.

I started out with black yarn, then re-start with beige (gauge looked correct but too small) so I tried it again in brown. 3rd times the charm! I also switched from a K hook to N hook. The gauge and schematics are finally correct. Yah. It really helped looking at other people's frou frou in Ravelry and Craftster. I realized that the previous one I was working on was too small. I actually ended up really wanting tomake this. It might of been the color in the book that I didn't really care for. I fell in love with this in gray. (I started this on Nov. 7th). Anyways, here is what I have so far.

I'm really looking forward to finishing this and see how it will look! I have a long way to go but I'll keep on crocheting!

Luxurious Lace Sweater

I finished this last night. This is from the book Total Crochet Fashions by Gayle Bunn. I've been eyeing this book for a while and when it went on clearance, I bought it. It has some nice things in there. The pattern I made is called Luxurious Lace Cowl Sweater.


















I started this project almost 2 weeks a go. I used yarn in my stash left over from the Empress Baby Doll Top. The yarn is Bernat Softee Baby in Lilac. I used a total of 3 skeins but if it was the same dye lot, I would probably only need 2! After finishing the back and 1/4 of the front, the next skein of yarn was a different color! Too late, I thought I'd make the best of it. I left it a lone for a day and then continued with this sweater. I was able to find another skein of yarn w/ the same bright, shiny purple. I thought I'd mix it in to another part of the sweater.





This is all done in a very easy shell pattern. Double Crochet and Single Crochet. The back piece was a breeze. I had trouble on the sleeve cap (and cowl). The sleeve cap took me about 3 days to do. The directions were a bit confusing to me. I didn't know if I was following the directions right because I couldn't get it to work out. Then I would frog it and try it the other way and still it wouldn't work out. I must of frogged the sleeves cap 4 to 5 times. Finally on the 3rd day, I just made some changes to the pattern and made it work. I followed the direction same for rows 1 -3 then instead of repeating last 4 rows again, I repeated rows 2 and 3 only once then follow directions for: All sizes next row (WS) and Next Row (according to directions) but did those 2 rows twice. And finished w/ size 2 and L only, work 1 row even of pattern. In case anyone is making this pattern!






I was excited to start the motifs for the cowl but started having some trouble again, so I decided to scratch it all together. I'm not sure if I was already too frustrated with it.






I really ended up liking the sweater, even w/ the different color yarn. I think it look a LOT better than the photos. The flash really brings out the 2 color tones but in person, it's more subtle. It fits well and I would wear it. In fact, I'm looking forward to wearing it. I think the cowl part of the sweater would only get in my way! I can see my daughter tugging at it. I was even considering making another one but all in yarn of the same dye lot! I probably won't because I have purchased a new pattern book and I'm slowly, very slowly working on the sweater, frou frou from the book Happy Hooker.


And of course, another picture of my beautiful daughter playing in her sand box. In the back ground is our neighbor's cat who adopted us.