On the go #13
For many of the recurring posts I write here, I aim to have them appear once a month. Often it takes longer than a month, sometimes because I just don’t get around to it, sometimes because I have nothing to say and sometimes because I don’t feel like it, lol.
For the “on the go” posts it’s been almost a month and a half now and I have some updating to do, because the last few weeks I’ve really caught the crafting itch again!
Eastern dragon
In my last post I told you about the Eastern Dragon, based on a pattern by Crafty Intentions, which I started a few years ago, but then hid in a closet and forgot about. Early September I dug it out again and decided to take the whole project out and start over, using a smaller hook.
The past few weeks I have crocheted quite a bit on the project and the body was coming along nicely. At one point I thought that the twists the body made were going in a bit of a strange direction, but I bravely continued with a few more rounds, until I could no longer avoid it. Yes, there was a mistake somewhere, because the body should not have twisted in on itself like that. After some squinting through my notes I saw the problem: I had skipped a crucial round! I had to undo 34 rows/rounds to correct it. Normally I would have been discouraged by that, but I was in a really good flow at that moment, so I just did it.
And now the body is completely finished!
The construction of this piece is brilliant and actually quite logical! The technique used to create the sharp bends is one that is quite common in knitting, namely making short rows or rounds. By working a few extra stitches into a limited number of stitches, while skipping others, you get the widening in the few stitches needed to create a bend. Brilliant!
Next step, the head. This crocheted quite smoothly, until I got to the point where I had to attach the eyes.
The pattern calls for eyes of 30mm, which I had made sure to get. But because I am now crocheting with a much smaller crochet hook than what the pattern recommends, those 30mm eyes suddenly seemed very large.
And here I froze for a moment in doubt.
Luckily, over the years I have built up a huge supply of safety eyes (haha, what haven’t I built up a huge supply of) and I checked what alternative options I had.
I also couldn’t help but approach it mathematically:
- The pattern calls for a 4mm needle and 30mm safety eyes.
- I’m crocheting with a 3mm needle.
- What size eyes do I then need? → 3/4 x 30 = 22,5 mm
In my stash I found eyes of about 22mm and yes, I found these to be a lot better size than the 30mm.
I could choose from different colours (from silver to pink and blue to green) and have now chosen a yellow-green colour. So now I can continue!
Elf Coat
Since this summer I’ve been thinking about my knitting mill and that I would really get back to making something on it. I want to learn more about how to make other things than just knitting in the round, but given the time that has passed since I last worked on it, I’ll probably have to relearn everything.
While searching for ideas, I came across the YouTube channel of Maak het met Miranda, with lots of knitting mill ideas explained in an extremely good way. Great!
My eye was particularly drawn to the Magical Elf Coat. With this I could brush up on regular circular knitting on the mill and learn how to knit straight pieces on it, including increases and decreases! Plus I would get a nice vest in return and could use a substantial amount of my yarn stash! So, win, win, win, win!
At the same time, while I was watching that video tutorial and taking notes, something was gnawing at my memory. Something about that coat seemed very familiar to me and I could vaguely remember wanting to make something similar once, but I was sure I didn’t have a knitting mill back then and had never seen Miranda’s video.
And then I found the pictures of Morale Fiber‘s Elf Coat on my Pinterest! This coat is crocheted with the Tunisian crochet technique, something else I’ve been wanting to learn for a long time.
And so, I was left hesitating between the two options: should I start with the version on the knitting mill or should I go for the Tunisian version?
In the end, my yarn stash was the deciding factor. I used the stash option on my Ravelry to find out if I had a yarn in one colour that I had enough of to make one of the two versions and that’s how I ended up with this purple, slightly hairy Wibra yarn that I’ve had stowed away in the attic since 2013 *blush*. I even remember that I bought that yarn for a very specific purpose, which I clearly never got around to.
This yarn is quite thin, too thin to use in the knitting mill, so I would dive into the Tunisian crochet version. For this I of course also needed a Tunisian crochet hook and because I can never chill, I immediately bought a whole set of tunesian hooks with interchangeable cables.
And while the pattern for this coat is available for free in several blog posts on the Morale Fiber blog, for my convenience and as a thank you to the designer, I decided to purchase the PDF version on Etsy.
The entire decision-making process above dates back to June this year. At the end of June I started learning Tunisian crochet, which I mastered relatively quickly and could therefore quickly apply to the pattern.
In the past few months I have been crocheting on this vest on and off. This is the project that I often take with me on my commuter train. In the meantime I am working on the penultimate piece needed for the skirt of the coat, so I can soon discover how to join these pieces together and then continue crocheting the body!
And what about the knitting mill?, I hear you think. Uhm, I will try to make that version sometime, but not now.
Elephant mitts
The last project I want to talk about today is mittens again.
Throughout my years of crafting, I have crocheted quite a few mittens. I have my own personal pattern for them that I adjust a little bit each time I make them, but the essence remains the same and they crochet up quite quickly and easily.
Last year I lost my last mittens somewhere, so I have had it in the back of my mind for a while that I would have to make new mittens for when the weather gets a bit chilly. This time, however, I decided to take a different approach.
I’ve been saving patterns for mittens with beautiful drawings in my favourites on Ravelry for years. Especially the Peaceable Mitts by Erica Heusser really appeal to me.
Yes, you see correctly, these are not crocheted, but knitted using the fair-isle technique for the image.
Given the combination of colourwork and knitting in the round with a small circumference, I expected some serious fiddling. And admittedly, the beginning was a bit of a struggle, but once I started with the right knitting needle, it actually went surprisingly fast!
So now I have one glove finished. Now it’s just a matter of getting through the setup of the second one and then I’m pretty sure that glove number two will be knitted pretty quickly too!
And there you have it, I’ll leave it at that.
Are there any other projects I’m working on in the background? Of course, lol, but these are the three I’ve been working on the most in the past month and a half. And yes, I’m already wordy enough in my posts, so limiting it to three projects at a time is a good compromise. And who knows, maybe this will also encourage me to write these updates more regularly!
Have you started knitting and/or crocheting again? Or did you never stop?
Cheers,
Charlotte
