the home stretch

Old WIPs have been instrumental in my return to knitting (and crocheting). I have a few rather large projects which have been siting in a 70%-finished limbo for quite a while, and it was precisely that feeling of “oh they’re almost done, you just need to go for the home stretch” that made me feel empowered enough to tackle them (yes, empowered – the immensity of projects can be truly intimidating sometimes!). It worked for my beautiful sweater, and now it’s working for another, even bigger project.

In fact, at first glance, this seems like a tiny thing.

But add a lot of tiny things…

…and you get one gigantic, ever-gowing thing.

When it’s finished, this will without a doubt be the biggest project I’ve ever conquered. That remaining pile of circles still looks a bit scary, but I’m so close now that I can almost smell the end! I can’t wait to show you the finished product!

Advertisement

assembly

Remember way back when I kinda got into crochet? Well, that got off to a good start and in less than a month I already had more than 61 pieces to assemble. And then I just dropped it. I don’t remember how or why, but this blanket simply went out of sight. A few days ago, it came back. In order to sort out how big exactly I want it to be and how much more yarn I will need, I decided to first proceed with assembling what I have so far. And so the assembly has begun.

This is a cool pattern which combines crocheting the last round of the granny square with connecting the pieces at the same time. It’s easy and fun, and I’m enjoying it very much.

Have I mentioned how much I love the colours on this thing?

It is utterly possible that I will want to marry this blanket when it’s done.

In other news, there have been other types of assembly also happening in my little nest this weekend. A fruitful trip to IKEA turned me into an enthusiastic Bob the Builder for one Saturday evening and I now have a lovely new yarn cupboard. And to reward myself for all that hard work, some baking was included too…

These pumpkin cinnamon rolls were relatively easy to make and delicccious. The recipe is here, if you’re interested in doing some assembly yourselves…

Have a great week, everyone!

M.I.A.

My knitting mojo has been completely missing in action since the Zauberball incident. I’ve tried picking my needles back up, but it just doesn’t work. Sigh.

Luckily, there are some other ways to play with yarn. And it’s almost as if Dona knew I needed this, her timing of the Recipe for a Citrus Coaster was perfect.

Thank you, Dona! :)

the crochet blanket has been launched

I’ve been dreaming of making a crochet blanket for a long time… It was pretty much the only reason why I wanted to add crochet to my skillset. So, without further ado, as soon as I figured out the basicest of basics of how this hooking thing works, I jumped right in!

I’m using this lovely free pattern and I’m super happy with it. This is fun fun fun! And I’m using a bulky yarn (Cascade Eco+) so things should move ahead quite fast. But one thing I do worry about is the seaming. Look at all the ends that are involved in just one square! Crocheters, help! How do you deal with this? Is there a nifty trick that will spare me a few headaches..?

 

 

 

guess!

Guess what I’ve been doing the last few days!

Hahaaaa, you don’t believe it, do you? :) Yes, after years of resisting, I finally gave in and tried a little bit of crochet! We had an amazing public gathering of knitters last Saturday (more on that to come) and in the overall atmosphere of discovering and learning I finally buckled and asked my lovely friend Johanna (who does wonders with crochet) to show me some basics. I was still kinda convinced that I could never master it. But, shockingly, I made some chains. And then some sticks (hmm, that’s what they’re called in Croatian, I guess ‘double crochet’ in English? the whole British-US double vocabulary in crochet is kinda discouraging me from even trying to learn…). And then some flat shapes.

Impressions of crochet so far?

I’m still not a fan of the fabric it creates – so I think my interest in it will stay limited to those things that are too complicated or too slow to do with knitting (the former: covering three-dimensional items with yarn, the latter: blankets).

It feels much “freer” than knitting. In the sense that in knitting you are always working in rows, you always know which stitch is next, and if you want to shape something you have to think of it in a galaxy far far faaar in advance (which all leads me to following patterns very strictly in knitting). In crochet, though, as far as I can see, you can just stick the hook wherever you like, and if at some point you decide you’d like to do some shaping, you just do it right there and then. Not to mention how easy it is to rip (no tinkering back stitch by stitch, wow!). All this contributes to me feeling much freer in experimenting, inventing and unventing things when I’m holding the hook than I do when holding the needles.

So, in conclusion, I’m a little surprised to say this, but I think crochet and I are going to end up being good friends. But don’t worry, knitting, you’re still my soulmate. :*