On the hook

I have a new project in the works. I didn’t want to show you until I was sure it was actually going to happen. I have a history of sharing grandiose plans that never come to fruition.

Remember the time I said I was going to sew a dress, and knit a shawl to wear together for my nephew’s christening? And then the dress pattern never even got taken out of the package? And the 1/4 finished shawl got stuffed in a knitting bag and dumped in the basement?  And I wore something I bought at Target to the little guy’s baptism? Yeah. Just like that.

So when my brain started percolating with this idea of crocheting a lacey Summer sweater to wear over a hand-sewn sheath dress for an upcoming event, I decided I had better just keep it to myself until I’d made significant progress.

I think being nearly half done with the sweater counts as significant progress, so here it is so far:

I am using Linda‘s Woodblocks Cardigan pattern, which is clearly-written and perfectly understandable, but maybe just a touch complicated for my level of competence so far.  It’s a motif-based, join-as-you-go kind of thing, and I do really love me some motifs. The complications arise in the joining, because frankly, once I’m done with a motif, it starts to look kind of like a pile of knots to me, and it really beats me where I’m supposed to stick my hook when I’m joining a new motif.

At least, that’s how I felt with the first several joins. I’ve since come up with a little trick to help me (stitch markers on the motif corners) and practice has made less un-perfect.  I suspect the top right-hand side of this sweater is going to look a lot nicer than the bottom left-hand side, but I also think nobody is really going to be looking all that closely.

If my mistakes stand out to anyone but me after I’ve blocked the piece, I suppose I can always remove those motifs and re-join them. It probably won’t come to that, though.  I’m not much of a perfectionist about these things.

I’ve got one more normal row like these two to do, and then it gets tricky on row 4 with sleeves and such. I should be done in a few weeks – I seem to be working at a motif-a-day pace.

As for the dress, I want to use the same pattern that I wanted to use for the christening I mentioned earlier, and this time I have actually taken the pattern out of the sleeve and traced my size onto tracing paper.  I may actually get this one done… I have to drag my sewing machine up from the basement first, but I think I can manage that.

Still, I wouldn’t refuse any “get it done” vibes you might want to send my way