Posted on 8 Comments

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 🙂

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Posted on 8 Comments

8 thoughts on “On the hook

  1. I’m going to borrow the phrase, ” practice makes less un-perfect,” and add it to my list of mantras. 😀

    1. Heh. Yes, well, it seems more true to life than “practice makes perfect.” 🙂

  2. Sending you get it done good wishes, I love the sweater and the motif design. I personally really like them but tend to avoid trying them, from experience that I get about 5 motifs in and am totally bored with repeating the pattern.

    1. Surprisingly, I am not finding myself getting bored. Knitting the same stitch over and over bores me to tears, but crocheting the same motif repeatedly feels different to me. (Luckily!)

  3. On the blog today: On the hook – I have a new project in the works. I didn't want to show you until I was sure it wa… http://t.co/rwieMGet

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