Sunday Morning Coming Down

A customer came into the LYS last week with a lovely scarf.  Several of us wanted to make this object of great beauty, the Intermezzo Scarf, found here.  My problem?  I am not a crocheter.  I admire crochet; I can manoeuvre a hook well enough to trim something.  Hey, I even managed to crochet several hats as Christmas gifts last year, after Mr. DD admired a simple crocheted cap in my presence.  The recipients love me, so they kindly wore the hats, mistakes and all, through the winter.  But that's the extent of my hooking skills.

On top of that, the pattern includes terms like treble crochet and half treble and specifies that one should follow UK terminology.  This set off a debate among the crocheting customers as to the precise number of wraps, chains, etc. one should use when making this scarf.  I was confused.

No matter: armed with the pattern, a size 3 mm hook and a ball of Crazy Zauberball from my stash, I set out on my great crocheting adventure.  So far, the scarf looks like this, which I think is basically correct, although I suspect I haven't done the turning chains properly as the sides seem a bit tight:

I'm consistent, anyway, and will continue along in my learning experiment.  I am learning a number of things, such as I can't read crocheted fabric the way I read knitted cloth, so I'm having trouble spotting problems as I crochet.  I don't seem to get the hang of tensioning my yarn, which makes for uneven shells.  I have to count each stitch. Most importantly, I'm learning that working on this piece keeps me in the moment completely.  If I drift off for a few seconds, I've lost track of my row and my stitches and out comes the work.  It's a vigorous meditation exercise and tiring enough that I have to take a break after about 2 repeats of the pattern.

Today is the finale of the Tour de Fleece 2011.  My contribution this year was a bit skimpy, consisting of 2 skeins of alpaca, a skein of linen/silk/cotton, a tiny skein of chain-plied silk and camel, various odds and ends of spinning I did while teaching, including the yellow alpaca shown on the simple spindle in this photograph:

On a much sadder note, Amy Winehouse died yesterday.  I loved her music.  Her voice was powerful, husky and emotive; her lyrics came from the raw experience of her life.  She touched my heart-I'm sorry she had to leave the planet.