Let's Hook Up: The Finale

I finished the blanket yesterday, taming the edges with two rows of single crochet.  I threw the throw into the washing machine, set the cycle on "hand knits" and let her run. 

Everything went well.  Nothing snagged and my colours didn't run, not even the deep purple of the logwood section.  The Romney singles softened nicely, although the blanket texture is still quite sturdy.  She measures 107 cm x 107 cm or 42 inches x 42 inches, which is a good size for a lap blanket or a meditation blanket.

The pattern is very simple: start with your favourite granny square and keep going until you run out of yarn.  I used a pattern of three double crochet, chain one, with the double crochet stitches worked into the chain one space.  Each corner was increased by working three chains between the double crochet stitches (instead of chain one); on the next round, work three double crochet, chain three, three double crochet in that chain three space and continue with your regular pattern.

I'm pleased with my first attempt at crocheting a larger work.  Can you tell?

The colours are more accurate in this photo and in the detail below.

Let's Hook Up!

I'm having a reading and study day today, working on more ideas about yoga and how it applies to authentic teaching.  During breaks, I'm working on a project which combines destashing yarn and improving my crocheting skills.

There was a granny square frenzy at the store on Saturday.  Mar is exploring colour and value by making many, many granny squares, from carefully dyed yarn.  Mar is perfection personified and so are her squares, which are beautifully crafted and sorted according to gradient scales.  I'm sure note taking is involved because that's just the way Mar rolls.

So impressed were others by these squares, that granny squares became the test pieces for the new crochet hooks which had just arrived at Golden Willow.  Some people made squares from scrap yarn; one person had a large granny square blanket on the go.  Donna talked about how her friend used up all her scraps by crocheting them at random into an afghan.  Sharon and Mar helped Karen build a square that didn't turn into a flower.

They seemed to be having great fun.  I was working, or that was the theory, so I didn't think it fair to be crafting for my own amusement.  Besides, the thought of sewing together a batch of squares, or sewing anything for that matter, makes me cringe.  (I've mentioned my allergy to sewing, I'm sure.)

Still, the granny square challenge called to me.  The next day, while I was clearing out yarn, I came across a bag of hand spun and dyed Romney singles I'd spun years before for an unlikely-to-be-woven tapestry.  Donna's words about her friend's scrap blanket came to me and I had the solution!  I would crochet one granny square using the singles.  The square would be as large as the yarn allowed.  The only sewing involved would be darning ends.

I'm discovering that crocheting has a rhythm all its own.  It's also quick, so I'm caught up in the ever-changing colours as the square progresses.  I like the sturdy texture of the Romney yarn and, with crocheting, I don't have to worry about biasing from over twist in the singles.  I still have to count stitches; I've begun to connect the "one-two-three-one" count of the triple stitches with my breath, so there is a bit of meditation and pranayama involved in the process. 

Gandhi frequently spoke of work as worship, in practising devotion in whatever we do.  I'm not sure that I'm devoted to the work of granny square making, but this single square is coming along nicely, I think:

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.