Am I desperate?

Who would I thought? I consider myself more a Bree type of girl... You know... crafty, likes cooking, a little wird for what comes to social behaviour... I do understand and feel sympathy for Bree's character. Well. Susan is Ok though. It was a funny test to take anyway.

I did it!

The top is finished... on time! even thirty five minutes in advance!

More pictures later on! I have to rest a little bit!

Later edited to add:

Wahou!

Today was like a marathon, I thought I wouldn't make it, but then I did it! I DID IT!

Well, the result is not really up to my expectations, I will certainly need to lose 20 pounds to feel comfortable in it, but still, I did it, I imagined, conceived, and crocheted a short sleeved sweater in seven days (if I don't count the time spent frogging).

at 9:35 AM I was still thinking I was going for short sleeves, but a feww pictures persuaded me overwise.

And then I discovered the sweater could be worn in two ways! So I decided the trim for the collar would be a wider collar = the alternate body.

I crocheted the two sleeves at the same time, row after row, so that should I run short of time they would be the same length.

I started decreasing rows when I thought I reached the elbow, saddly it was too late, so the sleeves have a kind of puffy look that wasn't meant to exist in the first place. No time to fix it.


I hesitated until the last minute to trim them with two or more single crochet rows in the cherry (purple) yarn. I was afraid I wouldn't have time OR yarn... There was so few left of it. I eventually abandonned this idea.

At 4:23 PM the sleeves were ready.

At 7:25 PM I gave the last scissor cut : the collar was done. All was finished!

I hurriedly took poor pictures to be e-sent to jinglelady, which was done by 7:44 PM.

I crocheted almost 10 hours straight!

10 HOURS! Read more »

Crochet fur?

Did you know this was possible?
I had no idea... but it makes perfect sense as it's the same principle as for crocheted fabric.
Some of those models look good but that must be really expensive... and so much work just to get the ball of "yarn" done in the first place. I mean, hide is not like fabric... it's thick and hard to cut. Besides, if you cut into fur you certainly don't want to cut the hairs and end up with a mess.

I think I'll stick to fabric.

Not that I am unconfortable with fur, I'm not a vegetarian, I eat meat, fish and eggs, I wear leather shoes, I have a sheepskin rug, I like to crochet wool and silk, and I see no wrong in wearing dead animals' skins as long as someone (be it me) ate the flesh of it...
I do desapprove of hunting animals only for their skin or ivory and then leave the flesh to rot. No... it's just that I tend to be frugal, and fabric or worn out clothes are a more reasonable choice.

Bead Crochet... Hook

In an attempt to quench my desire for better looking crochet hooks, I decorated the ones I had with color wood beads...

I must admit the result is really satisfying... If I may say so myself.

The next step will be buying a breathtakingly beautiful and smoothGraydog hook amourously made out of precious woods...

I might present myself with one for my upcoming birthday...

2006 Olympics

I'm a dual-lete!
I'm both competing in the crochet olympics and the knitting ones... I do feel a little out of my mind, like Vera, for even thinking of it.

Hey, who knows, I might win!

I'm trying to set up a French team... by the way, does anyboy knows what a team is for and how it works...

edited to add

February 12th 2006

I only knitted 4 rows so far. It's really uneasy to jump back into knitting after such a long time witout handeling needles.

I'm having a hell of a time just reading the instructions...
Who said crochet was difficult?

February 14th 2006

I know why I haven't done well lately and my crochet project has been stagnating: I don't like it. Not elegant enough, not impressive enough, not olympicenough.

I'd rather crochet a dress. A lacy dress would be the perfect olympic item. But I don't know which one to choose.



I've been working on an old pattern to make a dress out of spiraling hexagons. I'm using a variagated yarn I did myself previously and a size Bcrochet hook. I must reckon I don't like the result... at all. And it's so slow, I've been working on it for 2 days and i haven't finished a sole hexagon yet. I think it's not gonna work...

February 15th 2006

I finally chose a satisfying pattern.
It's from Elena maille pour elle Crochet n°6 (Spring 2001).

This dress caught my eyes when I was fishing for something to get married in(as I say, I get married as soon as the dress is done) I think it's perfect for the olympics.

I have yet to find the yarn. "THE" yarn. I thought maybe I could unravel a few silk ribbons and then crochet them together so that I would have both the silky look of ribbon and the thin size of thread. I might try that...

February 16th 2006

The whole unravell and crochet thing was a bad idea. VERY bad. A perfect loss of time and effort, I might even have to frow away the ribbon too. I feel so frustrated. Tant pis.



I'm going to use Bouton d'or "FLASH" ribbon after all, and a size E hook.

Friday, February 17th 2006

Let's go!!!!
Tonight I'm on holiday... but so is my daughter so I won't have more time to crochet and I haven't been very efficient lately. Bad.

I'm not going to follow the pattern (how surprising... oh! wait... I never follow patterns! doh!) that would require sewing, so i'm going to crochet in round and write down the patern as i go. I already started to do so in the train this evening...

I've only crocheted two rows of flowers (= 4 rows in fact) and one yarn ball is already gone. Oh my! this is going to be my most expensive stuff!

February 19th 2006

Still crocheting in rounds. Made a few increase to avoid a tube-like effect. I also found a way to create the sleeves... or at least the opening for the sleeves-to-be.

It's coming up quite nicely if I can say so myself.
I'm quite happy with it.

Something that bothered me : I found a knot in my brand new, never used bouton d'or flash "lucifer" (that would be "the devil") yarn ball! Grrr! Expensiveas it is, don't you think they could've spared us the knots?

Monday, February 20th 2006

I've been making increases by shifting crochet hook sizes. The result is jus hideous!

What was I thinking! What started as a lacy pattern has turned into shere unbecoming gaps.

I'll have to undo the whole thing and stick to E.

February 21st 2006

OK.

It's coming along.

I try to keep the pace. Trying to figure out the increases so that my boobs would fit in.

February 22nd 2006

Ugly.

The top of my dress is ugly, from the boat neckline to the shaping , I hate
it! It makes my look like a fat milk cow.

Unbecoming.

Unsexy.

I know my breasts aren't tiny, but now they just look huge.

It would be nicer with a v-neck, but I would have to undo the whole thing... again!

Maybe I should just finish it as it is for the olympics and then unravell the whole stuff after the games.... I'm frustrated beyond words.

February 23rd 2006

I did it.

This morning, I unravelled three days worth of crochet. I'm not gonna have time to make a dress, less a long-sleeved one. I'm going for a top.

As for the knitting ... well. Forget it.

Only three days left. Oh my!

February 24th 2006

I didn't do much today : lacking the energy, lacking incentive, lacking the urge, still keeping faith though...

I learned my lesson:

• you must make a gauge, had I made one, I would have noticed how awkward the pattern was when crocheted with bigger hooks,
  I would have known some yarns weren't suitable for it,


• training isn't unnecessary, especially if you haven't knitted in decades,


• when you have a deadline, just don't waste time with ifs and whatnots, go straight to the point.

February 25th 2006

I finished the body of the top today, I modified the last row slightly to make the flowers stand out and to avoid having to make a more time-consuming trim.
Now I have the sleeves left to do (short sleeves I believe) and the trim for the collar.
If I allow myself some sleep tonight, I will have 10 hours left to complete my project... Still doable.

Tricotin : French knitting loom

I made myself a knitting loom, to knit without needles... I used the upper part of a plastic honey pot.
I find it quite a bore to use though...
I had to find the right tension for the loops to slide up easily... I use a tiny crochet hook to do that... noticed the beads? They give it a nice accent don't they?

More pictures: