Big Bow Cardigan Finished!
I need to take a picture, but I am officially finished with my Big Bow Cardigan. What makes it official? I wore it to work today. I know it’s a high of 76 today in Seattle and no one should be wearing any kind of wool today, but I wanted to show it off.
I am still working on the Snow Drop Scarf. I kind of stopped because I wanted to make a pair of socks for my husband, but the pattern I chose to start from is just way too hard! I found one pattern that I will try. I believe I have enough yarn to make it work.
I am also working on a rectangle sparkly shawl for my mom. I’m hoping to have it done by her birthday in October or at least by Christmas from Crochet World magazine. I’m not liking the yarn much. There’s a silver thread interwoven that tends to pull and bunch around the cotton thread. Hopefully it will finish up nicely.
Big Bow Cardigan & Snow Drops Scarf
I finished the crochet portion of the Big Bow Cardigan the other night and am now waiting for it to dry before piecing it together and adding the buttons. I know this one has taken me forever! I got bored with all the single crochets once I got over the initial hurdles of where the stitches were supposed to go. I’m just glad the designer was open to questions on Ravelry!
Anyway, while looking for a project I could start with material already at hand, I flipped through the magazine one more time and came across the Snow Drops Scarf. It is quite pretty and I am enjoying working in filet for the first time. However, I am not happy with the yarn I am using. I forget right now what brand it is, so I will update later tonight when I have the tag in front of me. It bought it fairly cheap at Wal-Mart because I loved the color and how soft it feels. However, after working a few rows, I came across yarn that had begun to unravel or uncoil. Hard to explain but basically the yarn had puffed up to twice it’s normal diameter making it useless. I had to snip that off at both ends and kept going. I thought well this must be an anomaly, I’ll keep going. Well, I’m into my third pattern repitition now and I’ve had to snip several inches maybe now as much as a foot and a half of this fat yarn. I am quite annoyed!
On the other hand, the pattern is actually quite fun to follow, props go to Doris Chan the designer. Its not insultingly easy (at least not to me!) but neither did I feel I needed extra help to understand. My problems stemmed from not re-reading the instructions at the beginning regard the right side and wrong side and losing my place. My husband’s iPod Touch has a great program called Stitch Minder which really helps to keep you from losing your place. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a similar widget for the Mac or for my PC for that matter. This makes it difficult when I want to crochet and he wants to use the iPod at the same time. In any case, if you happen to own an iPhone or Touch, I would recommend downloading this free app. It has saved me several times with the Big Bow Cardigan and the Dr. Who scarf.
I will post pictures as soon as I’m done with both projects!
WIP: Big Bow Cardigan
I have been working on the Big Bow Cardigan by Julia Vaconsin from Interweave Crochet’s Winter issue for the past couple of weeks. I keep getting hung up with each new set of instructions. My biggest problem I find is that I have trouble seeing things spatially. I don’t know how the garment is supposed to fit together. Every time I arrive at a new set of instructions, I am lost all over again. I read, and re-read then attempt, frog and read again the instructions. I am very grateful that I have a co-worker who crochets and for the Crochetville forums. They have been so helpful in explaining the pattern to me in a different way so I actually understand! I am working on the back right now and it looks like I only have the left sleeve and the scarf that forms the bow left to do. Hopefully today I can get some advice as to how to move on from here because I am stuck yet again.
