Ruby's Crafty Diary

Well I’ve finished crocheting my first shawl. In my previous post I was hoping to have it finished by the weekend. Well, I finished it on Wednesday evening. Spent yesterday blocking it and adding the tassels.

The pattern came from Issue 4 of The Art of Crochet. They used a designer yarn, as in the majority of the patterns in the part work. The original pattern was done in Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK. At £4 for a 50g ball it’s a bit out of my price range for this particular project. I decided to look for a substitute yarn and whilst in my local Hobbycraft, I found some Sirdar Juicy DK. Better still, it was half price

I picked a nice pale blue colour called Foam. It’s a lovely soft yarn, 80% bamboo and 20% cotton, just right for a summer project. The only thing I did find was that the yarn was extremely splitty.

Here’s a photo I took, it’s a little bit blurry as I was trying to focus on the yarn on the hook, but I think you can see what I mean.

The pattern itself is fairly easy once you get into the rhythm. It’s a triangular shawl featuring an open weave pattern with diamonds. It does take some concentration to work the diamonds as you increase. I did have to unravel it a few times as I missed the spots to place the diamonds. Here’s a piccie of the shawl taken at the beginning of the month as a WIP (work in progress)

Here you can see a close up of the pattern detail.

So 3 weeks and 10 1/2 balls later here is the final finished project modeled by yours truly.

Perfect as a cover up for those cooler summer nights.

So what’s my next project??? Well, I’ve already made a start on it. I’m just waiting for the rest of the wool to turn up from the US. Should be here sometime today as yesterday I paid the custom charges.

Wanna know more? OK. This is it.

It’s a lovely rug made in a pom pom style yarn. When I showed it to my daughter LJ, she fell in love with it. So I’m making it for her to brighten up her room for when she starts Uni.

Today I thought I’d show you my small pile of squares that I’ve crocheted to make the vintage style throw. I managed to get some decent piccies out of the camera yesterday, a bit of sun makes all the difference.

There’s going to be 120 squares in total and so far I think I’ve done 9. I’ve got 8 new ones left to do now as I had another delivery of my part works last week. I get 4 sent to me every 4 weeks but I’m a little bit behind. Mind you, they don’t take too long to do, and it’s nice to have them as a little break from my current project.

So I’ll post about them in 4s, I think. Here then are the first 4 squares for your perusal.

The yarn used is just an ordinary 100% acrylic wool, nothing fancy. You get a 25g ball for every square in with each issue and a free 4mm hook with part one.

Square 1 is a simple textured square. It’s worked in Redcurrant alternating double crochet (dc) and treble crochet (tr) stitch every other row with the alternate row worked in double crochet (dc).

Square 2 was a right PITA. I pulled it out sooo many times. It’s a scallop lace square, worked in Clover Pink. It’s alternating rows of ‘V’ stitches and shells.

Considering this is meant for beginners, it’s not an easy square to master. I would’ve thought they might have left it till you were a bit more used to handling a hook and yarn. Still I did persevere with it and I finally sussed it out.

Square 3 is a traditional Granny Square. Worked in Sailor Blue, and some left over Clover Pink and Redcurrant from the previous two squares.

As you can see I did have a slight problem with the tension. This is apparently quite common for beginners. It’s possible I may redo this square at a later date. Mind you, as you’ve probably gathered by the pictures, none of the squares have been blocked yet. It may look better after blocking.

Finally, onto square 4. A treble square with a cross stitch diamond. This is worked in Vanilla, with the large cross-stitch diamond in some left over Clover Pink.

A simple square worked in treble stitch (tr). I did find it a bit awkward working cross stitch over the crochet. Had to pull it out a couple of times as the crosses didn’t look ‘square’. It’s not quite the the same as working over evenweave or aida fabric, as the stitches tend to slant. Worked it out in the end though

I’m quite pleased with them considering they were my first attempts at crochet. Right, off to do some more on my shawl. I’m getting towards the end of it now. Just need to complete the final diamond pattern (3 rows left), then work the top edging and finally do the tassels. I may have it complete by the weekend. Ooooooh, can’t wait.

I was going to talk about the vintage style throw that I’m making but I’m having problems taking some decent pictures of the squares. I really could do with a new camera and the camera on my Blackberry phone is a little bit hit and miss at the moment. Maybe it’s me, I’m starting to get a bit of a plonker using some gadgets, must be something to do with my age …. )

Instead, I’d thought I’d share my first proper crochet garment. It’s a shrug that I finished about a couple of months ago.  The pattern was in The Art of Crochet using Louisa Harding Grace. This is a luxury yarn of 50% silk and 50% merino wool, but at around £5.95 for a 50g ball it’s a little bit pricey   In fact, most of the patterns in the part work use the more luxury, designer yarn like Debbie Bliss, Sublime and Rowan. So, I went through my stash and found some really nice 100% cotton DK yarn.

As you can see, it has a shiny strand running through it, which gives the yarn a bit of a sheen to it.

Here is the finished item

It’s worked in one piece in a large shell pattern that forms a pretty, undulating lower edge. Here’s a close up of the stitch pattern.

I’m really quite proud of it seeing as I’ve only been crocheting since Feb/March. The only problem I had was with the tension. Using a substitute yarn meant I should have double checked the tension and changed to a different hook size. I used a regular 4mm hook but halfway through I realized that maybe I should have used a 4.5mm. I didn’t fancy the idea of unpicking it. Consequently it came out a little bit on the small side for me, but perfect for my 18 year-old daughter who’s a size 8. In fact, her eyes lit up when I mentioned it was turning out a tad too small for me. I’m going to have to watch that

We’ve actually come to some sort of arrangement. I make every third project for her, but I’m half expecting a long list to be thrust at me once she starts Uni. In fact, the next project is a rug to brighten up her room and make it feel a bit more like home.