January 2016 in Review

At the end of last year, my sewing had more or less stalled out. Luckily, my sewjo returned in January! I finished one Aberdeen Tunic, two Akita blouses and two crocheted scarves. More detailed blog posts will be forthcoming as soon as I carve some writing time out of my sewing time. For the last few weeks, I have been plugging away at my #seamqgbom medallion quilt and have prioritized sewing over writing blog posts. I only have one more border until the top is finished! Looking forward to making more things in February.

Seven More Triple Luxe Cowls!

Yes, you read that right. I’ve crocheted seven more Triple Luxe Cowls. Only one was for me! The others were Christmas gifts. Here’s a quick rundown of the latest seven I made:

Basic Black

Come winter, I wear a scarf all day long, pretty much every day. (My office is usually too cold for my liking.) While I love and wear the two previous scarves I crocheted for myself, I still found myself reaching for my tired old jersey infinity scarf several times a week. Why? It’s black, and black goes with everything. I knew I needed to crochet myself a black scarf, even though it’s not a fun or exciting color. Then, I stumbled across a cute local yarn store: All Wound Up. It was full of lovely, colorful yarn. However, inspired by my previous Wardrobe Architect efforts, I stuck to my resolution to make a black scarf and picked up some nice, sensible Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn in Cast Iron. They even caked it for me, which was nice. Even though it’s a bulky (5) yarn, it did not have as much body as the Lion Brand Woolspun yarn. I had to crochet 18 rows to make it as wide as my blue scarf. It was a little boring to work on, but as expected, I wear it often.

Fancy Black

My grandma is pretty glam for an octogenarian, so I knew her yarn had to be special. At Michael’s, I found this super bulky (6) Isaac Mizrahi CRAFT Carlyle Yarn that was black with gold highlights. I managed fifteen rows for this one, and then ran out of yarn. It’s super soft. Sadly, I thought I had taken pictures of it before I sent it off, but apparently I did not.

Avocado, Aquamarine, Periwinkle, Purple, and City Lights Mix

For the other five, I used the Lion Brand Woolspun yarn called for in the pattern. The various colors I chose were Avocado, Aquamarine, Periwinkle, Purple, and City Lights Mix. It’s a nice, reliable yarn and I had a lot of fun crocheting all the different colors, according to the recipients’ tastes. The City Lights Mix skeins are smaller than the solid skeins, so I did a bit of crochet math and figured out that if I chained stitched 110 instead of 120, I would have enough yarn for sixteen rows. It worked like a charm! I might do that again and any subsequent cowls, because both the Avocado and Periwinkle ones ended up at fifteen rows, because I ran out of yarn.

I still love this pattern, even after making it nine times so far. Even so, now that the Christmas giving season is over, I’m going to try my hand at a new pattern or two.

Violet La Rue Mini Ribbed Cowl

Back when I crocheted in college and shortly after, I only knew of two sources of yarn: large craft store chains and small local yarn stores. Now that I’ve rediscovered crochet a decade later, I realize that there are also a wide variety of online sources as well, from independent shops, Etsy sellers and more.

I discovered Citizens of Textile because I follow Heather of House of a la Mode on Instagram. I like her quilting, but I love the photos of indie dyed yarn she shares. She runs Citizens of Textile, which is the online equivalent of a pop-up shop. You can only buy the artists’ products the first weekend of the month. I was drawn to the indie yarn, but there are also completed knitting items, unique bags and pillows, and sometimes even a quilt or two. I really like the model because it allows a variety of makers to create lovely things throughout the month and sell them without having to maintain an online store day to day. As someone who hates going to the post office, this is an idea I can really get behind.

Because of its pop-store nature, buying from Citizens of Textile is quite the experience. The store opens at 5pm the first Friday of the month, and if you see something you like, you better buy it immediately! Apparently, “cartjacking” is a thing, so if you don’t move quickly enough, someone else will buy it out from underneath you. It’s quite nerve-wracking, but worth it. Heather’s hand dyed yarns are lovely.

My first purchase from Citizens of Textiles included three skeins of Violet La Rue in Bangin’ Bulky single ply, which is a Merino wool/Nylon blend. I bought three because I intended to make a Triple Luxe Cowl with it, and I had used three skeins of Lion Brand Woolspun for that. Because I’m still learning about the world of yarn, I didn’t read the fine print and was surprised that each skein contained only 76 yards. So, no full sized Triple Luxe Cowl. I tried to make a small Triple Luxe Cowl, but the yarn wasn’t a good fit with the pattern.

In the end, I made a mini Ribbed Cowl using Purl Soho’s Crocheted Rib Cowl pattern. With the bulky yarn, it was super quick! While I was making this cowl, my plan was to give it as a gift. When I wore it to take pictures, I almost changed my mind! I loved how warm and squishy it was. Ultimately, I gave it away to a knitter friend who appreciated it. One day, I hope to make a Ribbed Cowl to keep for myself.

Mommy and Me Triple Luxe Cowls

Behold, my favorite crochet pattern to date! After finishing my Scarfie, I surfed the web until I found the Triple Luxe Cowl from All About Ami. It’s free, and calls for bulky Lion Brand Woolspun yarn, which is readily available at my local Michael’s. One of the things that initially drew me to this pattern was that Stephanie describes the pattern in simple, everyday language with lots of pictures before giving you the traditional “coded” pattern. Since reading crochet patterns is still a challenge for me, I found the explanations and pictures super helpful. I think part of my previous problems with crochet stemmed from the fact that my instinct is to stitch in the third loop, and without pictures, I didn’t notice that I was doing it wrong. For this pattern, you’re supposed to stitch in the third loop, so no issues there.

For the blue Triple Luxe Cowl, I read through the everyday language directions and set to work. I was so into it that I forgot to make the seam and crocheted the whole thing in one continuous round. I don’t think the jagged top is all that noticeable in the end. For this cowl, I used Lion Brand Woolspun in Royal Blue. It’s very snuggly and warm and I really enjoy wearing it.

While I was working on the blue cowl, my daughter requested one for herself. After some debate, we settled on pink. I wanted to use something a little softer than Woolspun for my daughter’s cowl, since she is so particular about what she wears. I returned to my trusty local Michael’s store and picked up two skeins of Loops & Threads Charisma yarn in Think Pink. While it is indeed softer, the stitch definition isn’t as good, so I prefer Woolspun for this pattern.

To make a child-sized cowl, I chained 90 instead of 120 at the beginning, and stitched 12 rows instead of 16. This time, I remembered the seam. Since I had already made the pattern once before, I was able to puzzle through the traditional pattern well enough. If I were to do it over again, I would make it even smaller, because this one has a tendency to slip off my daughter’s shoulders when she runs and plays. Nevertheless, my daughter loves her new cowl and wears it often.

I really enjoyed crocheting these Triple Luxe Cowls and have already started another one for myself. I am also now an avid follower of All About Ami and look forward to trying another one of her patterns someday. Her crocheted accessories seem distinctly modern to me. I consider myself a modern quilter, and I’d like to be a modern crocheter as well. However, I’ve had a hard time finding more modern crochet blogs to follow, and would welcome any suggestions you may have, dear readers. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy this pattern.

Rediscovering Crochet with a Scarfie Infinity Scarf

When I was a little girl, my grandma Dorothy taught me how to crochet. At her knee, I learned to chain stitch and single crochet. However, I never learned how to read crochet patterns. I’ve been told that it’s easy to learn the abbreviations, but I’ve yet to get over that hurdle. Over the years, I’ve tried my hand at a few projects. In college, I made a granny square scarf out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine. When I lived very close to a nice yarn store, I made scarves without a pattern by just stitching double crochet over and over again until I ran out of yarn. My crochet habit faded away when I moved and immersed myself in quilting. Nevertheless, each fall, when the leaves started to turn, I thought of Grandma Dorothy and wished I could read crochet patterns. One year, I tried to teach myself knitting, but it didn’t take. Even though I didn’t have the necessary skills, the yearning to create warm cozy things with yarn remained.

A couple weeks ago, I was at Joann’s Fabrics picking up some notions for a sewing project when my eye was drawn to an end cap display of Lion Brand Scarfie yarn. The packaging promised that one ball would make a scarf, and that the crochet pattern was included on the back of the label. Right then and there, I decided that this was the year I would learn to read crochet patterns, one project at a time. I picked up a K (6.5mm) hook and was all set to rediscover crochet. (For those wondering, one ball of this yarn is 312 yards, and the fiber content is 78% acrylic, 22% wool. This color is Denim/Navy.)

As luck would have it, the pattern on the back of the label wasn’t even one of those scary ones with the funny abbreviations! It’s in plain English (and Spanish and French) and directs you to stitch half double crochet until you run out of yarn. I used a video tutorial from Wool and the Gang to learn the required stitch and went to work. Immediately, I was reminded of why I love crochet and why I missed it so much. Crocheting is quite soothing and meditative. With a simple pattern like this, there is very little thinking required. At the end of the day, it feels incredibly good to sit down and rest my weary mind while my fingers are still creating something. Crochet is also very quick. I managed to finish this scarf in a week!

I realized after the fact that I made a couple of mistakes. I used the K (6.5mm) hook that was listed on the outside of the label instead of the J (6mm) hook that the pattern called for inside the label. I also worked all my stitches into the back loop instead of the front loop. Since I was consistent, nobody but myself or someone who had made the pattern before would notice the difference. Also, the end was wider than the beginning, so I’m not sure what happened there.

I prefer to wear infinity scarves so I researched how to seam crochet pieces and used a slip stitch seam to turn this plain scarf into an infinity scarf. The yarn is soft and machine washable, so I’m sure I’ll wear it often. I’m just as sure that I’ll be crocheting more in the future. As soon as I finished this scarf, I started on my next pattern, which is also in plain English. Watch this space!