Work in Progress

Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Yarn Preparation

by  on  in Work in Progress

Remember when I mentioned all the yarn samples from my yarn lady? Thing 84? Anyone?

Whatever.

Today was a Dutch weather day: bright sunshine, suddenly dark, thunder and lightning, torrential rain, and then sunny again. I sat upstairs by the window in my sewing room and watched the weather as I tackled a tedious chore: unravelling more of the yarn samples.

 

 

photo 1_98

 

photo 2_98

 

photo 3_79

 

 

This is Step One for several upcoming projects.

 

photo 4_64

 

The creamy one will become a sheep or a goat next week (anyone know a good free crocheted goat pattern??). The red and black is for a hat, as are the orangey-green variegated ones. The tangerine yarn is quite fine and would be good for a little amigurumi project. I might also use a bit of it to trim the orangey-green hat.

It’s good I have some more free Things in the pipeline.

 

 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Crocheted Horse

by  on  in Work in Progress

Martina had some school friends over a couple of months ago on an afternoon where I was crocheting some little animal or another. They squealed and oohed and ahhed and in a rash moment of insanity I promised them all an animal. Fortunately I made no timing promise other than to say it’ll be a while.

The girls browsed through my patterns like forever before they could decide. One finally chose a panda (the same one I promised Martina — the one that almost didn’t get made), another a goat, and the last chose a brown horse with a white mane.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got down to the task. I started with the horse, mostly because I couldn’t face making another panda and I can’t find a good goat pattern.

I’ve used the same pattern before, but now I have professional eyeballs to jazz it up.

 

photo_21

 

 

Hey (hay!), it’s a start.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Christmas ornament

by  on  in Work in Progress

Buried deep in my yarn basket is a good intention and a promise unfulfilled.

When a local craft store was going out of business last year I bought some sparkly red yarn. Esther asked me to make her a Christmas ornament and I enthusiastically agreed. We found a pattern for a 3D snowflake and I got to work.

But the thing is, I really dislike the pattern and I couldn’t tell you why. It requires 3 crocheted snowflakes and I pushed myself through two. And then I stopped.

 

photo_19

 

So this one missed Christmas 2013. I promised Esther to have it done by Christmas 2014. That will require crocheting one more snowflake and then assembling the whole mess. It’ll take less than two hours.

Given my current Thing budget situation you’d think I’d be all over this. It’s Free! And it’s a Thing!

But truthfully? I’ll just stuff it back in my yarn basket. And probably pull it out somewhere around December 23.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Wool Shawl

by  on  in Crochet, Work in Progress

Today I’m introducing a new category: Work in Progress. I’ve mentioned before that my yarn basket is home to many unfinished Things. Hopefully by throwing them in the public light I’ll be motivated to finish them. I may or may not publish progress reports.

I’ve been thinking about starting Work-in-Progress Wednesdays for awhile now, but was finally driven to it by today’s lack of a Thing. I had grand plans to whip up some more orange crowns for Saturday, because frankly, once Koningsdag is passed, I will have little use for bright orange acrylic until next year. However, I couldn’t for the life of me find my 5mm crochet hook. It is NOWHERE. And the bright orange acrylic is still gracing my coffee table in non-crown form.

So I needed something to post about. And quick. It’s beading night tonight.

Last year, when I was in my Japanese crochet pattern phase, I found a pretty shawl pattern. I tested a square with some blue wool, blocked it, and liked the result.

 

photo 1_79

 

In January of this year I picked up some super fine merino wool in black to get started on a full shawl. So far I’ve made nine squares. The pattern calls for 39, though as the wool I chose is much finer than the pattern suggestion I’ll probably need to make 60 to achieve the same size.

 

photo 3_67

 

I make one square every Saturday morning in the cafe at the pool while Esther has swimming lessons. I also try to bring it along to Martina’s violin lessons. If I can make two per week, I may finish this by winter. That’s a big if, though. I’ll keep you posted. Or not.

 

Cost of this project so far: €4.95 for one ball of wool. (I’ll get 10 or 11 from each ball, so this won’t be a cheap Thing by the time it’s done.)