Making progress

This week I've been trying to finish up a few of the WIPs that are stacked on my couch. I've been working steadily on the Tunisian Shells and Columns baby blanket, and a Tunisian Feather & Fan baby blanket. The F&F is white fingering weight and will go to the church Shawl Ministry for a christening blanket. I started this so long ago (in crochet time) that I had forgotten how to do the fancy stitch pattern and had to pull out the pattern. Then I kept messing up and coming up with funky stitch counts. On Sunday I probably ripped out as many rows as I put in for several hours, then finally got it together and made progress. I took this project to the Shawl Ministry last night and finished several more rows. It will be finished soon!

Since swatching the sock yarns, I'm tempted to crochet a pair of socks, but I better finish up some other projects first. I've driving to NC tomorrow, so I'm stocking my crochet bag for a vacation. I probably won't get a lot of time to crochet, but I need to have something on hand in case my fingers get the itch. Also, my niece emailed and asked if I'd help her with some pattern adjustments in her crochet project.

Swatching non-wool sock yarns

Kertzer's On Your Toes Bamboo
Content: 75% bamboo, 25% nylon
Care: Machine wash and dry
Origin: Made in Turkey
Put Up: 100 grams/3.5 ounces
Yardage: 328 yards/300 meters
WPI: 15
Needle/Hook recommendation: 3mm/US 3, no crochet hook recommendation
Cost: $12.60 at LYS

My colorway is a beige/blue. The yarn is super soft!




Bernat Sox
Content: 60% acrylic, 40% nylon
Care: machine wash and dry
Origin: Made in Turkey, Packaged in Canada
Put Up: 100 grams/3.5 ounces
Yardage: 425 yards/388 meters
WPI: 14
Needle/Hook recommendation: 3.25mm/US 3, D crochet hook
Cost: $6.35 at AC Moore

The colorway that I selected is "Hippi Hot" a medium blue/aqua/lime/pink. It's not quite as soft, either in surface texture or "squishiness".




Cascade Fixation
Content: 98.3% cotton, 1.7% elastic
Care: cold wash, dry flat
Origin: Made in Brazil
Put Up: 50 grams
Yardage: 186 yards (spandex) /100 yards (relaxed)
WPI: 11 relaxed
Needle/Hook recommendation: 4.5 US 7/ Label says 1.75, which is a steel 6. That's not right. I'd say a 2.75, C or a 3 D would be best.
Cost:

I bought a minty-green, and then a variegated with green, pink, purple and white. Think Easter and spring time!
This yarn is thicker than the others, but it has super stretch. The trick is not stretching too much when crocheting, therefore leaving that nice stretch to help the socks hug your feet and legs.



I think that the On Your Toes bamboo feels the best and would be soft and the most comfortable for wearing, but I'd have to vote for the Cascade Fixation for it's great stretch and would stay up the best.

I had an interesting weekend involving crochet. I spent a lot of the time working on swatches of various fibers. On Saturday our CGOA Chapter had a planning meeting, followed by an outing to a local yarn shop, and then lunch at Panera Bread. What a great time with friends, fiber and food!

The yarn Shop was Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown. This was only my second time in this LYS, the first was following the last planning meeting. The shop is small, but well organized and stuffed with beautiful fibers, beautiful samples, patterns and books. At the first outing I purchased 5 skeins of Second Time Cotton, to make another Short and Sweet Bolero (pattern by Angela Best). This time I needed a nice sock weight yarn, no wool! That's a little difficult, but the shop owner suggested this lovely bamboo - Kertzer's On Your Toes, which is 75% bamboo, 25% nylon. The skein is a generous 328 yards. After I finish my swatches, I may swatch a sock pattern, or maybe try it on a super small Tunisian hook. I think that I have a cabled G hook, that might be the beginning of the Tunisian/crohook swatching.

While swatching yesterday, I dropped my hook down beside the seat cushion of the LazyBoy. When it finally dropped out onto the floor, it looked like this:

Luckily, I keep at least two of every size hook (except the G7), so I was able to complete my swatch.
Today I'm finishing the last of this specific swatching project.

"too sweet"

Here's the cutest crochet item that I've seen this week - a pair of slippers with cupcake toes! How creative...make mine chocolate, please.

The pattern is available on Ravelry.
Other fun things that I saw on Ravelry this morning - green fairy wings and purple angel wings. It sounds like people are thinking about Halloween costumes. I wonder what other fun things I can find?

And isn't this post about as opposite as you can get from the last post about a technique to weave thread from spiders?

And to go with the discussion about Halloween and spiders, here's a spiderweb doily that I did a few years ago.