Jinglelady's Crochet

Thong-along

On a lark, I joined a thong-along on a forum I belong too. It was a lark and I used crappy arcylic yarn from the deep recesses of my stash - no, this isn't going to be worn. However, it proved to be an interesting experiment and I might make one out of much better yarn later. :~)

Tunisian In the Round?

I've been thinking about socks a lot lately. All the ladies in my knitting and crochet podcasts are talking about knitting socks and it sounds like so much fun. I want to make myself a pair too. And while I've started to teach myself to knit, I'm not making much headway - I'm having too much fun crocheting myself tops. And there's no way I'll get good enough with knitting in order to use sock yarn with itty bitty dpns or circs anytime soon. Also, I have to say that so far, I haven't liked the look of any crochet socks I've seen photos of (I haven't seen any in person).

Which leads me to Tunisian crochet. Tunisian is more similar to knitting and it creates a nice dense fabric - not so many of the holes in Tunisian. And at the DFW 1st Annual Fiber Fest, there was a class in doing Tunisian in the round. Unfortunately it was Friday afternoon and I had to work. So this got me to thinking last night - why couldn't you use Tunisian in the round to create crocheted socks? While neither my knitting or Tunisian crochet skills are up to snuff, I'm a LOT more confident in my ability to quickly master a new crochet skill than I am in quickly learning how to knit on itty bitty dpns! Especially since most of the world seems to think it's impossible to knit left handed - I actually had a Michael's teacher tell me that! I know it's not - I'm doing it. Just very very slowly.

Anyway - I spent a good hour or so (um, in bits and pieces between work things) today searching the internet for patterns or instructions on doing Tunisian in the round - nada. I guess I need to drag out the Fiber Fest catalog and see if I can track down the teacher who taught that class. In the meantime - does anybody know where I can find instructions on this?

Update: Thanks for the good tips! I also got a tip to use the tunisiancrochet yahoo group as a resource. Now I just need to see about trying this out and seeing if I can get something working.

One Skein Package for June Arrived!

My One Skein Pal sent me this luscious teal cotton yarn. I love the color (um, can you tell - it's practically the same color as my Olympic Sweater)!

Thank you so much Pal!! I've wound it up into a ball. Not sure what I'm going to make with it, but something will come to me. :)

Olympic Sweater - Finished!

Yes - it is finished! I even finished it in time for the family reunion on the Sunday of Memorial Weekend, and in fact, this photo was taken directly before we arrived. Woo hoo! :) If you look closely, you can see trailing yarn ends. I finished the sweater by firelight the night before and while I managed to weave in about a third of the ends in that morning, I just couldn't finish all of them before the family reunion.

Specifications:

Pattern: From a German crochet magazine, photo'd here
Yarn: Mondial Solare Filo Di Scozia (100% mercandized Egyptian cotton), about 13 balls
Hook: 4.25mm, Boye G
Modifications: I didn't do the motifs in the neckline and I also didn't make the neckline as wide as the pattern suggested - I didn't want it falling off my shoulders. Also, while my gauge seemed to be on target, I actually made the smallest size of the pattern and ended up with a garment that is probably close to the largest size.

I wore it to work last week and received compliments all around. One co-worker exclaimed that it looked so good, it could be store bought! Um, thanks? I know it was a compliment, but I have to (conceitedly) hope that it's much better than 3rd world mass produced crochet items you buy at Target or Walmart.

Things I would do differently? I'd add in increases for the bust area and make it about an inch longer. However, since I'm losing weight (in fact, I've lost ~12lbs since starting this sweater!), those issues with the sweater will go away soon. I hope. I've also read recently on someone's blog that cotton stretchs as you wear it. Any thoughts about that?

Things I learned: A lot. Crocheting a sweater isn't hard. You just have to stick to it. I thought the sleeves were going to be super long (like to the middle of my hand) and they weren't. I also thought it was going to be too big around and it wasn't. Things "shrink" when you put them together!

I'm so happy with the success of my first garment that I'm already starting on my second and third one! I've got a tank top for myself already started and I've done swatches for a top for Mom. I'm loving the thought of making my own tops.