#project: shawl 15

[journeyman-tier-fibercraft]

Cast on the most boring shawl project I've ever willingly put on the needles twice. The first one turned out so pretty I couldn't resist a larger version. (Ravelry Pattern)

The Original was knit pre this tumblr blog with two different flavours of the 150gram Lion Brand Mandala yarn, the lighter colour being a pastel rainbow and the darker colour was a saturated rainbow. This time I have two of the 300gram Mandala yarns, the lighter is Giant and the darker is Chimera.

I had to gut the Giant to get the colour order mostly similar, but other than that I'm not going to mess with it, if they get wildly off track of eachother I'll just live with it. Hoping since this is mostly mindless knitting (with the regular annoyance that is chevrons) I'll actually like. work on it.

[sugah--bee]

craftember day 6! time - I fell asleep and either hit my timer or didn't turn it off...

changed what project I was doing, since I really didn't want to keep weaving in ends, so now I'm just using one of my older caron cakes to make a sunburst purse

this was all I worked on lol probably a few hours? at least 6 I think, I was splitting working and cleaning

[clamorybus]

i haven't cried since saturday but a lot of little things have made me misty-eyed. like our birthdays are in a month and a half; ever since my parents moved out her and pa's house she gave us phone calls on our birthdays. and for the first time in my life i'm not gonna hear her voice on my birthday

[milkweedman]

Fiber Sale (need money for moving; also trying to destash) !! Only shipping to the US. All prices include shipping.

Would also really appreciate donations if you want to help support me but can't buy something for whatever reason.

Check the original post to see what's been sold and what hasn't (I will cross out sold items). First come first serve.

https://ko-fi.com/kolyenka

Prepared Fiber--all of this is prepared by me :) the following 4 are cheaper as I can ship them in normal envelopes

A: 0.14 oz, combed top. Blend of bfl, tencel, tussah silk, corriedale, merino. Very soft and shiny. $8.

B: 0.11 oz, combed top. Blend of tussah silk (black) and mohair locks (green). $8

C: 0.22 oz, combed top. Same blend as A, just a lot more of it and in different combos. Distinct gradient from one end to the other. $10

D: 0.4 oz, rolag (made on blending board). Tussah silk, mohair, and bfl. Very squishy and fine. $13

E: 0.29 oz. Rolag, wool and cotton blend. Even more stripes of color under the surface. $13

F: 0.51 oz. Rolag, wool blend with some Angelina. Purple underneath. $15

G: 4.75 ounces. Rolags (many many rolags). Blend of various wools; some fibers are not quite next to skin soft, but overall it's a soft blend. Mix of red, orange, white, purple, and black. $45

H: 1 ounce. Washed longwool fleece (breed unknown). Dyed by myself with onion skin. $10

I: 1.2 ounces. Southdown flax blend, predrafted from rolags. Could potentially make up to 6 ounces total of this. $18

FLEECE

J: 6 ounces. Washed jacob lambsfleece. Very soft for a jacob, large bits of vm (was able to get it out with hand cards). $20

K: 5.5 ounces. Hampshire with 2+ years growth, washed fleece. Definitely an odd fleece, not like your usual down breed. Has vm; washed it multiple times but still looks gross--I've found its almost impossible to get totally clean before it's yarn. Recommend combing, spinning, then washing. Nice and soft. $25

L: 7.5 ounces BFL cross. Very soft and with good luster. Some vm, was able to remove with hand cards. $25

M: 4.75 oz. Jacob x Border Leicester. Good luster, warm brown tips. Nicely soft. $20

SPINDLES:

1: thin spindle (7 inches long). Good for cobweb weight but can achieve thinner and thicker. Birch wood with woodburning. $80

2: thick spindle (7 inches long). Good for laceweight but can achieve thinner and thicker. Wood type unknown (some sort of fruit tree iirc). No woodburning due to lots of wormholes and spalting which provide their own visual interest (they don't cause problems spinning don't worry). $60

3: thick spindle (6.5 in long). Good for laceweight, can spin thicker and thinner. No clue on wood type. Woodburned on most of the surface, the rest has wormholes again. $90

BAGS

4: handblended handspun handknit drawstring project bag, 20 inch circumference. Cord is handspun flax. It's folded in half in the bigger picture. $90

5: handblended handspun handknit pouch. Don't remember the circumference but you can compare to the other bag. Body is entirely southdown babydoll wool. Handle is handspun icord. $75

HANDSPUN YARN

6: 4 oz, 325 yards. Hand blended and handspun. Alpaca, wool, silk, silk noil, angelina. 2 ply fingering weight. Very textured. $65

7: 5.75 oz, 572 yds. Merino and silk blend, 2 ply, dk weight. Blended for a triangle shawl, stripes get longer as you go. Very soft, shines very beautiful in the light. $115

Please DM if you're interested--first come first serve. I take payment via ko-fi.

[padawansuggest]

You know you into yarn when you have headcanons about what spindles characters would particularly like, what they prefer to do with the yarn, what type of wheel spinner they are, and who has 17 projects going on at once (Anakin) vs who’s gonna focus almost entirely on one project as they go through thought spindle spinning a fine yarn, plying and washing enough of it for a blanket, immediately sticking it on the loom, and weaving a particularly intricate pattern (Obi-Wan) vs who’s the ‘I add the knots of silk and locks so that I can live in the moment and let chunks come out when they need to’ (as if I even have to say it, it’s Qui-Gon)-

ANYWAYS. I actually love yarn and think that yarn craft should be more in fics but that’s sorta like how lots of chefs and bakers make a lot of foodie fics like it’s nice but. Everyone eats. Not enough people care about Scottish spindles. Obi-Wan has 7 Scottish spindles and like 8 Turkish ones so he can make a blanket’s worth of yarn in a single go without having to unwind them and ply right away. Qui-Gon likes supported spindles and a traditional wheel. Anakin designs and makes his own electric spinners, electric yarn counters, and electric cone winders. And then he knits Padme shawls. Qui-Gon crochets blankets and keeps leaving them in the creche or outside random apartments in the temple. Obi-Wan weaves. Anakin spent 5 hours learning how to dye fiber in Padme’s favorite colours, made an electric wool carder to make batts of them, spent a solid 15 hours spinning enough for a massive shawl in lace weight yarn for his wife, knit her one, and then went back to his ADHD project hopping.

I have ideas!!!!!!

[knottybliss]

It’s Saturday night and freefloating anxiety is welling up, what do we do, gang?

Driiiiiink!

NO! …well yes, but only as a wee side quest. We do THINGMAKE! Tonight’s thingmakery is twofold. First, yarn prep!

I got these two skeins of yarn on massive, massive sale not too long ago - Jaggerspun Green Line, 100% organic wool in Caramel and Twig. Normally $18/hank and I only paid $15 for both. WIN! (Am I bragging? I’m from New England. Of course I’m bragging.)

I’m getting increasingly confident in my knitting, and I think I’m going to try some kind of a thing with these on needles rather than my usual hooking. Which means that these need to become center pull balls. And also I need a pattern. Suggestions welcomed!

The other project is another skulls shawl in this silver wool yarn. It’s weighty yarn, meant to be a rug yarn, but it is surprisingly touchable. I think if, when I get it done, I hit it with some serious fabric softener and beat the crap out of it, it’ll actually be pretty nice.

If nothing else, I always love making this pattern. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

What are y’all working on?

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Comfi Cardi update & completed project! Went on a bit of a journey with this one, which I'll explain under the cut XD Before I get into that I thought it would be fun to share Naturally Perfect Grace (formerly Camryn) alongside one of my favorite Rainbow High makeovers, since they share a very similar color palette (I used the same crochet thread for the edging on the cardi and the main body of Coco's skirt).

The fibers used for the cardi are Elite Shawl Glitz (discontinued) from Ice Yarns; and Lizbeth Size 10 crochet thread in 122-Caribbean.

So. I started off following the Comfi Cardi tutorial using the yarn weight and hook size indicated to make a garment for American Girl dolls. What quickly became apparent was that this piece was going to be MUCH too large for the doll I intended to wear it. Although Naturally Perfect and American Girl dolls are both 18 inches tall, their body types are quite different. I was aware of this, but as I do not own and have never handled an AG I had no clear idea of just how great the difference was until I began this project.

Nevertheless I continued to work my way through the various sections, both to familiarize myself with the process and to create a visual aid to refer to on my next attempt. I stopped just short of the finishing stages (sewing the sides and adding the ribbing) for easier reference, though I did work a row of the ribbing stitch on one of the cuffs and sew down the side to try it on the doll and make sure I understood the directions before pulling it out again (no reason to leave the yarn attached and trailing about).

The other reason for finishing the main work on this piece is simply that I hope sometime in the near future to acquire an appropriately sized doll to wear it! If not AG then Our Generation or similar. At that point I can circle back and complete it.

Once I had worked through the pattern-as-given I had the guidelines I needed to start over and create a piece custom fit to my doll. I switched from a light(3) to a fine(2) weight yarn, and went down to a B-2mm hook. Checking against the doll as I went I ended up reducing the main granny square from 11 rounds to 9, then adjusted the front panel and sleeve lengths accordingly.

For the cuffs and edging, instead of ribbing I opted for something more in line with my personal aesthetic, and chose a couple of simple lace stitches that would adapt easily to this scale and allow me to incorporate some beadwork and a button. These beads were leftover from jewelry I made in the late 90s and have been knocking around my stash ever since; it was particularly satisfying to almost use them up on a piece intended for my tiny doppelganger XD I'll probably incorporate the few that remain into one of her necklaces.

And that's it! I'm looking forward to doing this again for my other Naturally Perfect girl, after I complete her skirt. For simplicity's sake I'm going to repeat the same layout with different yarn/beads/thread. After that I might try scaling it down even further for my 14 inch dolls, but knowing my tendency to get distracted I don't want to plan too much in advance.

Big thanks again to @joshybearhuggies for sharing such a clear, well-paced, easy to follow tutorial! Over the past 15 or so years I've gathered my crochet techniques from books, written patterns, and stitch diagrams, but video instruction is an area I haven't ventured into much. This project was such pleasant experience I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for similar content in the future.

[saltqueer]

THERES A MAX NUMBER OF TAGS YOU CAN HAVE (30)????? anyways shoutout to my at least seventeen children. but like. probably more than that but i RAN OUT OF TAGS TO LIST THEM so i broke my train of thought from pure surprise

I am excited to see the spread!

[creativeseal]

Two current works in progress - a handspun hapshawl and a pair of socks.

The socks were started on January 6, but have been mostly on hold while I started the shawl. The shawl was started on January 15. I am working with my fifth color/skein and have plans for 10, so maybe I’m about half done (one is still fiber and will need to be spun).

After these projects are done I will be done knitting all the spinning from July’s tour de fleece. I have so many older handspun skeins, and the ones from the advent to start next. For years I didn’t knit what I spun, so it’s nice to keep working with my recent handspun!

[sillyandsensibleheart]

Re-read this and thought it was a shame it never fit anywhere in chapter 15 or 16. I think it belongs on tumblr :)

When her tears were at last wrung dry some time later, Georgiana followed her brother quietly into his book room. Wrapping her shawl tightly around herself, she watched as he bent to stoke the coals to life in the hearth. He then turned to the small table and unstoppered a decanter, pouring two fingers of a dark amber liquid she did not recognize. He held out a glass to her silently. She regarded it for a long moment before gingerly accepting it. Passing it under her nose, she inhaled the scent of something akin to damp wood and cinnamon.

She put her lips to the glass and took a small sip. Instantly, her face crinkled as she reacted to the fire that heated a trail down her throat. As she tried in vain to suppress an audible cough, Fitzwilliam took a slow sip, closing his eyes as if to savor it.

When she was fairly certain that she would not cough again, she asked, “What is it?”

“A gift from Lord Alistair of Glenwood.”

She continued to frown at it until at last he said, “Whiskey.” 

Her eyebrows rose as she sniffed, then tentatively took another drink. The second taste was easier to master, but she still could not suppress her grimace.

“Do you like it?” he asked, as the corner of his lip lifted.

She took a third sip. “After a fashion,” she said, attempting to emulate Fitzwilliam’s stoic expression. 

He gave her an amused look as he gestured to the chairs before them. They settled side by side in the two wingback chairs by the fire—she in her nightgown and he in his dirty boots.

Georgiana found it an irresistible tonic for peace: the refracted light in her glass, the hearth before her, and her family beside her. She knew not how long they sat, but she felt the moment as an exhale from her very soul.

Sometime later, her brother’s deep voice broke her reverie. 

“You are not to blame, Georgie,” Fitzwilliam said, his voice low and slightly hoarse. His gaze remained fixed on the glass in his hand, as if the words he spoke were written in its depths. “It is not for you to carry this shame,” he said, the steadiness of his words undermined by the drawing together of his brows. 

She did not look at him, but could think of nothing to say. She felt herself nod slowly, then a sudden prickle of tears burned in her eyes and she shut them tightly. His hand rested gently on her arm. “All is well, and I . . .” He trailed off, then tried again. “I want only for you to be well, sister. To be happy.”

A silent tear slid down her cheek as she nodded. 

“That is all that has ever mattered to me,” he murmured into the dark.

For perhaps a quarter of an hour Georgiana sat with her thoughts, the warmth of the whiskey in her belly the perfect companion to her reflective mood. So deep was she in her own head that  she did not notice that her brother had risen until she felt a light kiss on the crown of her head. 

“Goodnight, Georgiana” he said, his voice sleep roughened, eyes now half-lidded. 

“Goodnight, Fitzwilliam,” she replied, smiling affectionately up at him.

Not long after he departed, the sleep that had eluded her for so many days began to descend upon her like a warm weight. Yet, unlike the previous nights, she did not fear the solitude of her thoughts.

Though her brother had left, Georgiana felt certain that she was not alone.

[sirotras]

2023 crochet round up!

i mentioned making a post like this a few days ago, and true to my nature, i waited until the last minute to get pictures

so here we are, in no particular order, various projects i finished in 2023

1.) this was technically crocheted last year (i think) but this year i finally assembled and lined it, making it finished! its not quite the size to be a purse, but its perfect for carrying my phone and keys while dog walking

i followed this pattern, and im really happy with the results!

2.) some little zipper bags. like the bag above, the purple one was crocheted last year, but i finally added the lining and zipper this year (i also used the same pattern as the above bag to make the purple one)

the grey one doesnt have a lining and zipper yet, but since the crochet is finished, it still makes the list

3.) little squares from this pattern, to have something to clip my stitch markers to, very helpful for travel

4.) a few of the chokers i made during the summer, there are a bunch more, but you get the idea, a couple were made based on this pattern

4.) this one was hard to get a good shot of, but it's a cat blanket i made for my sister's cats

the pattern was a free one i got from michael's in store, which doesnt seem to be on their site? however its a pretty simple pattern, im pretty sure you could find something nearly identical by searching "star baby blanket" or something like that

5.) for ages now i've been meaning to make something to keep my tablet pens in, because having them loose in my bag is begging for disaster

i actually had to make this little case twice, the first one was too long and the proportions looked weird, so it isnt pictured here

i hand finished all the seams for the lining, there was no practical need to do this

6.) pouch to carry headphones i got for my birthday

7.) pouch to carry Cool Rocks

the bottom of the bag comes from these doily patterns, and the ends of the ties are from this pattern

8.) a mini dice bag, made to hold a couple sets of mini dice my sister made for me!

9.) several cord ties made from this pattern, the flower was my own addition (only two ties are pictured because i didnt feel like tracking down the third)

10.) a flower vine to decorate my desk, no actually on my desk because i still need to sort out how i want to attach it

11.) speaking of flowers, ive probably made dozens of these little guys, they're very quick to make, and a good way to give my hands something to do while watching something

12.) little succulents from this pattern

13.) oops! another pouch to hold even more Cool Rocks

14.) while technically i still need to to line these bags, i still wanted to include them, i made them from this pattern, and im very excited for when theyre actually finished so i can use them

next we're getting into some shawls i made, and unfortunately i just dont have a good set up for getting pics of them

15.) this one was made by doing a little variation from this pattern

16.) this was made from the all shawl pattern by doris chan, its a really great pattern for beginner's, the first shawl i made was from that pattern!

17.) this was made from a variation on the same pattern i used for the cat blanket, i made a couple others from the same sort of pattern late last year, but i decided i needed one in black in october, because it looks just a bit like bat wings

18.) i made a cowl from this pattern, and i really love the texture of it! i also made one for my mom in a different color, which is not pictured here because i took these picture last minute

other things not pictured include: a dice bag for my sister, flowers for my mom, and a sack for the cats to curl up in (since they love making nests out of my projects)

[journeyman-tier-fibercraft]

Happy Wednesday! I actually did things this week!

Tamagotchi coasters 4/6. Incredibly tempted to call it here but I have plenty of yarn for the last two and I'm just being too tired to cast on. (plus being finished means I have to weave in the ends which I'm super too tired to do)

Doily 14 sees me on the VERY LAST lace row. Would be far more exciting if I didn't already do the math to see how many chains I would need for the crochet cast off (as the pattern is written, it would be 2.5 THOUSAND slip stitches. With 170 total chains between decreases). But I really need the needles it's on so I've been grinding away.

Shawl 15 is the reason I need those needles! She grows so fast. This pattern is exactly as boring as I remember it being, but I'm a lot better at reading my knitting than the last time I knit it so I don't have to fuss with the 20 stitch markers the pattern recommends. I'm already planning even more mods for the next time I give in and knit it again, namely I think it could look good with an icord edge, esp one that starts with a gap a la Stephen West's Shawl Smorgasboard.

[comfortabletextiles]

New knit project! My husband wished for an triangle shawl so he'll get one!

I only hat to restart like 15 times ..

Th

[recordofablerd]

Made a small mountain of chunky crochet shawls for my very queer family this year. I'm really proud of them: a year ago, asymmetrical wraps and scarves were waaaay intimidating but now, I’m a bit of a master at them!

I also tried a new way of drying that resulted in some very soft yarn: a 15 minute dry on low heat followed by a 20 minute air dry tumble. Let me tell you, this is the only way I'll be washing all my acrylic garments from now on. Probably helps that I used some Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner to help relax the yarn during the initial wash: it's a nice, scent-sensitive way to clean projects and isn't too much for me smell-wise.

All in all, the holiday is looking merry and bright: plus now, I can finally do projects solely for me!

[msbarrows]

Yeah, got behind because I wanted to include photos of my crochet and kept procrastinating on that, so have a verbose post of four days at once.

Aug 15 - finished the green and white cotton wool scarf! Overall pretty pleased with how it came out. It's a little weighty and has great drape, as cotton generally does.

Then I killed some time looking at various shell crochet based shawl patterns online, before settling on a simple one with a good video tutorial, Lacy Triangle Shawl by Hopeful Turns (damn but she's a fast crocheter).

For supper I got the pair of remaining moose hand pies out of the freezer, and reheated them in the air fryer. Served them with potatoes mashed with chopped green onions and smoked paprika, steamed butternut squash, and a couple of fresh garden tomatoes cut in quarters.

Aug 16 - More crochet, more Anno 1800. I'm half regretting going for such a fine yarn; thinnest one I've ever worked with, which is proving to be a PITA. But it'll look fantastic if I manage to complete it. Right now I'm just trying to start it; I keep making mistakes and having to frog back and try again.

Supper was mild Italian sausages with hashed potatoes and corn.

Aug 17 - slept in stupidly late after staying up until stupidly early. Disordered sleeping'r'us.

It was due to a combination of Anno 1800 and getting very focused on crochet once I went to bed; I'm finding that crocheting for a bit before trying to sleep usually helps my brain wind down. Anyway, I finally got the hang of the pattern of repeats for the lacy shell crochet and got a reasonable start on it:

After that I decided since I was still feeling too wired to sleep that I might as well frog the crochet vines (the scale of them really is completely wrong), drag out my yarn winder to rewind the variegated yarn from that into a cake, and then start on yet another scarf using the green yarn I'd been using for the leaves. Yup, I now have two projects on the go at once. Got the first few rows of it done before I finally felt tired enough to sleep, on the wrong aide of dawn. Brain, why do you do this to me?

Once I finally got up, showered, dressed, etc, I didn't really have time (or motivation) to cook anything else, so supper was pasta, with meat sauce from the freezer.

Aug 18 - Day started out with a nice long power outage, so what did I do? Crochet, of course! Overcast day so I stuck with working on the green scarf, which doesn't need me to work under a light to differentiate the loops from each other (also helps that it's all one colour). Made pretty decent progress on it, since the rather large yarn (having to use my biggest crochet hook with it) means it adds up fast. I'm working this one out of my head, not from a pattern. I think I'm going to aim for about three times as long as it is wide, if the wool lasts that far, as it's quite wide.

Not a big fan of the yarn. It's 100% acrylic (Red Heart stuff) and works up very stiff; even with netting parts I think the final scarf might be uncomfortably bulky and not have nice drape, though that may improve with size, as its own weight will affect that. I'm mostly thinking it'll go in a pile of stuff to eventually donate or give away or something, since there's only so many scarfs or shawls or whatever my mostly house-bound self needs.

I need to find a sizable project to work on that isn't either of those two types of items. Maybe buy a LOT of yarn and make something sweater-ish. I'm looking at the construction of a poncho-style ice dyed top I purchased recently and thinking it might lend itself really well to a crochet coverup to wear over other items; it's basically two same-sized rectangles, with a slight scoop at the middle of one long side for the neck opening, joined along that long seam, and then partially up each short side, but set in from the edge hems so there's a few inches of loose fabric beyond the side hems to be all flowy:

It looks like it should be very easy to make out of a couple crochet panels, I just have to figure out how to work the scoop. I'm thinking make the back panel first, from the top hem on down, then starting at the top edge of it again work the front panel directly off of it as well, so my starting chain is lost in the join except along the back of the neck opening. Then I just have to slip stitch the side hems and done.

Ended the day playing even more Anno 1800. I'm teetering back and forth between making and losing money, but am generally gaining more than I'm losing. Have gotten even further than last time (yay!) and have now hit a spot where I can see a hump looming that I need to get over or around, can see what the way past it probably is, and just have to work through some prerequisites to unlock some technology so that I can change from shipping a bunch of things long distance from other regions, to making them locally out of alternate (local) materials.

For supper I made corned beef hash. Yum.

[demonzoro]

11, 13, 15!

HI LEW !!!! waves at you frantically

11. What was the last color you used in your current WIP/most recent project?

my most recent WIP is pretty much a 5+1 about sanji, hunger, and the colour red, so red !!!!

13. Ctrl+f: silver/gold/bronze–did anything come up in your WIP and if so, share it?

gasp... not in my latest one... there's this other WIP i was revisiting about zoro being prone to seasickness when the crew first started (i.e. romance dawn era) ... i wrote him soooo pathetic

"Zoro managed to stumble out to the base of the crow’s nest without braining himself on anything when the ship lurched again, which was probably the highlight of his night so far. Making it up the rigging by the gold of the galley light and the silver of the moon, Zoro pulled himself onto the wooden platform, blanket wound atop his shoulder like a shawl."

15. What is your favorite detail to include while writing?

personifying inanimate objects my beloved............ i like treating the setting as another character :] one of the first compliments i ever got for my writing was about personification and the value of it has stuck with me ever since

*

ASKS FOR WRITERS!