friday’s knit & natter

What’s been happening since last Friday? Lots, as it turns out, including enjoying the quietude of a foggy Wednesday.

Unfortunately, it turned quite hot after the fog, so not much progress since. But enough to entertain, I hope. 😉

With several good suggestions last Friday (thank you all!) I spent last weekend trying them all out, as well as having a go with Wild Daffodil’s squirrel pattern.

trying out that squirrel pattern ~ click to go to Sandra’s far better example!

She’s put up lots more photos which I need to go back to as I got stuck about the 4th row. Am delighted that she has several other crocheters also working on squirrels, as I’m a real beginner with this sort of pattern.

scarf progress
First I checked my crochet book (amazon listing in US & UK) for treble and double treble stitches in case I needed to translate. Below are Righetti’s Crocheting in Plain English directions along with my samples.

treble crochet sample

double treble (US) treble treble (UK) from Righetti’s book

double treble (US) example

Had to try out Attic 24’s Woodland blanket pattern as well, so went to several other colours & yarns to give that a go. And decided it wouldn’t work for my scarf as I have those gorgeous autumnal colours too firmly in mind to settle for just mustard.

I also discovered that the dye lots are very different. This current huge ball seems to have only the faintest hint of purple, whereas the small leftover I was using last week is quite purpley. I think I’ll just use up the large ball. Good thing I discovered that now!

good ol’ double crochet (US) with super large hook

practising shell stitch

guess where I stopped counting… and frogged back to fix

practicing bit of attic 24’s woodland throw

fogged back & counting this time!

Working the treble stitch was not too cumbersome, and I did several rows to try to get used to the stitch, but a different thought kept coming to mind. More on that below.

Also did several rounds with a double treble and that really threw me “for a loop.” Too many loops – they kept falling off in the middle of every part of a stitch. Way too frustrating! Have put that aside for future, more limited use.

Then tried my idea: A large hook (K/10.5) and plain US double crochet (UK treble). The bigger hook was the thought that kept coming to me whilst I was doing the other trials.

So I’m taking the easy way – considering the heat – and haven’t looked back. As you can see, I should have. But I was good, froggied back and started counting consistently.

This weekend will continue almost to 80, so have little planned but staying cool. Reprieve comes nest next week – yeah!