Crochet!
College faculty, counsellors, and librarians may go on strike next week, which means picketing in brutally cold weather. I took stock of the knitted things I've made that I actually wear, and although there is enough of it to keep me warm, it isn't a pretty picture.
The woollens are lying atop my old but favourite coat, a Lands' End "squall parka", which I bought when I was at Johns Hopkins. It says something that my fondest memory of grad school there is that I could buy American goods without paying duty, but I digress. At the top, from left to right: my mismatched, first-attempt-at-fair-isle mittens, and candy-striped hat. At the bottom, left to right: simple ribbed armwarmers, Flower Basket Shawl, and an orangey orange cashmere neck tube. Note how the colours clash. Nothing matches. I'm thinking maybe I can knit a matching set when I'm on the picket line - I mean, I might as well make the best of a bad situation, and I made the fingerless arm warmers so that I could knit in the cold.
Canadian craft retailer Lewiscraft seems to be going under. All their stores are selling everything including the fixtures. By now, most of the good wool yarn is gone, but I got some nice cottons and fake mohair, plus some notions (crochet needle and split stitch markers - explained below). I don't stash yarn, and I have no idea what I'll make with this stuff, but the prices were too good to pass up.
Plus, I may needs lots and lots of yarn soon, as I've taught myself to crochet from instructions on various web sites.
I hope one day to be able to crochet stuff like the cute scarves by crafter Twinkie Chan, whom I read about in Giant Robot magazine.
I can see why my mom crochets so much. It's super easy to learn, much less complex than knitting I think (or it could just be that I learned knitting first). It's really, really fast, much faster than knitting. No wonder people who can knit and crochet prefer to do afghans in crochet. However, it uses up an astounding amount of yarn - 3 times more than knitting to cover the same area, I've heard - but still I was surprised at how fast the yarn disappeared. The fabric seems stiffer and heavier, but mind you, this is only single crochet. Now I know why garments tend to be knitted, and items that are desirable in sturdier fabric (e.g. household goods like wash cloths, pot holders, etc.) tend to be crocheted.
Anyway, I wanted to learn some basic crocheting to make toys. It's much easier to make things in the round that decrease quickly (i.e. spheres) in crochet, because you don't have to struggle with tight fabric squishing your needles together as in knitting. I made this cupcake in half the time it would've taken me to knit one, and I'm still a slow beginner!
However, for the same amount of yarn or more, the cupcake is much smaller than its knitted counterpart, and heavier too.
The woollens are lying atop my old but favourite coat, a Lands' End "squall parka", which I bought when I was at Johns Hopkins. It says something that my fondest memory of grad school there is that I could buy American goods without paying duty, but I digress. At the top, from left to right: my mismatched, first-attempt-at-fair-isle mittens, and candy-striped hat. At the bottom, left to right: simple ribbed armwarmers, Flower Basket Shawl, and an orangey orange cashmere neck tube. Note how the colours clash. Nothing matches. I'm thinking maybe I can knit a matching set when I'm on the picket line - I mean, I might as well make the best of a bad situation, and I made the fingerless arm warmers so that I could knit in the cold.
Canadian craft retailer Lewiscraft seems to be going under. All their stores are selling everything including the fixtures. By now, most of the good wool yarn is gone, but I got some nice cottons and fake mohair, plus some notions (crochet needle and split stitch markers - explained below). I don't stash yarn, and I have no idea what I'll make with this stuff, but the prices were too good to pass up.
Plus, I may needs lots and lots of yarn soon, as I've taught myself to crochet from instructions on various web sites.
I hope one day to be able to crochet stuff like the cute scarves by crafter Twinkie Chan, whom I read about in Giant Robot magazine.
I can see why my mom crochets so much. It's super easy to learn, much less complex than knitting I think (or it could just be that I learned knitting first). It's really, really fast, much faster than knitting. No wonder people who can knit and crochet prefer to do afghans in crochet. However, it uses up an astounding amount of yarn - 3 times more than knitting to cover the same area, I've heard - but still I was surprised at how fast the yarn disappeared. The fabric seems stiffer and heavier, but mind you, this is only single crochet. Now I know why garments tend to be knitted, and items that are desirable in sturdier fabric (e.g. household goods like wash cloths, pot holders, etc.) tend to be crocheted.
Anyway, I wanted to learn some basic crocheting to make toys. It's much easier to make things in the round that decrease quickly (i.e. spheres) in crochet, because you don't have to struggle with tight fabric squishing your needles together as in knitting. I made this cupcake in half the time it would've taken me to knit one, and I'm still a slow beginner!
However, for the same amount of yarn or more, the cupcake is much smaller than its knitted counterpart, and heavier too.
posted by ax174 at
6:24 AM
