Project Overdued: Wendy's Waistcoat

I finished crocheting this project around Thanksgiving 2007 but did not push myself to really finish it off because I did not have 3 buttons. You see, the buttons I had in mind are wood but JoAnn's just refused to sell them for cheap. They have 2 or 3 buttons for a dollar something, such a rip-off. So I just hung the waistcoat there for dear life until one day I browsed my dear dollar store and got a bag of 20 buttons for a dollar. Ka-ching, ka-ching! Now I can finish off this waistcoat by adding the buttons.

This project is another gift from crochetville: the pattern came from Interweave crochet fall 2006 given to me by Brandybuck, the yarn was gifted by CDBear on my last Secret Pal, and the whole thing was crocheted by me, a crochet villager.

I love the yarn very much, it's such a nice and plushy mohair yarn. And it's warm too! The pattern is not that tricky to work with and seriously, it didn't take lots of time to crochet either. I modified here and there as I did not use the same yarn as they suggested but it came out fine, made my boobs look even bigger than what they really are.

Pattern: Wendy's Waistcoat
Interweave Crochet Fall 2006 issue
Yarn: Ormaghi Wonderful
Hook: Susan Bates 5.00 mm

Close-up to see the yarn texture and pattern

Overall I enjoyed crocheting this waistcoat. It's a cute little garment that will sure be a staple garment during cold weather.

State of the WIPs

2 WIPs down, 1 to go! Woohoo! A while back, I was bitching...er...complaining about my WIPs and stash problem at crochetville. Some kind villagers advised me to buckle up and finish my WIPs and that was exactly what I did.

WIP #1: my brother's blankie-DONE! It became a nice twin size blankie and I crocheted until I ran out of yarn. I used 2 skeins of Joann's Rainbow Bouclé in Light Blue and Dark Blue. This yarn is very soft and plushy. Maybe I can lure the little monkey to use a blanket after all. Also, this WIP broke all the records of being the longest WIP so far.

WIP #2: "Hello me Yellow" top- DONE!

The yarns from this top were gifted to me by Fiona during the "Holiday Gift Exchange" last year. The yellow and pink yarn came from China and are 100% wool. The grey yarn is a blend of virgin wool and crêpe. It's a bit trickier to work than the other two but I was able to use up all the yarn. During the time, I ran out of the yellow yarn and had to order and extra skein of fingering weight yarn from Knit Picks.

Yes, you read it right! The top is made of 100% fingering weight wool yarn! At the beginning, I thought I was just a sadist who loved to torture my poor hands. But the more I got into making this garment, the more I like fingering weight yarns. This weight makes the garment very light and soft, unlike its worsted weight cousin. However, that doesn't mean I'm done knitting/crocheting in worsted weight yarn. I just enjoy the switch once in a while (although I'm grateful to receive any type of yarns as long as they're not fun fur or any frou frou type of yarn :D)

But come to think of it, using a lighter weight yarn to make wearables does make sense. If you go to the store, say GAP, to buy a sweater, chances are the sweaters are made with some very thin yarns. I know, I know, they use machines but you see how great the sweater mold to your body?

I don't really have a pattern for this top. And I didn't plan it either. It just came out of compulsion. Sometimes the best things happened spontaneously (proceed to bring out my Physical Chemistry book and looked under "thermodynamics" hehe)

Some more details:

The front

The back

I made an extra band at the back so that I can wear a bra. With my boob size, it's impossible to wear this kind of garment without a bra!

Oh yes, I learned the power of steaming. With an iron that has the steam option, my crinkly top transformed into a very luxurious garment like those in the expensive store! This trick I learned from Svetlana and it saves me from blocking :D

WIP #3: The jacket from Crochet Today! It's still where it is, untouched. After making the "Hello me Yellow", I ran out of energy so I need time to recuperate. But it will be done!

WIP #4: The baby sweater for my pregnant friend.

This one is special. One word: GAUGE! Watch your gauge! It was the gauge that threw me off the bridge. I intended to make a sweater for a newborn as the baby is dued in winter and he/she will definitely need some seriously warm winter clothings. I already made the umbilical cord hat (see the 2nd post below) and now I need a sweater for the baby. But it was the GAUGE! So I used my special stitch called the frog stitch to rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!

So there's no WIP #4 for me right now. I'm down to 1 last WIP but I have a lot of WIMs (Work In Mind)

When will this cycle ever stop?

A WIM becomes a WIP, a WIP just lays there to collect dust until it becomes an UFO. During the WIP to UFO time, there may be more WIPs in between.

The more I think about it, the more it makes my head hurt!

P.S: I'm joining my first Secret Pal Swap. I can't wait to start!!!

Ripped/Stitched

There's a new show in my life that's called "Ripped/Stitched" It's the rival of the famous plastic surgery show "Nip/Tuck" :D

Ever wonder why I called it "Ripped/Stitched"? That's because every time I tend to finish a part, I ripped out and redid the whole thing over and over again! Remember my design during the seminar? Yeah, I've been frogging it ever since I started and now the thing doesn't pass the front boob level. Guess I'm not so good at making garments :(

I'm starting the Tempting knit sweater soon. It'll be my first knit garment and I've already bought most of the supplies. In the mean time, I may try cable knitting, it looks fun to me :D (I have a weird sense of humor lol)

Anywaiz, I'll be enjoying my new show until the top is done, then it'll end up in here and "Show and Tell" So stay tune for the next episode of "Ripped/Stitched"

First FO of the year and update on knitting

I finally finished the VS skirt and it's the first FO of 07! Yay! I'm really happy the way it turned out and the length of the skirt. My swap partner Fiona gave me such nice yarn that it makes this skirt looks more beautiful. Right now I have to wait for the temperature to go up a bit before wearing it out to the public. Or maybe I'll debut it to my friend's wedding in April?

Anyways, this is how it looks:



You can read more about it in beloved crochetville.

On another note, my knitting has improved slowly. Every night I spend about an hour picking each knit and purl stitch. Now my beginner scarf ("Ribbed-for-Her-Pleasure" in SnB the Knitter's Handbook) is halfway done. Maybe another month(?) and I'll finish it. In the meantime, my eyes are still fixated on the pullover pattern in the Fall 06 issue of Interweave crochet magazine.

I think I finally graduated from simply crocheted with acrylic yarn and move on to having SEX with other natural fibers. (Haha, you dirty mind, I was talking about "stash enrichment xperience", not the thing adults do together in bed!) The other day I saw Patons SWS in Michael's and me like it! It's a soy and wool blend yarn with very colorful and yummy colors. The only thing that stopped me from SEXing it was the price tag: $5.99 per skein! I will probably buy 2 for a scarf => so it's still in my mind. Until I hit a bigger paycheck or Michael's has a big sale, it'll be in the store.

Sometimes it's funny that Michael's and JoAnn's don't carry the same brand of yarn. I love some of the Sensations yarn and JoAnn's, especially their wool mix yarn that feels very luxurious. I still have a pet peeves for online yarn shopping though, mostly because sometimes the yarn don't come out as good as I expected. The coupons in JoAnn's does help a lot, and it would be much better if they carry the SWS in store.

Please, Joann's store in TLH, please carry Pattons SWS!

Blue Sky Wrap

What would you do when the sky is gray?
What would you do when everybody around you are wearing dark color clothings for winter?
What would you do to jazz up that black dress you have and keep yourself warm at the same time?

You make a wrap with the color of the sky on a sunny day. You wear it with your beautiful black dress when you go out at night to keep yourself warm and beautiful. And people around you will turn their heads and say "Oh, isn't that a beautiful thing?"

Ladies and gents, may I introduce you my first original design...

*Drum Roll*

The Blue Sky Wrap!

I use V-stitch to make the body of this wrap and shell clusters for edging. The wrap is fast to work and the color is so gorgeous. I used 2 skeins of LB homespun in "Blue Sky".

To dress up that black dress :D

With some extra yarn I made myself a head hugger.

Update: The Pattern

Materials:
2 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in "Blue Sky"
J-10 mm hook
tapestry needle to weave in

Notes:
Gauge is not necessary, you can use a bigger hook such as K-10.5mm if you like.

You can make a wider wrap or a smaller scarf, just need to do some calculations:
for mine, 9 v-stitches across + edging = 13 inches wide

Formula for the foundation chain: (number of v-stitches x 5) + 6 ch

Instruction:

Foundation chain: 51 ch (9x5 +6)
Row 1: trc from 6th ch of foundation ch (1st v-st made), sk 5, *[ch, trc, ch3, trc] (v-st made), sk 5 ch* repeat ** 7 more times, trc on last ch. Turn
Row 2: ch6, trc on the trc from last row, v-st on top of the 2 trc that are next to each other on the previous row (not on top of the ch3 between v-st) 8 times.
Repeat row 2 until desired length. Do not cut yarn after finishing the v-st body

Edging:
With right side facing you, start edging around following this pattern:
* in ch3 spaces [(trc, ch1) 3 times, trc] (1 shell made), sk the next trc, sc on the sp between 2 rows* all around.
When you're finished edging, cut off the yarn, weave in 2 (only 2!) ends.

Chocolate Pencil Skirt

I always fantasize of making a nice short skirt when I bumped into Josie's pencil skirt in crochetme. It took me more than a year to finally make a skirt out of the pattern. The event came when I had some leftover yarn from the bag swap and some from the shrug I made. And luckily I had enough yarn to whip up this baby.

The pencil skirt is around 13 inches which is short for me. Also as I don't have big hips, it looked very straight and boxy. Therefore I added some ruffles that I learned from the Patricia Pepe skirt CAL (thanks Svetlana!). Now I have my own skirt, very warm and cozy.

I pair it with the shrug I made

Back side, I'm "baby ain't got back"

Front side

Posted originally on September 6th, 2006 in Crochetville.

Patricia Pepe Skirt

I joined this CAL in crochetville in the end of July/mid August and had a lot of fun! Finished on August 14th, 2006.

Materials: Caron Simply Soft in Bone (5 skeins)
Hooks H-8 and J-10

Time: about 2 weeks

Still haven't had the lining!