Wow!

Well, I finished one of the long wave motifs. I ended up using a Susan Bates D hook (3.25mm) that the micrometer measured at 3.12 mm. After each wave pass I measured the width because the pattern - designer states that the design tends to get wider so when this happens you are supposed to down size the hook. Well my motif never grew so the entire piece was sone with the D hook.

Forty eight hours later I picked up the yarn and started motif #2 of the long wave. Crocheting along I decided to double check the width just before starting the third wave. Well what do yo want the silly thing was about 37.5 mm wide from the beginning. Frogging -- frogging -- frogging. Pick up that silly Clover D hook. I just don't know what to tell you.

The parts we crochet next involve beads -- size 6 pony beads. The designer chose turquoise (silver lined), gold (silver lined) and red (silver lined). The red is supposed to be strung on the garnet (841) and the bubbles (724). I could sort of see the red on the pink (bubbles) but no way on the garnet (really sort of a dark dusty rose. Today I went off to my favorite local bead shop, Beads Beads in Tustin. I brought home two tubes of beads. I am undecided which to use but either one will be better than the designer's choice.

I leave on vacation on Saturday morning and this is the project that I am taking. I will have some hooks packed in the suitcase and a self addressed envelope just in case TSA has a problem with the crochet hooks. I take a dental floss container to cut anything I need to cut on the flight so no scissors will be harmed in this endeavor.

Hopefully when I am home I will get pictures of everything and be able to include them here.

Slow Progress

This weeks crocheting is marked by many appearances of that pesky amphibian -- the frog. The chevron motife for the Crochet club is going to disappear once again and the new one is going to use an E hook. If I weren't so stubborn I would just leave well enough alone and say enough to the gauge. However, not knowing how everything is going to fit together I do not have that luxury. Reading posts at Ravelry shows that I am not alone in having the same problems.

The second part of the pattern is due this week so perhaps there will be a better idea about how things fit together. Right now the dimensions are not very helpful in guessing about how things might be going together.

Even the knitting was not immune from the unwelcome critter. Since the project is lace and I am never comfortable just taking the needles out and unraveling it was TINK time. fortunately I only had a row and a half to TINK. Back on track and ready to make some progress.

I brought home 2 needlepoing canvases from the shop last Tuesday. They are supposed to be shop models when finished. Started several years ago and tucked behind a bookcase and forgotten, The first is a JP Needlepoint purse in silver, gray and charcoal gray. If I had started it I would have chosed a different stitch for the background (gray) but since the backgound was 90% completed I am just continuing on in basketweave. I did frog all of the silver because the previous stitchers switched fibers (size 12 and size 8 Kreinik) and the back was a total mess of knots and hanging threads. I toyed with the idea of using a different stitch for the silver but the pattern just gets lost in the shine of the silver. I have restitched everything I frogged in the silver and should make good progress to finishing this week.

The second canvas is a Lee Needlepoint Japanese Kimono -- flying cranes against a red background. This one is not very far along so I will have quite a bit to say about how it looks.

Progress

I finally came out of the funk I was suffering because the first 3 finished sections of the Crochet Club 2011 were not to gauge. Starting with a second corner using a Susan Bates 'D' hook (mfg in Mexico and actually measuring 3.11 mm) the completed corner was spot on gauge. Did another corner and it too was 9 cm x 9 cm. So frogged the 2 sections of ripple (chevron) and the first corner. I am doing the first section of the long wave and it is coming out to gauge as well. The designer says that the pattern tends to grow so that you are supposed to step down the hook size mid way through the pattern. At first I went down to the Clover 2.5 mm hook. The change seemed too tight so I just went down to the Clover 3.0 hook and everything seems to be working.

I really like the long wave section. The pattern is very intuitive once you get through it. I will try to post pictures as soon as I get them off my camera.

Saturday was a regular CIP with fellow crocheters at The Library coffee house in Long Beach. It is so relaxing to meet friends and catch up on everyone's lives. The group ended up being 5 strong. So much fun. Sunday was a spinning kind of day at Jamie and Abraham's loft. I brought some of the wonderful beading/cross stitch magazines from Australia for Abraham to look at. I think Jill Oxen's designs are so stupendous. Abraham's design preferences tends towards the more geometric so some of her designs are much more suited to his tastes than other magazines. Abraham went out for Chinese food in recognition of the Chinese New Year. We had enough food for 20 people not just the 4 who eventually dined.