Look Ma, No Needles!

For a few years now, I’ve been coveting Sal—the lace cap in Rowan 31. (However, I hate that name. It needs a prettier name like Katherine or Amanda.) But Sal, henceforth to be known as Katherine, is crocheted and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to read a crochet pattern. Enter Drew aka The Crochet Dude.

Drew, S t a c i , Jeanne, and I have a slacker breakfast SnB. Slacker because we meet during “work hours” and breakfast because we eat breakfast (obviously). This week at slacker breakfast SnB, I asked Drew to teach me to crochet. Drew is an awesome teacher. Within the first few minutes of our lesson, I learned the following gems of wisdom:

• “Blue” is not a proper designation of crochet hook size.
• You can’t pick a crochet hook because it is cute. You have to pick a hook based on gauge.

I wonder if those tips are generally included in crochet books or if they are special techniques that Drew has developed. Anyway, I’m now making a hat. I’m not very far along because I haven’t had much time to work on it (and because I keep ripping the dang thing out), but I hope you can imagine this stringy thing turning into a hat.

Meanwhile—I’m sure there is a large portion of the viewing audience who has been impatient for a Morrigan update. I know, I’ve been such a tease. First I had a big build-up leading to me casting on for the sweater then one measly photo of progress. But there’s a reason for it. Let’s review the facts.

1. There are 300-or-so stitches on my needle.
2. I’m working on 3.25 mm (US size 3) needles.
3. Every round of the pattern includes cable crossings.
4. On the odd numbered rounds, the longest I ever go without a cable crossing is about 4 stitches.
5. Each round takes me approximately 20 minutes to complete. (And I’m supposedly a fast knitter!)
6. After about 2 hours of knitting, my hands HURT.

So you see, progress is not so swift. However, I finally do have something interesting to show. One of the most nifty-keen things about this sweater is that all the shaping is done in a cable pattern. The photo shows the side cable with all the decreases for the waist shaping completed. A couple more rows and I’ll start increasing. Are you as impressed as I am? Jenna Wilson is just brilliant.