Friday, June 08, 2007

Look Ma, No Needles!

Katherine.jpgFor 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.

KatieStart2.jpg


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.

Shaping.JPGSo 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.

14 comments:

Sarah said...

Wha?

Blue, purple, and little Goldie aren't actually the sizes of those crochet hooks?

who knew!

Anonymous said...

Wow. 20 minutes?? It's gorgeous, & Jenna *is* brilliant, but.. I don't think I'll be making that one.

turtlegirl76 said...

It took me 45 to do one round of shedir when I first started it. I did get a lot faster at it after a few rounds but at first it was such a pain! But yes, brilliant! Morrigan looks awesome! I can't imagine getting through a row like that in 20 minutes!

Elizabeth said...

I'm surprised you didn't buy a nice pink hook to go with your yarn!

Morrigan is looking good!

Helen said...

but you like the blue size! and the gold! and and! ahhhh!

lookin good. i want cables!

Pete said...

Hi, Pete from BloggerView here...

I recently interviewed Drew from The Crochet Dude and I thought you guys might be interested in checking it out.

http://www.bloggerview.net/2007/06/010-drew-crochet-dude.html

Enjoy!

Mtwelovett said...

Wow that sweater is going to be GOR-OR-GEOUS!!

M12

LaBean said...

YOu have my utmost respect for knitting this. Ok I think you're insane really. but I love you anyway :))
It's coming along great and I'm sorry your hands hurt. :(

YAY for crochet! You've come to the 'other' dark side, hehe.

Meredith said...

Wow, that's some fancy crocheting there. I've still only done my plain old crochet edgings on knitted objects--maybe someday I'll try a whole crochet project.

GURO said...

Oh no, now you crochet too. Soon I'm going to be the only knitblogger in the whole world who does not crochet too. I think it's my knitting AND crocheting grans fault. She told me scary stories as a kid about how a girl she knew once got a crocet hook stuck inside her hand. It ruined her hand completely and she could never knit ever again...
Stay away from the dark side, Laura!

Either that, or can you clone Drew and send the clone to me so I can learn too?

Dorothy said...

I've been eyeing that book just for Morrigan. It's going to be worth all that hard work. Can't wait to see your finished sweater.

Anonymous said...

Ha, how embarrassing for you, thinking that "blue" is a crochet hook size. Just because I have a gray-sized needle doesn't mean that ALL colors are sizes in crochet hooks. Silly you.

Given what you just described for Morrigan, I can't believe how much progress you've made! It looks really cool -- that cable decreasing is awesome.

Amy said...

Oooh la LA. Morrigan is going to be a knockout!

Anonymous said...

What a pretty lacy hat! That would make me want to learn to crochet too! Morrigan sounds really slow going, but it *is* gorgeous!