Wednesday 8 June 2011

WIP Wednesday (and also FO Friday)

So, as promised yesterday, a bumper crop of projects, some finished, some still awaiting final tweaking before I allow myself to call them done.

First, I am almost finished with my birthday cowl. Last time you saw it, I showed you the first three motifs joined together. Well, I quickly raced through the remaining 11, and got started on the chain stitch border. I realised I'd made a mistake on one of the motifs, but it was too late to do anything about it. So I sort of fudged it, and now you can't really tell. Yay!

Here it is, crocheting done, fresh off the hook.


Rumpled and crinkly, not at all stunning and beautiful. But ah, the magic of blocking. I pinned it out on the floor upstairs, and gave it a good old spritz of water.


It grew so much! Length went from 36" to 44", and width from 8" to 14" when pinned, but it relaxed to 12" when unpinned.

It's not technically finished, because the pattern says to sew three buttons onto one end, for doing it up. I am undecided if I will do this or not. I may find an interesting pin to hold it in place. It's very versatile.


I haven't fully tested out all of its options, but then the weather is getting too warm for snuggly soft alpaca cowls. I love it though, and I am so very glad that my lovely friend bought both yarn and pattern for me as a present.

Onwards and upwards then, a reveal that has been a long time coming. You remember the Aurora vest? Of course you do. Well, after sitting around for ages and ages doing nothing, I eventually pulled my finger out at the weekend and got to testing blocking methods. I tried wet blocking along, wet blocking with added hairdryer, and finally steam blocking with my hardly-used iron. Steam blocking was a huge success!


The motifs were lumpy and uneven. The motif joining chains seemed overly long for the space they were in. A quick steam with the iron, and they turned into beautiful flat and even motifs.


Look how lovely they are! It was pretty awkward to get it all to fit on my normal sized ironing board! Especially the shoulder bits. But I managed it in the end.


There you go. The finished item. I am surprised at how much it grew in length once I blocked it, it comes down past my knees! I am unsure about the one set of ties, I am tempted to put in a couple more on the motif joins above it, so it ties in three places. What do you think?

Finally, some small quick projects I hooked over the last couple of evenings. Now the end of my exams are in sight, I am looking forward to going to LRP again. With that in mind, I set to finding projects I could make to incorporate into my costumes. I saw on Cris's blog she'd been hooking snoods, and it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I scoured Ravelry for free snood patterns. I found several.


This is a vintage pattern that I had some difficulty deciphering. In the end, I resorted to drawing out the instructions on a piece of paper! If I get the enthusiasm for it, I may draw up a proper chart so nobody else has to struggle like I did! I made it smaller, by starting with six meshes instead of nine, and only extending till it was 14 meshes wide. Mostly because I don't have enough hair to properly fill a decent sized snood, and I will have even less by the next event as I'm getting my hair cut this week! Full details of yarn/pattern on my project page.


This one is more of a lacy cap than a snood, and I need to experiment with ways to wear my hair under it. Project page here for details.

I'm working on a third, from this pattern, but it's in very early stages so not really worthy of a picture yet. I'm doing it in the same navy cotton as the first snood, which handily will match my fingerless lace gloves!

Phew, quite the project overload today. Hopefully it will make up for no post on Friday. Head on over to the usual places to see what the gang are up to this week.

25 comments:

  1. Wow - lots of projects! Isn't it amazing how much blocking changes things, your alpaca cowl really blossomed :) 

    Personally, I'd go with a couple of extra ties on the vest, I think that would look really good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow - everything here is gorgeous!  I love the snoods.

    ReplyDelete
  3. really beautiful cowl and the vest is stunning!  I'd never heard of a snood but i know my SIL would just love something like that to put on her gorgeous waist length red hair!  lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That hair snood is stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think your cowl pattern really shows the  yarn off well, such a pretty color :)  Another tie on the vest - yes :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow - I don't know which to comment on first!!  Blocking does make a world of difference!  I wish I was better at crochet - your cowl and vest are to die for!!  And those snoods - omg!!  Love it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE your cowl, and I'm seeing a beautiful pin/antique brioche instead of buttons.  How bout a cameo?  Or pearl something.  It's really gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm in the WOW camp!!!!!  All of those pieces are beautiful!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What yarns did you use for your motif pieces that you had to use an iron on the one instead of blocking?  I'm very curious. They both turned out beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The vest is 50% merino, 50% acrylic, so I wasn't sure if there was too much acrylic for wet blocking to work or not.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have scoured eBay this afternoon and added many different vintage silver pins to my watch list! hopefully I can pick up a couple so I can pick and choose.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Holy crap! These are all amazing! I can't believe how amazing both the motif vest and the cowl turned out after blocking. They're breathtaking. I say no buttons to the cowl and another tie or two on the vest. :) I love the snoods, especially the first one. I never knew what they were called!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't know which project to oooh and aaaaw over more.  They are all amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Each project is stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  15. You're such a talented hooker ;o)!  What awesome stuff you've made.  That cowl is so cool.  It rocks.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sarah - Crafts From The Cwtch8 June 2011 at 19:08

    WOWEE! You have been busy! As others already said, they are amazing! I dream that one day I'll be able to crochet as well as you do. BEautiful! 

    ReplyDelete
  17. Rachael Crossland8 June 2011 at 20:25

    WOW so many pretty projects - where do you manage to find the time??
    I feel so inspired right now...makes me want to go finish some of my own projects. Oh and can I just say thank you once again for being so helpful with the comments page on my blog, really appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This entry is a poster-child for blocking if ever I've seen one!!!    Beautiful, beautiful projects!
    I love the snoods, too.  I haven't worn one to a Renaissance Faire in forever, though, since I've had short hair for much too long.  :'(

    ReplyDelete
  19. Everything is beautiful! I love the edging on the cowl very much.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ambassador Crochet9 June 2011 at 14:36

    The cowl is absolutely beautiful.  Amazing how much difference blocking makes.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Impressive stuff and a gorgeous cowl! 

    ReplyDelete
  22. I looked for the blue snood pattern in Ravelry but could not find the exact one.  It is JUST what I need.

    ReplyDelete
  23. All three of my snoods are linked to the patterns used on my project pages on Ravelry, the vintage one that you have to get from web archive I have in a word document which I can send you if you want.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you.  I think I may have found the correct one.  I'll give it a try and see if I can do as good a job as you did.  Your work is excellent.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...