In search of the perfect summer cardigan

I am lucky enough to live within driving distance of a beach resort destination that people pay a lot of money to get to and stay at. We take full advantage of this as often as we can in all forms - day trips, overnights, lunches, dinner and dancing. Most of the time you want to dress as cool as possible, and this intersects with wanting to look nice a smidge of the time (I heart Venn Diagrams!). So what if I had the perfect summer cardigan that I could wear over any old cami and shorts, or that I could wear with a maxi dress and maybe I could even wear on a casual day to work with white trousers? And maybe it would have a little sparkle?

 

I didn't have all of this in mind when I went to Tuesday Morning one day before the holidays, but when I saw a pastel sparkley Ironstone Paris Nights yarn, I began to think a lot about the perfect summer cardigan. Fast forward a couple of successfully completed knitted projects, and the cardigan is now at the top of the queue. I had "favorited" many crochet summer cardigans on Ravelry, because most of the airy summer cardigans are crocheted. I chose one and did a little swatch, decided the hook size was too big, and started over with a smaller hook.

 

I took a look and then decided I was crocheting a kitchen scrubbie fabric and that is not at all what I had in mind when I pictured my glamerous stylish self at a beachside venue.

 

It was heavy and scratchy and just yuk.

 

This morning I tried a couple of large knitting needles and had another go.

Much better. Drapy and sparkly and will feel like I'm not wearing another layer at all.

 

I've decided against the drop stitches. It looks like the cardigan would be trying too hard. The plain garter stitching looks more organic and on the 10.5 needles it'll sail along anyway.

 

Since there are few projects knit straight out with this Ironstone yarn (most are knit in combination with something else), I'm kind of on my own, patterwise. I dug out a cotton crochet cardigan I own that fits fine and I'm going to attempt to knit cardigan components that match up with that, although I may forgo the shaping and do a boxy style since I picture this cardigan blowing around in the sea breeze anyway.

 

Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

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Into the Great White North

My grown up college girl needed some winter accessories as she made her way to school in the “great white north” (aka Austin, Texas). This yarn matched her coat and was squishy, thus the garter stitch cowl and crochet headband with ginormous flower was born.

Of course no photo shoot in our house would be complete without also modeling it on poor Lola.

 

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Secret Santa Scarf

We drew names for a Secret Santa exchange at work. We are an office of all women except for the student workers we have, so I knew I'd be able to make something that would be very well received.

I decided to make a crochet ribbed scarf, and I bought some lovely bamboo blend yarn when we were out of town. I started stitching the base row in the car and I guess I didn't really get a good measure of how long it was getting. It turned out super long, and the woman I made it for is pretty petite.

Ellen, who's 5'8" is modeling. Oops!

But it's so soft and squishy, the recipient loved it anyway. She doubled and quadrupled it around her neck and wore it all day!

Here it is before blocking:

The texture is so wonderful after blocking.

I will definitely make this pattern again. I want some super soft bamboo yarn of my own!

Lola thinks Finnegan is softer than a bamboo scarf:

Holiday scarf

There is a blog I read and enjoy called, Confessions of a Serial Starter, and if that name hadn't already been appropriated, I would reserve it for my daughter, for sure. She has such enthusiasm for projects that you can't help get caught up in it with her, but then other parts of her teenage life take priority and the cross stitch she began to commemorate her driver's ed or the string quilt blocks or the Christmas yarn scarf get put on the back burner.

Since I had found that easy lace crochet scarf pattern, I told her that if she could locate her yarn, I would make a scarf for her. I pulled out all two rows of another pattern she had begun and made this for her:

It was my first time to make fringe on a scarf and she loved it.

And as you can see, it looks good on just about anybody:

What I'm working on Wednesday

I had the chance to visit a fabric/craft store when I went out of town over the weekend and I picked up some new yarn. I was able to whip out this scarf for myself using this pattern. I think it turned out really great, especially for how easy it is. I'm thinking about making a wider shawl out of it using some lighter weight yarn.

I'm also still plugging along on my Kansas cross stitch. I've got a lot of backstitch ahead of me on the cabin.

What I'm Working on Wednesday

The ripple blanket continues to grow in spite of my haphazard approach. I began with the plan to crochet it with interlocking color strips as Attic24 did. However, my tiny little stash of 9 or so balls of yarn was not going to go far. Especially when a couple of them are really too dull for the mix. I get about 3 stripes from each ball, and the interlocking stripes call for 4 rows for each repeat. FAIL.

So now I'm back to approaching this as I did my other crochet blanket and almost every quilt I've made. Hmmm... almost out of this color, let me go get another smidge of it. Oh look, I'm out again.... let's see if I can get something that kinda matches..... and on and on. It's admittedly a pain, but keeps up the suspense I guess.

I've also made quite a bit of progress on my Kansas sampler. I've found if I devote too much time to either project, my wrist will really start to ache. But if I alternate cross stitching and crochet, I seem to be fine. So I cross stitch in the morning as my son and I have our 20 minutes of watching-the-morning-news time, and then I crochet in the evenings in front of the TV when my brain is tired and I don't have enough concentration to follow a cross stitch pattern.

I'm linking to the Wednesday link party at:

I can RIPPLE!

Attic24 has lured me in again. I could not resist the colorful ripple blanket she is making. And since I've sort of forgotton what I bought 9 different colors of yarn for:

I started it late last night when I was too mentally tired to keep up with cross stitching, but wasn't ready to nod off yet. I "measured" how wide I wanted it by throwing the chain across us on the bed to make sure it would cover two people comfortably. Then I started the long, long journey back down that chain to make the first row.

When I got up in the morning, I wondered what I was thinking. Thank goodness I didn't finish that first row (I probably still wouldn't be finished) as it draped way over the sides of the bed and would have taken 14,000 skeins of yarn to complete. I figured out how to un-crochet from the end at which I began and took out several inches. It's still really, really wide, but now I do have a chance of finishing it in this lifetime.

I'm planning to use the same interlocking stripes Attic24 is using. Looking forward to the color changes seems to make it go faster. I am only on color #2 and I am loving watching it grow.

Since we're on the subject of blankies...

I finished the border on the crochet afghan that was more than a year in the making. I began the project last summer when I was inspired by Attic24.

Doesn't everyone craft at the lake?

Then all the little daisies went into craft storage until spring rolled around this year. I completed it just as this summer was ending and am looking forward to cuddling under it during the first cool front to hit South Texas.

Lola approves.

Bordering on finished

I've been moving along on finishing up my first crocheted afghan. I'm on the very last border, which I think is turning out very cute. It's from a tutorial by Attic 24, and it's interesting because you work it from the wrong side. It's alot of stitching, but it feels like it's going to be a nice, durable border.

Of course, as with all my projects, I kind of wing them as I go along. I've had to go back to the craft store many times to buy "two more skeins of yellow" or "lots more white." Now I've run out of green, so I've got one last purchase for this and about one more side to bobble stitch.

End of August Update

I've been plugging along on several projects. I fell in love with the covered rocks by Resurrection Fern and had to use her tutorial to create some right away. I don't know what it is about these, but my family absolutely fell in love with them too. In fact, when I gave some away to some friends of mine, my family was not very happy about it. Well, there's always more purl cotton in the world, isn't there?

The give-aways:

The next covered rock project in progress:

I've got all the daisy afghan blocks together and I'm working on the borders:

And finally, I am loving how the parrot is coming along. I think I am going to find some tapestry to use for the pillow backing. My daughter laughs about how I have a whole story that goes with each piece. She was asking why I dyed the fabric all splotchy and I told her because it looks like the pillow came across the ocean on a sailing ship centuries ago. They ran into some bad weather and water leaked into the hold where the pillow was stored in a trunk. When they finally reached America, the woman was just happy to be back on land after her treacherous journey and displayed the pillow in the parlor with pride, even thought it was water stained.

Hill Country weekend

We were fortunate to be invited to spend a weekend in the Texas Hill Country.

We went kiaking and tubing on the Guadalupe River, which we all loved.

We went to a couple of antique stores and I found some things I had been on the look out for. A wire basket.... this one was labeled as a Pool Basket:

And the great turtle twine holder:

This bag of "sewing items" for $2 with a lot of tiny crochet hooks I'm excited to use.

On the drive, I also made some good progress turning my bobble stitch centers into 9-patch blocks.

This stack is just a few blocks short of being able to connect them together!

Bobble stitch, bobble stitch, bobble stitch

So the good news is that I laid out all my granny square 9-patch blocks and found that I only need to make 16, not 20. Yea! That means only 4 more to go and I am on a mission. I've finished making all of the daisy centers....

Jumping in with both feet

I’ve been an avid blog reader for years now, and am finally jumping in with my own. I have enjoyed all of the inspiration I’ve received through the online community and it has been wonderful for my own creative outlet.

I always have several projects going at the same time. No chance of getting bored then.

 I’m most currently working on a quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter,

a lace sampler by Tanja Berlin,

 various cross stitch designs and some tatting.

My mission right now is to make progress on a daisy afghan a la Attic24. My favorite spot to stitch is outside on the patio in what the kids call "the Tetanus chair." But the vintage rocker is always the first seat taken when we gather outside to listen to the parrots at dusk.