Long time, no see...

Egads! Forgot I had a blog over here. Have been (mostly) keeping up with my crochet projects over in Ravelry, but really should catch up here.

Some recent projects to share (pictures to follow):

- for Paul: black liturgical stole for Ash Wednesday & Good Friday

- for co-workers: three little baby sweaters (pink for a girl born end of December, blue for boy born in January, green for baby due in February)

- for Stephen: amigurumi "Sackboy" (a la Little BIG Planet video game)

- for Eugene: odds and ends hat (Stephen designed)

- for Stephen: "black seed" hat (suitable for bicycle jousting)

- for Paul: blue liturgical stole for Advent

- for Mom: red, lacy, "fiesta" shawl with pineapple motif

- for Stephanie: overly square, multi-green, lap blanket/shawl (based on classic Shetland shawl)

- for Virginia: half round circular, multi-blue, shawl (based on classic Pineapple doilies)

Sure there's more, as I think of 'em...

Just whipped up a lovely little sweetheart bag for the "Hearts for Haiti" raffle and fundraiser at River Gods in Cambridge MA being held this Valentine's day. Fun Lion Suede yarn, very soft and warm fuzzy, worked with size J/10-6.00MM hook.

On Ravelry

I think you actually have to be a member before you can access my pages there, but in case you are in Ravelry, here's where you'd find my profile and projects:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/suedown

Symmetry and Patterns

I almost never work from an actual pattern though I do like to look at them for inspiration. I'm also totally into patterns, though, as in mathematical patterns.

I also really like symmetry and find myself probably making my work harder for myself than is really necessary. Like the mirror-image pockets for my current jacket project, for example. It's only a matter of time before I'll find myself learning to crochet left-handed just so's I can really truly make symmetrical pieces to go with my right-handed pieces, I suppose...

Pockets, Gravity & Stitches

I made a few sample pieces, playing around with hook sizes, some solid sc swatches and some sc-ch combo swatches, and experimented with connecting seams between pieces and between stitches. Both the solid sc and the sc-ch swatches have much more "give" (or stretch) pulling across what would normally be "top-to-bottom" than "side-to-side" and as I said in my earlier post, it's all about the pockets. I want to be able to put keys, cell phone, wallet, water bottle, and any number of other odds and ends a mom ends up carrying around with her in my pockets, so I wouldn't want to have too much "give" in response to weight pulling downward, which means I'm going to be working my rows top to bottom, instead of side to side, for the body of my jacket, particularly where my pockets will be situated.

Fittingly enough, then, I started with the pockets, shown below.
Here's my pattern notes for them.

Pockets:

start with blue, G hook, ch 42

switch to F hook for sc work

row 1. sc in 2nd ch from hook working in back spine loops of ch, continue sc across to end [41sc]
row 2. ch 1, turn, (do ch 1, turn at the beginning of every row of solid sc unless otherwise indicated) and sc in each sc across [41sc]

row 3. 39 sc plus 1 dec sc at end of row (yo pull up loop in 40th sc, yo pull up loop in 41st sc, then yo and thru all 3 loops on hook) [40sc]

switch to ombre for next 10 rows

rows 4. to 13. continue working 1 dec sc at end of every other row (odd numbered rows) [row 4: 40sc; rows 5&6: 39sc; rows 7&8: 38sc; rows 9&10: 37sc; rows 11& 12: 36sc; row 13: 35 sc]

switch to blue for next 4 rows

row 14. sc across [35sc]
row 15. 33 sc plus 1 dec sc at end row [34sc]
row 16. work 1 dec at beginning of row (skip working in first sc) [33sc]
row 17. [33 sc]

switch to ombre for next 10 rows

rows 18. to 27. continue working 1 dec sc at beginning of every other row (even numbered rows) [rows 18&19: 32sc; rows 20&21: 31sc; rows 22&23: 30sc; rows 24&25: 29sc; rows 26-27: 28 sc]

switch to blue for next 3 rows

row 28. work 1 dec at beg of row [27 sc]
rows 29&30: [27 sc]

finish off.
work second pocket in mirror reverse, with decreases at beginning of rows instead of ends of rows and vice versa. (to achieve symmetry in the natural ridges that appear in solid sc stitching.)

It's All About the Pockets

I have an old fav batik jacket that I have been wearing long past worn out. I plan on using it as a pattern guide for shape and sizing to finally crochet something specifically for me. My plan is to blog about this project while I work on it, rather than to simply throw up some pix after completion, which is pretty much all that I've done with other projects. (And which, btw, have also pretty much all been for other folks, too.)

For me, it’s all about the pockets, which need to be practical and well able to accommodate all my stuff without needing to ever carry a purse. I have found working in solid sc with cotton yarn yields a very firm fabric. I've had great success making potholders and microwave oven mitts, for example. I was at A.C. Moore a couple of weeks ago, it was just before Mother's Day, and this Bernat cotton yarn was on sale, so I bought 3 skeins of Country Blue (solid) and 4 skeins of Cottage Blues (ombre) which I plan on using for a light-weight, 3 season jacket.

Using solid sc will form the structural foundation of my jacket and the pockets themselves. Then, I plan to make the rest of the jacket in alternating sc & ch (with sc worked in ch space of previous rows) for a more fluid and flexible fabric. The sc-ch combo is another fav of mine, I've made an entire queen size bedspread with it.

Elsewhere

Just wanted to let you know - you, the anonymous, presumed reader and follower of this blog - that I've been keeping more up-to-date with my crochet projects inside of a Facebook crochet group and within the Ravelry knitters & crocheters social networking site.

Someday someone will figure out a way for us to simultaneously update multiple places and personas...