WIP Wednesday: Going Round in Circles

[NOTE: There are lots and lots of Advent giveaways at the moment. Check out The Sewing Directory (and check out the list of winners \o/), Sew Mama Sew and MSF P-HOP]

After much wrestling with my memory and organisational system (shush, I have one, it’s just…unique), I finally managed to get myself, my projects and the camera all in the same place and the same time.

I know, nobody faint.

So this is more of a picture post than usual, as I make the most of the modicum of light and an actual camera – my phone does okay, but the real thing is so much better.

Craft: Crochet
Pattern: Sweet Eleanor Scarf
Yarn: Drachenwolle (4-fach-sockenwollen in NebelPetrol)
Notions: 4.5mm hook

I started this scarf on the plane to Portugal, and I reckon I’ve got through about 2/3 of it. At this point, it’s actually more a case of carrying on until you get bored or run out of yarn, so it could actually go on for a while longer! The pattern warns you that each row adds to the length as well as the width, but since I like my scarves long and wrappy, that’s not a problem. It’s the perfect ‘talking’ project. Not too big to cart around, not too complicated for making while chatting, not too boring for doing on the bus. And I love the yarn! It’s a bit hard, but it gets softer the more I work it, and after blocking, I think it’s going to be a great spring staple in my wardrobe.

Hmmmm. Looks like it’s going to be a wordy post after all 😉 As you can tell, I really like the things I’m working on at the moment.

This is my ‘B’ project for my stash-busting group.

Craft: Tunisian Crochet
Pattern: Basketweave from Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afgans, although the original is knitted.
Yarn: Cygnet DK Merino
Notions: 6mm Tunisian hook with cable (Thanks, G!). And lots of patience.

Oh yeah, baby. This one’s a monster. I couldn’t get a good picture to give you an idea of scale. Winding it didn’t work:

and I had to put one hand on it to stop it from curling for close-ups:

Hopefully the sofa picture at the top gives you a decent sense of it. This thing is longer than I am tall, and I haven’t decided yet how wide it’s going to be. The original alternates blocks of garter and stocking stitch, with garter stitch rows in between. Because I couldn’t face that much purling (the best Tunisian imitation of garter stitch), I’m alternating Simple and Knit stitch, with a Purled row in between.

I really like the effect, although I’m thinking I should have maybe started with a shorter chain row! I just chained the number of stitches that the pattern said to cast on. All 270 of them. You can imagine how thrilled I was on finishing row 4 to find that I’d made a serious mistake at the beginning of row 3. Especially since Tunisian rows are made up of 2 passes and therefore take twice as long.

Yeah. That’s what I said as well.

But it’s been worth the effort. Two rows are about 1.5 balls of my Cygnet yarn, of which I have LOTS. It was the yarn I first started buying when I first started crocheting, and since I kept losing track of what I had. It’s great for amigurumi and beginners, but now I tend to buy nicer yarn, most of it has been languishing at the bottom of my stash. No longer! The colours are lovely, and it’s going to be a great project to lug around over Christmas. The joy of making blankets is that they keep you warm as they go!

And finally at the moment, I’m working on a sekkrit Christmas project, that I can let you have a tiny glimpse of:

No guessing! But isn’t that a lovely colour?

To see what everyone else is working on this week, head over to Tami’s Amis here or click the picture below.