Fox's Heart of a Child Square - Pattern Testing

Occasionally, I like to test the patterns of other designers. This is a necessary step in designing because fresh eyes and hooks are needed to get a pattern written down correctly and into instructions that most crocheters will understand. This is not only an important process but, for me, a lot of fun.

Donna Mason-Svara aka Smoothfox designed this gorgeous heart square, which I immediately feel in love with when I saw it. There was no problem reading her pattern (she provided pictures for every round which were most helpful) and in an evening I had crocheted two squares! Donna also had a great idea to have the tested squares sent back to her so she can assemble them into an afghan to donate. So these first two are off to her but I'm starting another afghan using scraps for the hearts and a soft white for the main color.

Thanks Donna for a great pattern and the opportunity to help out!

Update 8/25/2008
Check out the afghan I made using this square!

A couple of repeats

I had three family graduations this spring! My niece Karla and my daughter Sarah both graduated from college and my daughter Laura graduated from high school. It's becoming a tradition for me to make afghans for these life transitions.

The afghan I made for Karla is a remake of the Soft Boucle Throw. This time I bumped up a hook size -- to a M! and added a pattern repeat to the width (an additional 24 stitches to the beginning chain). These two adjustments were exactly what was needed, I won't need to tweak anything more. I love this pattern! The afghan is light and soft and is a perfect warm weather throw. The finished size was 49" x 59" (not stretched)

However, once again, working in Boucle has it difficulties. It's hard to see the beginning chains when I work in Boucle and that's exacerbated even further with a dark color of yarn. Because I can't see those chains, I'm crocheting mostly by feel when I work the first row of the pattern and I know I'm skipping some chains or working two stitches into others and this is a problem if I come up short at the end of my chain (it's easier to take chains apart or spread stitches out at the end of the row than it is to bunch a number of stitches together.) So my strategy when working in Boucle and making the beginning chains is to work about 3 or 4 more chains then the pattern calls for and take them out if I don't need them.

The afghan I made for Laura's "Going Off to College Afghan" is a remake of Teatime Elegance this time worked in Red Heart Super Saver Country Blue, Soft Navy and Soft White. The finished size is 54" x 72".

I followed all my notes and adjustments from the first time I made this and the results are perfect! I made no further adjustments.

Sarah is waiting until she has moved and found an apartment so that she has a better idea of what kind of pattern and which colors she'd like for her afghan. Stay tuned!

Laura's Harry Potter Sweater

My daughter Laura liked a sweater she had seen in the book Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter by Alison Hansel. For my part, I was interested in learning to use the techniques for a seamless sweater that I had found in the book The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee. So I had a project!

The sweater from the Harry Potter book is a classic preppy grey V-neck design with alternating burgundy and gold stripes above the ribbing of the body and sleeves, based on the Gryffindor house colors. However, in order to follow the design suggested by The Sweater Workshop, I needed to convert the V-neck to a crew neck. In addition, Laura wanted to change the striping around the body to a solid burgundy, but to keep the burgundy gold striping around the sleeves. Laura liked the crew neck but thinks that the neckline would be better if it were wider and dipped lower.

Here are my notes & adjustments:

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Oxford Grey, Burgundy and Gold.

Shoot, I can't remember how much Oxford Grey I used for the body! Four or five skeins? One skein each of the Burgundy and Gold with plenty of yarn left over.

I used size 6 needles for the ribbing, size 8 for the body and size 10½ for binding off the neck band (see note below).

2" of K1,P1 ribbing for both the body and sleeves.

Semi-shaping for the sleeves (about 1/2 of the increases were done at the end of the ribbing and 2 stitches were added about every 7th row for the second half.)

In order to make the neck binding loose enough I went from size 6 to 8 needles on the last row of ribbing and then bound off in 10½. I am not sure whether this is a technique that always has to be applied when making a crew neck, or something that happened to be needed in this particular instance.

Laura wanted the sweater to have a longer body, but all of the shaping for the body occurs right after the ribbing, so finding a way to achieve a more gradual shaping needs to be considered in future projects. The book points out and gives options for more gradual shaping in the sleeves but not for the body where it is useful as well.

This is the second sweater that I have designed using the techniques from this book. I made my first one many years ago, before I had developed an understanding of gauge and garment fit. As a result of that, together with my liking for loose fit, that first sweater finished with a size that would have been large enough to fit a gorilla! My more recent attempt fits much better, and I expect my next design to be even more refined. Stay tuned!

Grandma's Tablecloth

It's been revived! My mom gave me a tablecloth that has been in our family since I was born. It was a present from her mom and during the years of my childhood it was an elegant fixture for special family occasions. However, through the years it was stained, had yellowed and a number of areas developed holes so it's been in storage for a long time. It came to me in rather bad shape, with the hope that it could repaired and used again.

Step 1: Clean. I filled up the bathtub with water, Oxiclean and a 5 day soak (it may have been longer.) Result: a clean WHITE tablecloth with NO stains!!
A long soak in a spare bathtub washed away
the years of stains & yellowing.
Step 2: Figure out what thread and pattern was used. I inherited my Grandmother's crochet books but none of them had the pattern for this tablecloth. Fortunately, the pattern is not complicated and it wasn't difficult to figure out the pattern for the motif. I also tested many different kinds of white thread for the best match, which turned out to be Aunt Lydia's Fine Crochet Thread, size 20, 100% Mercerized Cotton. I'm working on writing out the pattern for the motif and will publish it here when I have it.

A simple & elegant motif
Step 3: Assess the damage. The tablecloth measures approximately 56" x 70" and is made of joined motifs, each about 3.75" and a border had been added around the joined squares. The vast majority of the damage was a lot of broken stitching around the border (see photo). It was clearly a weak design area that did not stand the test of time. The damage to the border was too extensive and unrepairable. So with the blessings of my mom, I ripped it out (but not before I picked out and wrote down the pattern!!) I tried to save the thread so that I could reuse it in the repair of the motifs but the last two rows of the border were long chains and time and wear seemed to have fused the crochet and combined with the damage I couldn't get pieces long enough to be useful for repairs.

Example of the extensive damage around the border.
Only one corner area survived intact. (see photo below)
Step 4: Repair the motifs. This picture is an example of the typical damage to the motifs. Luckily it wasn't extensive or too difficult to repair. I took the crochet back far enough to be able to secure down ends and attach thread to work the new repair. The new thread is slightly whiter than the old but you'd have to have eagle eyes and a microscope to pick out the repairs so I'm quite proud of my conservation efforts.

Example of motif damage
Step 5: Decide what to do about a border. So the question becomes -- What do I do about a border? Here's a picture of the original border. It only looks good because it was opened up and pinned to paper -- see the Step 3 photo for the way the border actually looked.

The only corner of the border that was intact
1) Do I rework the original border? The Aunt Lydia's thread is a good match that is not discernible for the small repairs of the motifs but it would be noticeable once three rounds of border have been worked. The border was probably original to the pattern but with the test of time and wear it was not a great design. The first round is fine because it finishes off the petal design of the motif but the last two rounds are a series of long chains that during years of use got scrunched together and became a weak area where the most damage occurred (see Step 3 photo).

2) Design and work a new border? I would have the same thread difference issue as reworking the original border but perhaps some type of stabilizing border would be beneficial. If yes, what kind of new border? A simple round of single crochets? or reverse single crochets? Should I follow the first round of the original border and end there?

3) Leave it the way it is now with the original border removed? The picture below and the one at the top of this post were taken after the border was removed and all motif repairs had been worked. It looks fine. My daughters argument for this choice is that, except for restoration repairs, the entire the tablecloth remains crocheted by my grandmother and should stay that way! This choice would leave it a little unfinished by regular crochet standards and not in it's original state but may be the best way.




I need help deciding what to do! Please leave me a comment with your thoughts.


7/29/08 - Update
Grandama's Tablecloth - The Finishing Details

Lattice Square Afghan

I received the squares for this afghan from a "secret buddy" and I can't really tell you about the squares themselves except they're very interesting and I have yet to run across the pattern. So I didn't completely make this afghan, however, I did assemble it and crocheted the border and all of that is the pain in the ass part, right? I used a joining technique found in the Braids for Baby afghan pattern from Mile-A-Minute Afghans by Leisure Arts. I've used this join a couple of times now and it's the best of all things --solid and decorative-- I love it!!

The edging pattern is:
Round 1: sc evenly around blanket, working 3 sc in each corner.
Round 2: *dc, ch 1, skip 1 st repeat from *around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 3: *dc in each dc and ch 1 space, repeat from * around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 4: *ch 3 and 2 dc in same stitch, skip 2 stitches, sl st in next stitch, repeat from * around blanket, working ch 3 and 2 dc, sl st, ch 3 and 2 dc in each corner.

This afghan and the Autumn Glory afghan are going to be donated to Victory Junction, a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. At the end of their camping experience each child gets to take home a hand-made afghan and a hand-made teddy bear. My niece was a camp counselor there for a summer and told me about how the campers love their blankets and bears. I just had to make a contribution and hope to make more.

My Ravelry project page for Lattice Square Afghan.

Autumn Glory

This afgahn was made for a donation to Victory Junction -- a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses.

The pattern is called Autumn Glory and can be found in "101 Easy Scrap Crochet Projects" published by House of White Birches and edited by Laura Scott.

My finished size is 35" x 44"
The original pattern uses black as the main color to tie in all the scrap colors but I wanted to brighten it up, so I used Red Heart Super Saver - Aran Fleck. In addition to swapping the main color I also made the following adjustments:

Because this blanket will be given to a child I decreased the overall size. I began by chaining 121 instead of 163 (I still used a K hook).

The double triple crochet shells for the boarder did not work for me so I reverted to a simple shell of 7 dc's. The pattern for the border thus became: *shell (7 dc's in the same st), skip 3 stitchs, repeat from star around and adjust the number of stitches skipped, if necessary, in order to work a shell in each corner. I also put 3 sc's in each corner.

My Ravelry project page for Autumn Glory.

Teatime Elegance

I love patterns with texture and this is an interesting one that caught my eye. I was a little unsure the first time I did a panel and worked all those double triple crochets (that's one loooooong stitch!) but everything worked up easily and I enjoyed crocheting this afghan. I was also concerned about the area where the green border is worked around the center shells -- it looks like a weak spot in the structure -- but this afghan has seen a lot of use because it is big and remarkable warm (even with the open work center) and so far there has been no damage or repairs. In fact, I'll soon be making another because Laura has requested this one as her "going off to college blanket".

Notes:

Teatime Elegance from "Mile-A-Minute Afghans" by Leisure Arts.

Used J hook (instead of listed I hook)

Measures: 52" x 74" (this was measured after a few years stretch and the fact that I moved up one hook size -the size listed with the pattern is 44" x 66")

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn - I don't have the exact color name but I did use a lighter green. Bone and Lt. Rose are the other two colors.

Because this afghan is big and fairly heavy I slipstitched rather than whipstitched the panels together, a sturdier joining that I prefer to use when I can.

My Ravelry project page for Teatime Elegance.