Yarnification

Specifications: This is the outerwear corset pattern from StitchDiva. I used Paton’s Katrina in noir, probably about two or so skeins (I’m pretty sure I bought three skeins, and I have two partial/half-ish skeins left). K hooks for both the regular and Tunisian crochet. The pattern calls for I hooks and a yarn that works up at 19 sts to 4 inches, and I crochet tight and got a yarn that works up at 18 sts to 4 inches. It’s laced up with 3/8″ grosgrain ribbon with beads tied onto the ends.

I think this is the 30″ size, though it might be 32″. I don’t have the pattern with me today, so I’m not for sure which size I made. I know I made it small, though (I have something like a 33″ waist, or did when I measured last spring) because that Katrina is pretty stretchy, and the pattern warns about the corset stretching after it’s been worn anyhow. So I think that’s the 30″ size.

I know I always say this, but this isn’t a great photo. First off, you can see a bit of the boning—I missed that the first time around with the sewing (did lots of reinforcement after, too, just in case), and anyway I want to get a better photo, one that’s not in my living room and where I don’t look so glazed over, and submit it for the StitchDiva gallery, because I gather you get something nifty if she decides to use your photo, and this one isn’t going to cut it. It was well after midnight when I finally finished, and you can kinda tell, can’t you? (Thumbnail is clickable for full-size version.)

It occurred to me today that I have this craft blog thing that I sometimes write in. Go figure.

So…what I’ve been up to in the month-plus since I updated this thing:

I finished the wristwarmers. They are functional and not too awful looking. I got much better at knitting while I did them. They do not match, though. I suffered a recurrence of Inability To Follow Directions Syndrome, and the first one I did, the one in the photo in the last entry, has five rows of ribbing at the top, while the second one has the eight rows the pattern calls for. (I would’ve made them match had I only noticed earlier that I’d done the first one wrong.)

Then a few weeks ago I started up on the Irish hiking scarf pattern, and it’s going pretty well. I’m getting faster at this knitting thing. I dropped a stitch, it laddered its way down, and I fixed it with a crochet hook. You can’t even see where I messed up. There are mistakes, things I couldn’t bring myself to rip out twenty rows to fix, but I think it’s going to make a nice-looking scarf. It’s the same color as those wristwarmers, that autumn red, and I think I’m about 2/3 of the way through what I expect will be about a seven-foot scarf. I like long scarves.

And I finally spent my Knitpicks gift certificate! After having gotten this far into a halfway decent-looking scarf in worsted weight yarn, I went off my nut completely and decided that this means I can now knit lace. (You can laugh now. Go ahead.) I ordered their Janet lace shawl pattern and the yarn to make it, figuring that would be a good way to start since it uses a double strand and bigger needles. I also ordered yarn to make the candle flame shawl pattern, which is free, and which uses itty-bitty needles, so let’s hope I learn a thing or two while I’m making the Janet lace wrap.

And, with any luck, I will finish—finally!—that crochet corset thing. It is so close, but the remaining work to be done on it involves a needle and thread, and I am experiencing Major Dread. But I very much want to wear it on New Year’s Eve, so I’m trying to get over myself and get on with it.