Sunday, March 22, 2009

Critical Mass

My stash has officially reached critical mass. I am embarrassed to say that it may now be considered a self-sustaining entity. I say this because as I packed it all away, it tried to escape from what will have to be its old storage place ( a plastic thing that a queen-sized comforter came in). As we were packing up my things, one of my best friends tried to zip the bag and it burst at top seam. The sad and possibly dangerous part was the fact that we continued to find skeins/balls of yarn as we packed up the rest of my small bedroom. I mean I actually found yarn that I didn't know that I had. I don't remember buying it or anything. This leads me to suspect that my yarn stash has actually found a way to reproduce and may be plotting to take over Music City U.S.A. The sad sad part of this situation is that all of the aforementioned yarn is acrylic/acrylic blend and wool. This means that I'm seeking lighter/summer-safe yarns. I'm also looking to expand the types of yarns I use as I'm thinking that acrylic is great, cheap, and good for a lot of things, but not always appropriate. I've been scoping out some cotton/linen/silks and reading up on them to see what I might be getting myself into. The stash is big, but at this rate it might be out of control soon.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

I'm on Ravelry and Twitter

Come check me out nappythreadz on both.

I HATE Sleeves

So I got my crochet mojo back. I've been working on Tammy Hilderbrand's "Chicago Swing Jacket" since late last month. I can only crochet for short stretches so I'm just now getting to the sleeves. I'm sure I mentioned my hatred when I wrote about Afya's "It's a Wrap". Well, Chicago hasn't made me love them anymore. It's my second "large wearable" and the sleeve construction was new to me. The shoulder (a sort of cap-sleeve) was made first and then the rest of the sleeve is worked. I'm including some pictures of the item and a close-up of the offending pre-sleevage
So far I've used just shy of 2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Grey Heather (it looks silver to me due to the sheen of the yarn). I'm guessing it'll end up being around 2 and a third maybe a half. I haven't found buttons I want to use just yet. I thought about finding some large sew on rhinestones and using those for a bit of pop. That or grey square buttons. I really don't want to crochet the buttons like the pattern suggest. Decisions decisions.