Several years ago, when bobmage was reading about the Burgess Shale, I got a look at some of the line drawings of the critters and said "I could crochet that". Shortly after that, I did make small and large incomplete specimens. When Timothy was in the NICU, grabbing all the wires and tubes he could reach, I finally made a complete specimen: Sidneyia Inexpectans He's purple and purple 'cause that was the yarn I had on hand at the time. When I first made it, it was about chest-sized on Timothy.

I was one of the first in my class to have a computer at home - and one of the games I liked was Dancing Demon. I looked for references on line with no luck a few times, but last year I finally found a few videos. After watching it a few (dozen?) times over a few months, I thought "I could crochet that; Timothy might like it:" Dancing Demon

So, after the summer from hell - which ended in September when we brought our beautiful baby boy home from the hospital. (121 day NICU stay). I've finally had time to update Ravelry with my finished projects.

First: A hat and scarf made forbobmage . The hat was inspired by a discussion thread full of knitters who didn't believe the crocheters who identified the front post stitches on a hat.

Second: Three baby blankets. One for Timonthy - originally planned for Timothy and Leslie. I was going to let them fight over it until they got old enough to ask for another one. It was going to be pared with a swirl blanket, similar to my galaxy; Leslie's death put that one on hold.

One for Cooper - one of Timothy's roommates in the NICU. Cooper was 1 day older and we and his parents were close. When we weren't worried about Timothy, we tooka  break and worried about Cooper. When that got old, we worried about hsifyppah .

One for Ella - the senior baby in Timothy's room at the NICU. Her parents were wonderful for helping us feel like everything might be ok eventually.

Third: The squids Shortly after my pregnancy got complicated, our friend hsifyppah  announced she was pregnant. When we weren't worried about Timothy, we worried about Brooke. We offered her a crocheted squid (for the baby, riiiight), and she accepted squeeeeefully. So the big one is for Brooke. I was working on the prototype (he of the googly eyes) during Timothy's hernia surgury; when the surgeon saw it, he earned one of his own.FO

I finished enough of my newest project (ravelry link) to be sure that I don't have enough of the lavender lace yarn to finish it. (It was not a surprise, and no big hardship.) I have some lace-weight (14/1) linen in a beautiful royal blue, that would look great with the mint green, but probably still not enough for the sweater.  After talking it over with Amanda, and playing with some linen she stocks (and VERY kindly let me experiment with), I remembered that I also have some 4 ply (14/4) linen also in Royal blue.

So I went home and started pulling the 4 ply apart. I think I might have almost half of the first ply fully separated. After several hours of winding, and unwinding....

And bobmage is plotting an automatic yarn-unwinder....

When I first started to learn programming, I used crocheting and sweater design to give me ideas for my first "programs." It worked well as a learning tool, so I expanded into a more extensive Crochet Calculator, and finally into a very ambitious attempt to computerize crochet patterns. It was only about a year before I was able to print a pattern for a raglan-sleeved, (loose) turtleneck fitted sweater. It was several more years before I actually finished crocheting the sweater....

So, last night....
Me: What should I do for the neck of my new sweater?
Husband: Make a Q neck! (smart alec!)
Me: There's no such thing... wait, if you added a scarfy thing to a collar, it would be like a Q. Ok, I'll do that; thanks!

We are so weird sometimes.

So, I wasn't very happy with my last batch of picture taking - the sweaters were fitted, and even the padded, shapable, armlength hanger didn't do them justice. I thought - I wish I could get a custom-sized, inflatable mannequin. After a little time on google, I didn't find anything customizable, but I did find reasonably priced standard-sized inflatable mannequins.

Of course, none of them are quite the right size, but I picked one I thought I could work with, and it arrived yesterday. So today, once the sun comes up, I'm going skip work (it serves them right) and take more pictures. We'll see.

Colinette yarn has on-line ordering now. That is SOOOO dangerous. The last time I looked, they only sold through retailers..... I got to drool over some when I worked at Patternworks, but I never bought any. (They also have some very icky yarn - wigwam, yuck.) They have some beautiful blues.... And banyan, jitterbug, and tao are all light weight....

At long last, I finished my jacket!


I started it about 10 years ago, but with a different color pattern. I put it aside for a long time because I didn't like the way the pattern was coming out. Then, last fall, my sister asked me to make her a doily, which got me back into crocheting. And one night, or morning, while I was dozing, I had the new idea for the colors. Generally, the colors run in strings from top to bottom - the exact shape of each string was randomly generated with a handy D6. Yes, it has holes; yes, it is finished; no, it does not have "mange"; it is inspired by "devorė" (That's French, look it up :) ).

I finally cobbled a photo-taking spot in the new hose so I could catch up with my finished projects. It worked well for the sweaters, but I think the blankets need work.

First, a blanket in Lion's Homespun hug (very cuddly), made in rings from the center out, using a wave stitich.


Next, a v striped, sleeveless shell. Made with the last yarn I bought with my Patterworks employee discount. It is a wool silk mix, called "Helen's Lace" from Lornas Laces. A beautiful yarn to work with, and since it's lace weight, the finishes sweater is very light (6 oz), soft, flexible - the antithesis of the stereotype of crocheted sweaters. Which is one reason I made it. Of course, the down side is that it has 200 rows, and took forever.


Finally, another long-term project. Started while I was still at Patternworks, and finished last year. Only frogged completely once! My husband is responsible for figuring out how to plot a smooth spiral in DeltaCad (it is NOT as easy as it seems), which I now have to try to duplicate in QCAD. Made with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride worsted weight. Very warm, quite heavy, and the yarn was expensive enough that I'm afraid to leave it on the bed!

My old website with pictures of old projects - many of which are original designs - is at:
home.att.net/~yarntricia/
( My favorite picture on the main page: Collapse )