whirling in light blue

Mathematics and geometry within crochet works makes beauty possible.

I plan to crochet some sort of afghan made of this kind of "wheels". i'm using a num. 6 crochet hook (the odd gauge of older Dama-brand crochet hooks I had at home).

In the image just a few "wheels" are sewn together....others are just tied with pins.

 

wednesday rose

Wednesday came and I finished a knitted rose (the leaves are from squared pieces of cloth I had bought a long time ago). Again I used some old yarn (I undid some crocheted granny squares).

I found the pattern in a Clarín Tejido magazine (2011) but, as usually, I didn't follow the instructions exactly....

I used 4 mm needles (instead of 6mm)....and I didn't use any felting technique.

1. cast on 70 st. and knit 10 rows
2. decrease twice 6 stitches right and left
3. decrease twice 4 stitches right and left
4. finish!
5. curl up...sew and attach (sewing) the leaves
6. sew some pin or clip to turn the knitted rose into a lapel pin...or hair clip/pin
   

unknown yet

I got the yarn and a vague idea of what I wanted. As I knit this new jacket, new ideas come to my mind about the final shape, the kind of sleeves to knit, and so on.

I got the yarn at the same place of the pale yellow one in a previous post. Using this kind of stitch, the knitted cloth is very light and soft, very nice. I'm using 2,5mm knitting needles. I now prefer to use thinner needles....maybe since the result looks more elegant, and rather spring/summer-like. However, using a bigger-gauged needles with thin yarns has also very interesting results....looking a bit like Haapsalu shawls.

haven't I said that I like yellow?

At some 0,60 euro shop (multiprice, not a Chinese bazaar) I found some beautiful yellow yarn (caricias bebé, from servimex). The colour looks a bit different in the picture but anyway, there are more pictures to come. Each yarn ball (50g) was 0,75 euro, and the texture is very nice and soft. I'm usign 2,5mm needles. The stitch pattern I'm using is not difficult (to me, now that I got used to knitting) but like all lace-knitting patterns, it's easy to make a mistake when counting.

The PLAN: lace knitted long-sleeved jacket.

B/W jacket (houndstooth a.k.a. pied-de-poule variation)

I had found the picture and instructions of a jacket with some sort of houndstooth pattern but, as usually, I felt it could be improved, i.e. adapted to my taste and preferences. The shape is already different, I knitted longer sleeves (sort of 3/4) and I'm not knitting fake pockets. I didn't either knit the ribbing as it's indicated but I crocheted most of it instead.

It seems that I can't really follow any instructions completely since I tend to find something worth being improved.

I'm still amazed about how little yarn I needed! I used 1 yarn ball of each colour (100g) and some extra yarn ...but much less than half a yarn ball. By the way, I used 5mm needles.

I'm not sure but I might knit a pair of pockets (same pattern, ribbed in black).

knitting-fever

I already had a knitting guide with plenty of patterns...but I needed some more infos and guidance on techniques....and found a great guide.

I happened to find japanese knitting symbols clearer as the ones I've been seeing by now....I'm quite excited about learning more about knitting.

I found many magazines and sites about knitting in Japanese and also in Chinese.....but no matter how much I tried, nothing from Korea (besides some Pucca knitting charts)....What makes knitting and crocheting more popular in some countries than in others???

kanjiknit-hangulknit

Having started with Korean language and being back into improving my Japanese, the idea of applying them to my knitting-time activites (while watching the news on tv, basically), couldn’t be helped. However, no matter for how long I’ve been crocheting, I never felt like crocheting kanji...maybe because I didn’t feel it’d look nice, or at least as nice as it can look when being knitted.


The Korean word 돈 means money (read: don) (I meant to knit some kind of coin purse)...and the kanji 菫 is for the translation of the meaning of my name (read: sumire). Since they’re not that complicate, I drew the knitting chart myself. I also created a bigger knitting chart for some Korean saying...but I still don’t know where and when I’ll use it....

RECYCLING

Some time ago I read about recycling by crocheting some materials. The examples were old cassette tapes and also plastic bags. Having learnt to knit properly, I remembered such recycling ideas and gave it a try. Why not making a plastic bag out of low-quality plastic bags? There are always lots of plastic bags that end up in the recycling rubbish bin and it could be a good idea to reduce the volume of the rubbish we generate, which is far too much in post-industrial countries.

But that wasn’t enough for me....I kept thinking of other materials to convert....anything else that could be torn and transformed into pseudo-yarn for crocheting and knitting works. So far I converted old pantyhose I no longer wore into yarn. The result is very interesting. I also want to try something else I read about: making yarn from old t-shirts. Using 9mm-gauge knitting needles (I got a pair at a multi-price Chinese shop....for 1 euro) could have good results....Tiny ideas in times of measures against global warming....

Stitches

I got an interesting present these days: a book about knitting (how to+stitch patterns). I’ve always preferred crochet since when, many years ago, I tried knitting, I felt pretty clumsy and didn’t remember much about what I had been taught even more years ago. But I did remember a lot about crochet. I downloaded patterns and learnt many techniques. But knitting? At first I saw the book and felt.....it’s a pity I can’t really knit well....But then I gave it a try and managed to learn and I’m no longer that clumsy at it. The book ended up being one of the best presents I could have received since it meant learning something new. It feels so great to have learnt something new!!!

Wrap with flowers...

Yellow (mustard Yellow). After quite a looong long time, I was back into crocheting. I missed creating woollen stuff....and colder temperatures had come and it’s still a long time until they leave.

I managed to remember the flower pattern I was taught many years ago. I had never drawn it down so I had to try and undo and redo several times until I got it. I’m already using the second yarn ball (each of 100gr approx.)....so I'll finish the yellow scarf pretty soon....

light pink cotton spring

A new project....The plan is to crochet some kind of shrug, suitable for cooler summer days/nights. I went for some light pink cotton yarn...unusual colour for me.
(this post will be gradually updated)

THE MAGAZINES: RUSSIA-BRAZIL-...LITHUANIA

Some time ago I began looking for crochet magazines on the net (those I have at home are just to crochet decorative items for home or too old –like fashionable jackets and sweaters...but fashionable in 1987-). Spanish magazines I’ve seen are not really interesting to me. Ah…lucky to have internet. I came across really good magazines. The best ones happened to be Russian (like Дуплет and Мoд) and Brazilian but there are many Japanese magazines worth having a look at (such as 毛糸だま –keito dama-). Why is crochet so popular in Russia and Brazil?? Mystery…the fact is that the amount of magazines from these 2 countries is pretty considerable. Crocheters are lucky ^-^.

But in some Russian forum there were links to plenty of magazines from other places and there were other interesting options such as a couple of Lithuanian magazines. I especially like the one named “Pačios”. The patterns/ideas are nice and the instructions provide schemes (otherwise there would be nothing to do)…and I like to see texts in Lithuanian…what a curious language. I told about this discovery to another linguistics-enthusiast, Hu-ang-lags, and praised page 16 (why?, don’t know…there was just text and some pattern scheme) and he even said he started looking for some magazine in Gaelic (after el-regocijo-de-ver-algo-escrito-bonitamente-en-lituano). In which less spoken languages can we find crochet magazines??? Crochet is so international that almost anything is possible.

for a nude table...

using the same flower-like pattern I'm using to crochet a jacket....

happy green jacket

finally!!!! I bought the yarn to do-some-jacket-or-bolero in August (at Labores Epi, in Salamanca city)....but I didn't find the stitch pattern+idea until recently. I found the stitch pattern in some russian site (with scanned magazines)...I tried crocheting using that pattern with the green yarn (I'll will post the name and colour) and went on crocheting an improvised jacket (I didn't use any pattern) since I liked the way it looked like....and recently I finished....the jacked is ready to be worn!

testing a stitch pattern...

Several weeks ago I started what was supposed to become a bolero using a recently discovered stitch pattern. The project is now on stand by because I'm having some problems with the sleeves and I think I'll change the "concept-design". The fact is that I'm not going to forget about this stitch pattern since I really like it. I planned to use this stitch patter to crochet some kind of little bag...but it's being hard to choose the 2 colours....When it comes to choosing among colours I tend to have problems and it takes me a lot of time.