One of my co-workers, Alice announced earlier this year that she will be marrying her American boyfriend in her native Germany (rumor has it a castle will be figuring into the wedding somehow) in early September.
Alice just loves my crochet and was one of the first people I actually made something for (a cancer hat for her mother). So, of course, I wanted to make an extra special gift for her wedding. She has a wonderful sense of fashion and accessorizes often with cowls and scarves. So the logical step was to make a lacy cowl. While the idea was percolating in my mind, I came across an Annie's crochet catalog and there, in the pattern section was a pretty hooded cowl. Now I honestly didn't want to purchase and have shipped a pattern -- especially since I didn't particularly like the stitch pattern used. But I really liked the look and drape of the cowl, so I made up my mind to create my own.
If you look in one of my previous posts, you will see a crocodile stitched shawl that I made my older sister. I used Patons Lace yarn which is acrylic/wool/mohair and has a nice halo effect. It is a mid-range priced yarn and I actually bought more than I needed, so I had 2 skeins left. The color is called Midas but is actually a self-striping yarn in white, beige, walnut, sage, deep purple colors. Perfect colors for Alice!
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| Lacy Cowl |
I created the cowl in a half double crochet openwork (one row of half double crochets, one row of half double, chain one, skip next stitch, half double across, then a row of half double crochets again). I created a rectangle 46" long by 20" wide, starting with a foundation half double crochet row (160 stitches), using a size "J" hook. Joining the 2 narrow sides, I created the cowl which hangs nicely down the front. The 20" width allows the lacy cowl to be drawn up as a delicate head covering, yet leave a nice collar on the back of the neck. I love the way it turned out. I think Alice will love it, too!
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| Delicate Lacy Hood |
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| Lacy Hood with Collar |
Then a couple of weeks ago, my youngest son and his fiancée announced that they're going to get married this fall -- at our house! OMG! Another wedding gift to prepare (and house to clean and yard to fix . . .)
I loved the look of this stitch pattern and the way it turned out with the Patons Lace, so I decided to make my daughter-in-law a shawl (she doesn't wear hats or cowls). As they are planning an Autumn wedding, complete with pumpkins, cornstalks and hay bales, I chose the Patons Lace Bonfire. But when I went to Joanns to purchase it, alas, they didn't carry this particular color. But what they did have was Patons Lace Sequins in black. PERFECT! My daughter-in-law just loves black! So I purchased 4 skeins and have started the shawl with a half double crochet grid pattern. So far it looks wonderful -- the sequins are very small, so the sparkle is subtle and quite charming. I think she will love this! More later . . .
I used the Paton's Lace Midas for a shawl before and loved it! The only thing I didn't like was if I made a mistake somewhere and had to frog back to the mistake, it was a booger because this yarn likes to hook itself together. Needless to say I had to slow down and keep checking my stitches to make sure I didn't mess up.
ReplyDeleteI found that if you hold the base of the stitch (the row below) as you gently pull out the stitches, it's relatively easy to frog back. Luckily, this particular pattern makes it easy to catch mistakes right away. Though the crocodile stitch was a bugger. :)
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