Kicking Off July

Hello everyone - welcome to the hazy, lazy days of summer. It's been super warm around here, and there's pretty much no end in sight.

photo credit: www.iLikeCrochet.com

To distract from the heat of the moment, I am pleased to show you my two latest designs published in the August edition of iLikeCrochet.com. I seem to be in cardigan overdrive these days: check out the Cozy Chic Cardi. Worked up in Drops Baby Alpaca Silk, this is a light, airy cardigan that's also a breeze to work up. The sleeves have cuff interest courtesy of some boho shaping (if the model's arm was straight, the sleeve would rest past the wrist). The overall look is relaxed and casual, and since it's lightweight, makes a great travel piece.

Please excuse the sun in the photo,
but you can see how the
cuff dips along the outer edge.

Additionally, I've written a quick article on how to work with multiple colors in tunisian crochet, and designed a cowl to show off the technique. The Mixed Bag Cowl is a great project not only because you'll get to play with color, but also because it does double duty as an excellent stash-busting project. While I used three different fingering weight yarns for the main body of the cowl, the edging is worked up in Berroco Mixer, which is dk weight. There's also a thick and thin quality to it that I found added a ton of interest to the cowl's edges.

This is a good shot of the thick and thin
quality of the edging done in Berroco Mixer.

This is a great project to play around with color and texture and create something unique with one of my all-time favorite techniques - working with multiple colors in tunisian crochet.

I do want to take a minute to also urge you to check out this edition of iLikeCrochet.com. It is really chock-full of great crochet projects (my designs notwithstanding), including this lace topper that, if you like crochet lace as much as I do, you might want to make ... like ... pronto.

It's Indepedence Day weekend here in the U.S., and Canada just celebrated Canada Day. I wish everyone all kinds of freedom - however you define it.

Oh, and let's hope everyone stays cool and enjoys some rockin' food.