Fiber and Squares and the Case of the Missing Blog

Hello everyone, and welcome to Fall! Halloween came a wee bit early for me this year - my blog went boo! in the night ... last Monday night around 6:00 pm to be exact. It went for a little trip to the other side until Wednesday morning, when it magically reappeared back in this universe. I have no idea where it went, or why it went where it went. But disappear it did. I'm so glad it's back.

So, I'm still elbow deep in fiber - some for projects with deadlines, but most associated with the join-along for my accessories collection. I'm going to initially play along with everyone by making an Enveloped Cowl for one of my models using the very soft and squoishy fiber to the right.

Picture taken with new cell phone camera.
Not too bad.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I love, love, love this yarn. Progress cowl pics next week. Also next week, the collection will be visiting The Underground Crafter - the week of Halloween. I love that.

I also made another square, this time for donation to a group blanket being made for someone who's been sick. A bunch of us donated either one or two squares, one person is putting the squares together into a blanket, and yet a few others donated yarn for the blanket finishing or postage money. The recipient picked the colors she wanted (mostly grays of all sorts and black accent), so here's my contribution:



The Snowfall square, my 9" x 9" version

I should also mention that the top and bottom photos were taken with my new 35 mm camera - a Canon Rebel. It's still film (!), but I'm thrilled to have a new, working camera. I still have my old camera, but it needs some serious mechanical tlc, so it will become my back-up camera.

Well, everyone, that's all I've got this Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday. Definitely get yourself over to The WonderWhyGal's blog, because I have no doubt there's a whole bunch going on over there.

And may you be candy and trick-or-treater rich this Halloween. Werewolves of London, indeed.

 

Autumn 2012 Accessories: Day 2

I want to thank everyone for the positive comments and response yesterday to the introduction of my accessories collection. Let's move forward today to the second design:

Enveloped Cowl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are times when the perfect stitch pattern comes together with the perfect yarn in a great design achieving fashion accessory harmonic convergence. Based on the feedback from all three of my models, the Enveloped Cowl seems to fit that bill. Each loved wearing this incredibly soft, lush and warm cowl - thanks to the superwash merino cashmere yarn. I love the fact that this stitch pattern, incorporating broomstick lace, is incredibly easy to memorize (which fact is confirmed by my test stitchers) yet looks like you expended all kinds of crafty energy.

 

The Enveloped is also a testament to the power of a few well-conceived details: the cowl 's edging, while an easy three rows, delivers a big design wallop; and the buttons along one edge increase the styling possibilities. The key is to choose lightweight buttons - heavy button material would negatively weigh down that side.

For those of you who may not have yet tried broomstick lace, I share with you this nugget: both of my cowl testers had not attempted the technique prior to this test. I posed the opportunity to each of them; they both took up the challenge based virtually on my word that it was easy-peasy. As you'll see next week (when I showcase one of the resulting cowls), they were more than up to the task. This written pattern contains a good amount of visual aids that will nicely augment all of the web broomstick lace resources. In a phrase? Just dooooo iiiiiiittttt.