Crimson Pillow and nerdiness

My Crimson pillow is finished! I blocked it when I finished the Daffodil scarf and put it together just before Christmas. I really love how it turned out. I seamed the edges with a simple crochet slip stitch and it worked very well.











As for the nerdiness, I have lots of little things that make my crafty life easier.

First: I got Clara Parkes' "Knitters Book of Yarn" for Christmas. I am loving this book. I have so much to learn about different fibers and this is really going to be a big help. I haven't had time to dig deep into the pages yet, but I will soon.



Second: I bought a set of needle files today. I'm planning to do some beading and they will help file down the rough edges on my wire wraps.

Third: I used a spare file card binder to make a yarn catalog for myself. It's full of 3x5 cards, one for each brand and style of yarn I have used so far. Then I used a hole punch in one side to make a space to loop a sample of each one. The color is written on the back of the card. It was inspired by the shade cards I saw at Elann.com. It's helpful to see the fiber contents, weights, stitch counts and care instructions all in one place. I'm a list-maker by nature, and this binder makes me happy. Yes, I'm weird.

Natural Crimson - a Plethora of Stitches

So I've learned to knit again. I knew how once upon a time and decided to pick it up again so I could do even more with yarn. Also, I was working on this new pillow and the single crochet stitch was eating up a lot of yarn. I had heard knitting uses less, so I wanted to see how it would turn out if I knitted the back of the pillow in stockinette instead.

Annie Modesitt (http://www.modeknit.com) mentions Continental knitting in her writing and says it's her preferred method to knit. I read about both English and Continental knitting in the Stitch 'n Bitch Knitter's Handbook and decided to give it a try. It's easier for me to knit Continental because I can hold the yarn in my left hand and do the work with my right, just like I do when I crochet. I've gotten fairly speedy and my first stockinette is turning out rather well, if I do say so myself.

So this is that lovely Paton's SWS "Natural Crimson" I had tried to make into a scarf. I frogged it and am now working on a 13x13 pillow. The front is done in the same Wavy Chevron pattern - basically all double-crochet, but it gets into some fun front-post double crochet stitches to make those delicious ridges.

Chain on multiples of 17.
Row 1: chain 2, double crochet in 3rd ch from hook and then two dc's in each of the next two chains. Then skip a chain and double crochet every other five times. Skip a chain and then put two double-crochets in each of the next six chains. Repeat the five and six pattern across to end with two double-crochets in each of the last three chains. Basically, you start and end the row with half of the six part of the pattern.
Row 2: Chain 2, then front-post double crochet in each post and end with a fpdc in the turning chain. This row really flies because you're only crocheting around the posts and there's no counting. This is also why this pattern eats yarn. The end result is that on the back of this stitch, all of those nice tops of the stitches from the row below are hanging out and ignored and overlapping the posts of the fpdc's. It makes a ridge that stands out and creates texture, but it also means you get a lot less fabric length for the amount of crocheting you do.
Row 3: Chain 2, double crochet in first double crochet, then two dc in the next two dc.Then skip a dc and double crochet every other five times. Skip a chain and then put two double-crochets in each of the next six dc's. Repeat the five and six pattern across to end with two double-crochets in each of the last three dc's. This is basically row 1 all over again, except we're out of the chain and into the good stuff.
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until the fabric is long enough.

End result is:

FRONT:



BACK:



The Patons SWS has some fierce stripes using this stitch and I love it!

Next came my initial attempt at the back. I used single crochet back and forth and got this gorgeous, square, flat, crisp fabric with dramatic striping. I love the SWS because it has a gloss to it (see the photo of the back of the chevron to see how it shines under flash). However, I did not love the amount of yarn this uses because SWS is more expensive and you get less per skein than regular wool. It's 70% wool and 30% soy, so it's worth it, but still.. there had to be another way. Also, the striping was almost too dramatic to use with the chevrons on the front side of the pillow.



So, stockinette entered the picture. It's such a difference! The fabric rolls, which I know will be a non-issue after it's blocked and sewn into a pillow, but it's different to work with. Also, the striping is gradual and soft, and the whole fabric has a fuzz to it instead of the stiff, crisp texture of crochet. It's thinner and more wearable, but less dramatic. This is exactly what I needed. It echoes the colors in the front of the pillow, but is a nice quiet backdrop to the texture. It's like the Patty Duke show. The crochet is Patty Lane and the knitting is Cathy.




Put the three together and see what I mean. I can't wait to see how this pillow turns out!

Lilac Pillow

This is another pillow I made as a gift. My other sister wanted one for her bed so she picked these yarns to fit her color scheme. The green is very bright, so I used it only for the seams. It gives the whole pillow a little "pop" without being overpowering. Unlike the other pillow, I crocheted this so the stitch rows ran along the short side of the pillow. This gives the color balance my sister wanted and allowed for the thin grey stripes across the pattern.

This was a more challenging pillow to put together. My sister picked the colors she wanted from different weight yarns. The lilac was light, the white was medium, the grey was bulky and the green was super bulky. Because of this, I ended up double-stranding the lilac with white. Most of this pillow was done in half-double crochet. The exception is the grey stripes and the lilac at either end done in single crochet.

There are really only three true seams in this pillow. I stitched the last seam through the center crease of the fabric, just to keep the green piping consistent on all four sides. I didn't do this on the other pillow because I sewed it closed with the same yarn and the seams were much less visible.

Some notes on the yarn - they were all 100% acrylic except for 20% mohair in the green. The white feels soft in the skein but it crocheted into a heavier fabric than I expected. The lilac was soft and pleasant to work with. The grey was thick, soft and heavenly, although a little fuzzy. I like the texture it gave the stripes - dense and soft. The boucle, as I think I mentioned before, is a fun yarn but it's loopy and unravels in a hurry. It's nice for the seams because it gave texture without a lot of stitching and it's a nice contrast to the precise stitches throughout the rest of the fabric.

Details:
Yarn:
White Stripes - Red Heart "Soft White" (one skein)
Lilac Stripes - Double stranded with Red Heart TLC Baby "Powder Lilac" (half skein) and white
Grey Stripes-Lion Brand Jiffy "Silver Heather" (half skein)
Seams - Lion Boucle "Lime" (half skein)
Hook: 5mm H8
Stitch: Half-double crochet through most, single crochet seams. Stitches run with the short dimension of the pillow.
Pillow: Joann Fabrics "Soft n Crafty" 14x28in

Regency Pillow

This pillow was crocheted as a gift for my sister. She wanted one to go in her sage, cream and blue bedroom. This was surprisingly fun to make and the half-double crochet went very quickly. For such a nubbly yarn, it was easy to work with once I got past the first row. I made a very large rectangle and simply single crocheted the edges when it was large enough to reach all the way around the pillow. I started this yesterday and frogged it about five times before I the dimensions worked the way I wanted. Crocheting a tube did not work. I also didn't like the way the striping ran when I crocheted with the short edge of the pillow. This is one of Lion Brand's "Painterly" colors and it has subtle self-striping. There are sections of purple, teal blue and cream worked throughout the yarn.

One point to note - this acrylic yarn frays like the dickens when cut. I made some tight knots and wove in longer than usual edges. It might make fun tassels because it's so silky soft when it unravels, but that would be very much not good in the middle of a pillow.

Details:
Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun "Regency" (slightly more than two skeins) - one skein made 13x22inches.
Hook: 6mm J10
Stitch: Half-double crochet throughout, single crochet seams. Stitches run with the long dimension of the pillow except for two rows of hdc on each short end as a finish.
Pillow: Joann Fabrics "Soft n Crafty" 14x28in