Monday, May 20, 2013

Third Time's A Charm

they say the the third time's a charm, and that's the truth. i've had it happen twice so far with yarn and the projects they turned into.

#1
i had some fuzzy black Rainbow boucle yarn that wanted to make a wrap with. first i tried the crochet version of the Wingspan (it's a Ravelry download). but the yarn was so fuzzy, i had to diligently count and keep track of every single stitch - no thanks!

so next i tried the Snowdrop wrap, which i'd made before. nope, still couldn't really see the stitches, so that wasn't the right wrap for the yarn either.

finally i decided to just make my own again, and used a variation of my own Shoulder Wrap i made last year. i first chained 251, for 250 hdcs across for my first row, and realised that was going to be huge, so i took it down to 200. from there, row 2 was to ch1, hdc across, creating a mesh. row 3, i worked it so i would hdc into the space, and separate the stitches with a ch1. sometimes a the beginning of the row, i would chain 2 and then hdc into the space, or i'd ch1 and hdc into the first stitch, and create the hdc-into-the-ch1-space that way. when i got to 25 rows, i decreased each row in the first two and last two stitches, and worked that way for another 25 rows and then called it done.

here's the result~ and it's fuzzy and comfortable too!




#2
i wanted to make the Wingspan since i saw it. i like the asymmetricalness of the wrap, it calls for all single crochet stitches, and it's a rather simple pattern to master. first i tried it with some wool yarn, but that was making the fabric too stiff. i wondered about using hdcs instead?

i found a yarn that would have made a wonderful fabric - but you've already read that story above.

after some more searching, i discovered Jo-Ann's Sensations Breeze yarn, it's soft, thin, and made a nice drapey fabric! it was like it was perfect. and as i've said, sometimes the yarn picks the pattern. i bought two skeins, and started a different wrap on one skein, but then after several rows, i got curious and started the Wingspan on the other.

and several rows after that, it became clear the Breeze yarn wanted to be made into the Wingspan. my own version had seven wings, and the first and odd-numbered wings were made with the hdcs i'd wondered about (obviously, it worked out wonderfully). the second and even-numbered wings were made with the single crochets. it created some symmetry to an asymmetrical wrap.