Hairpin lace! Beaded hairpin lace! I feel talented! I would feel more talented if it looked a little neater, but for a first attempt I'm very pleased with it.
It's the Fanny's Cross choker from Melissa Horozewski's "Austentatious Crochet." I found the cross in my 'scrapbook' the other day; I think it was a Christmas gift from my aunt Melanie, but I couldn't say for sure. I know she's sent me others.
The instructions in the book were extremely vague, and further searches for tutorials left me baffled by the hook gymnastics, but after a lot of searching I found a video on YouTube that broke down the basics of how hairpin lace works well enough that I was able to figure out the gymnastics for myself.
I used Aunt Lydia's metallic crochet thread, size 6 seed beads, and a size 0 hook. I'm not sure exactly how wide the hairpin frame was set at; I just eyeballed what looked approximately like 1.5." Finding a ruler in my crafting nest just takes too long, you know.
The book calls for a torpedo(?) clasp, but I just left the ends long and braided them. Of course, I entirely forgot that I hate wearing chokers, because anything close around my neck makes me feel, well, you know. I was blinded by my love of Fanny Price, eagerness to try a new technique, and the fact that I had a little cross much like the one on the book's example. I'm at least happy that it doesn't make my neck look stumpy.
I really dislike my face sometimes. I know I'm a reasonably attractive young woman, if not entirely to society's standards body-wise, but it's a pain the neck to get a photograph where I don't look like a blob. Like my glaring hat face from the previous post, where I appear to consist entirely of nose. I'd like the internet to know that in person, I am not a walking nose.
Anyway.
I'm also working on a granny square market bag, because I am helpless in the face of dishcloth cotton string bags and granny squares in most forms. There's just something so sweet and kitschy about them.
I made some progress for UFO Thursday on my Luna scarf. I'm afraid it's going to need some very aggressive blocking in order to have any kind of drape. It's almost but not quite able to stand up on its own right now. I've never blocked acrylic, but I think this might be one of those instances for killing it would be in order.
This is an old picture, at about 49% completion. I'm closer to 80% now, but the light is not camera-friendly.
I was really impressed with the scrubbing power of the Tribble tawashi my angel swapper sent me, so I'm trying to make one myself. The first attempt was a dismal failure, but I'm hoping that casting on twice as many stitches this time will remedy the problem. I have no idea what the problem was, but I'm optimistic that bigger is better.
No, I rarely make any kind of logical sense.
Other than that, I am knitting a rug for our kitchen. I seem to have made some rather interesting mistakes in the cables, despite being about 4 rows in. I believe I shall call it a design feature, or perhaps "something that will be hidden by the shoes piled on top of it."
Silas has a Hobbes.
