Well, not literally as I have numerous craft projects in hibernation, but this was where most of my recent efforts have been focused lately.
The other night this:
Became this…
*SIGH*
Several weeks ago I started what I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward crochet project using a therapeutic mind-numbingly repetitive pattern that would give me hours of creative pleasure. A crocheted dress, what could be better? Although it lived exactly up to expectations, it was also a little frustrating. I find that crochet is notoriously difficult to tension/gauge exactly and inevitably with me there is always a bit of prior experimentation involved with the hook size to get it just right, usually with a couple of false starts. This was about my fourth attempt where each time beforehand I had worked a good few rows of big shells in the border before measuring across and finding it was completely out of gauge and I had to rip the whole thing apart. Understandably I was getting a little sick of the lower border and eventually hit the wall where I would have gladly given away my internal organs just to get beyond this part and onto the main pattern.
On this occasion’s attempt I worked three rows of the border shells and found that my tension was perfect. BUT as my handywork grew in length, it somehow managed to LOSE WIDTH. It was only when I had got to the main body of the dress (OMG such joy) and happened to have it resting across my knees that I noticed that it seemed rather on the small side and when I measured across I found that it had lost A WHOLE TWO INCHES across.
Huh??!!
So all those hours and hours of work are now wound back up into a ball of yarn. I’m determined to persevere with it as I *will* make a crocheted dress So Help Me God, but for the moment it’s hibernating whilst I get over the feeling that I would rather gouge my eyes out with hot pokers rather than have to work the border pattern all over again for about the umpteenth time.
Born to wear pretty dresses and Barbour jackets and skip through muddy English fields in a pair of Hunter wellies, Nin is now a 30-something British Ex-Pat living in the urban wilds of the San Francisco Bay Area. She likes cake and chocolate and is on a quest to find the perfect Stateside cream tea. 
7 Responses to “And once again I am projectless…”
The yarn is the two photos look like different colors…. but I guess that’s just the lighting. Is it cinnamon or eggplant?
woah ! it did look gorgeous on the picture, and i agree with Dana about the color, it looks completely different !
Oh no! I’m so sorry that happened. I have a sweater back mostly done, and I’m very scared that if/when I ever pick it back up again, my tension will be completely different (it’s been about a year since I’ve worked on it) and I’ll have the same problem where each end is a different width. Maybe your tension is all over the place because of everything you’re going through with packing and moving and stuff. I bet once you complete the move and get settled in, it will be a bit easier to keep things even. Good luck! =)
First pic was with flash, second pic was without, that’s why they look different, but really they are the same! Photographed on the same carpet and everything.
The colour was more true to life with the flash which was why I posted it (it’s eggplant/aubourgine), but I forgot to use the flash after I’d frogged it. Here’s the no flash version of ‘before’ and you’ll see it’s the same colour as the yarn in the second pic:
I think my tension sucks just because it’s crochet. I should have done more pattern sequences in my test swatch but I was impatient. I’m just going to have to play around again using a bigger hook and test out what size I need. Oh well. I’ll deal with it later, far too much else going on at the moment. I’ll just find a smaller crochet project- I’m mainly after something I can do on the plane, so maybe I will do some mittens or something.
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The Bella Modiste
Hehe, thanks Naomi!
I love the colour! Even though I have done huge amount of knitting back in Finland, I just can’t figure out crotcheting - I have bought books and all and done it in school, but I cannot retrieve from the bottom of my memory quite how to do it.
But more importantly, where do you get yarn from in England? Here in Oxford (notoriously bad shopping here) I have only found once place, and their selection is tiny. I guess I’ll have to go to London. Again.