Things that strike me

I mostly crochet as can be seen from anyone who actually spends time with me. Today, I spent some time finishing a crochet choker. I should have also finished off a doily but it’s just not going to happen because I’m shattered and the thread is molto very fine and the stitches are blindingly small.

The choker was made from broomstick lace and frankly, it’s a, prototype. Yeah that’s the word. I got a couple of things wrong about it. Firstly I did it in Lang Silk Dream yarn. It’s gorgeous. I have two colours, one which you could call Burgundy and one which you could call icy pink. I’m sure Lang have different colour way titles for them. It is absolutely beautiful yarn to work with and unfortunately I don’t have too much of it because I bought what one stall holder had at the Knitnstitch show a couple of years. Initially it was going to be a scarf but I decided during the week that I had a a different plan for it.

When you put it on, it’s really comfortable to wear and so, so lovely and warm. So much so that instead of doing a new choker without the little imperfections, I am toying with using the three remaining balls to make a cowl, in the round, which will be no small task given what working with the large knitting needles is like. But I will probably start it early tomorrow morning if I don’t do it tonight.

When it’s done, I will write a pattern for it and put it up on Ravelry. I now want more of that yarn. I still, however, want to make a beautiful choker but suspect that in fact, even if I used the Noro silk garden that I have upstairs, I’ll have the same issue called “it stretches”. That being said, it’s occurred to me that maybe I could use the Noro to make the cowl and do something else again with the Lang.

While wandering around twitter today, I found this which tells me what I always knew. The infrastructure is there for knitting, but no so much for crochet, but there is a greater interest in crochet at the moment.

I love the possibilities of crochet; and I have quite a few very sweet patterns. But I have to say when I was starting off 3 or 4 years ago, I found patterns hard to come by. Now I just find time hard to come by.

As a result of this, a few of my crochet items are designed by me. The shawl I wear at work, for example, the choker I finished today, other bits and pieces. The shawl I am making for home (but which is a lot of work….:-) If you are interested in crochet, Ravelry is a useful place to start looking for patterns and my designers of choice are Kristin Omdahl and Doris Chan.

And me of course. I swear I will put up that choker when I figure out what yarn to use to make it.