Placement for a project using a few stitches from Betty Barnden’s The Crochet Bible.
I chose the 4mm rather than the usual 5mm because I wanted tighter stitching and I like the way the Mighty Stitch yarn kind of rolls up like a little tube as it is worked with the 4mm. It’s more prone to splitting with a 4mm, though, so I’m watching for that and reworking stitches as needed.
For some reason, I started working this as a round bottom bag, although I was actually thinking about an oval bag the entire time. Not one of my better days yesterday. Frogged it all out this morning and started again with an oval. Gotta love stress…
Pattern-wise, I just made this up as I went along. Basically, made a flat oval for the bottom, aiming for a multiple of 7 (the multiple advised for the Thistle Stitch). I worked the oval in hdc.
I’m working the body now. The bottom of the body is three rows of very simple dc in each stitch of the oval. Then I’m working rows of the Thistle Stitch. I’ll post the number of rows once I’m happy with them.
05-26-2017
OK. So, the body is three rows of dc, followed by 12 rows of thistle stitch. Top the thistle stitch section with a row of 1 dc in each st except for the top two stitches of the shell formation; use 1 hdc in each of those two stitches. This makes an even, straight edge. Top this row with a row of dc, reducing the stitches to a multiple of 6. Then do 6 rows of arcade stitches.
Will update as I progress…
05-27-2017
The arcade stitch lends itself nicely to mirroring itself into a nice handle simply by working all the way around the foundation chain, 4 rows on each side. It also makes a nice buttonhole row.
A new AC necessitates a new curtain. Mom really loves her diamond pattern projects so she’s ordered another! Sounds good to me. This will be a good take-along project for all the doctor visits we have scheduled lately.
06-23-2017
The first skein covers 16 1/2 rows, just for reference. The color has yet to grow on me, but I think it’s perfect for the room. I’m working the project slowly, with the Reddit bedspread taking priority, which is why a fairly simple and often-worked pattern seems to be taking forever.
06-25-2017
I’m finally thinking I didn’t flub it on the color choice. The yarn splits frequently but heals well; I put the splitting down to the hook size. If I’d gone with a 4mm rather than a 3.5, there’d be less splitting. I had to frog 4 rows last night because I flubbed one edge and had kept adding stitches. Sigh. But I still enjoy the pattern and it’s a nice companion piece to the bedspread, both lighter in color and weight, so that I look forward to getting to work on it, so all is well. Onward.
06-28-2017
Working skein 3.
06-30-2017
Skein 4.
07-03-2017
Skein 5 and about 9” remaining to the top of the curtain rod.
07-05-2017
Skein 6. Almost done!
07-06-2017
Finished! It took about 5 1/3 skeins. The part across the rod would look better if I had started from the top, maybe, but even that looks fine. I used double treble crochet (US terms) with a 4mm hook for the stitches needed to go around the rod.
Found this (gorgeous) photo on Pinterest but could find no attribution or pattern, so I’m going to try it by looking at the photo. Waiting on my yarn to arrive and other projects to achieve completion.
07-07-2017
Meanwhile I found this pattern had a name and an actual pattern. Well, that should make it easier! However, this being me, I found I couldn’t follow it too well, so I’m back to going off the photo again. It’s going quickly, so far, just a glorified granny! I don’t intend to include the flowers.
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