Knitrageous: It’s Magic …

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

It’s Magic …

Oh, ho, ho

It's magic, you know…

Never believe it's not so!

Is there such thing as magic? Probably not or else I’d be twitching my nose and turning people into toads all over the place! Sometimes things seem magical though. Sometimes yarn is magical to me. I made a cute little ‘shrug’ the other day. It was quick and the way it went together was almost like magic!

The original picture I saw; http://www.kootoyoo.com/2010/05/mulberry-granny-shrug.html

A knitting friend of mine, Carrie K, pinned a picture of the jacket to Pinterest. If you don’t know what Pinterest is, you surely need to find out! Anyway, I thought it was cute, repinned it and went to the originating site. There was a free pattern! Besides that, there was a video, and step by step instructions with pictures!

So I went to the yarn stash, and looked around. I found something in the blue cabinet that would work. It’s a little bright, but it’s fun, so what the heck! It’s kind of a blue/green boucle, something from Hobby Lobby called Fleece Lite. What made it even better is that it had a sale sticker on it and I’d only paid 2.00 a skein! So, the jacket would cost about $10.00 to $12.00!

Blue stash cabinet #2

There were six of these...for something!

This jacket is crocheted, not knitted. It required a giant hook, size “Q” in America, and when I started looking I found I had two of them. If that wasn’t big enough I even found an “S”! I can’t imagine working with one that big. The “Q” feels like a dowel!

I followed the instructions and started crocheting. At first it felt a bit awkward, mostly because the hook is so big around. But after I figured how to hold it in a more comfortable position it became easier.

Crocheting with a pole!

Just a granny square...but not square!

One thing about a big hook and fat yarn is that the project goes fast. It took me about three days, and that wasn’t working on it continuously. I’ve got a couple of other projects going so if my hands got tired I switched to one of them just for some relief.

If you can make a granny square you can make this shrug! That’s what it is. I was glad, though, that there were pictures because it seems a bit wonky. But the further along you go, the better it gets.
When it gets a certain size you can fold it and start to see how it will work. It becomes an “L” and you can see the sleeve and the body. It’s magic!

One of the hexagrams was finished! It was kind of floppy and I was skeptical. I folded it. Then I knew I had done it right! I anxiously started the second one.

Wonky hexagon

Folded to make an L. See the sleeve and body?

The second went fairly fast. It was still a little hard on my hands. Then it was finished as well. I laid them out to see what they’d look like. Surprise! They looked like a sweater!

Both sides now!

I sewed the back seam then sewed the sleeves. I decided I wanted the sleeves longer so I added three rows of granny stitch on each sleeve. It was easy. Just make rounds like you’d normally do. Then I edged the whole thing in single crochet.