Work In Progress – Page 6 – Dutch Hollow Acres

June 15, 2011

WIP – Fiber and Shawls

It was a very busy weekend fiber wise on the farm with our shearing of the alpacas. This of course produces bags upon bags of raw fiber which need to be skirted. Thus my current and most immediate WIP is skirting.

I got bored last week during my lunch breaks and started yet another shawl. My alpaca shawl still isn’t finished but I forgot it at home so it has been dormant still. The only thing I could find in my car was some cotton so this is what I’ve come up with so far.

That’s about it. Don’t forget, if you raise fiber animals share your photos them here at Fiber Wordless Wednesday

June 8, 2011

WIP – Crochet Video Close Up

I’m still working on the alpaca fan shawl and decided to take a little video of it while I worked. Hope it helps some of you out with crochet. Sorry for the quality, I took it with my cell phone.

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011

WIP: Shawl and Crochet Tutorial

Reading through some posts from Fiber Arts Friday last week I noticed some questions from folks new to crochet. The question: How do you hold your work and control tension?

Since I’m still working on my alpaca shawl I thought I’d grab a couple of photos to show how I hold my work.

I like to run the yarn over my index, under my middle and over my ring and pinky. I found this method works the best for me both knitting continental style and for crochet. If I tried any other combination I ended up having to take my wedding band off because the yarn would get stuck in it.

For crochet I let the yarn stay far back on my index finger. I like to reach for the yarn and snag it with the hook. If I’m continental knitting I’ll move the yarn up past the 1^st knuckle so I can control it easier and move my finger back and forth so I can knit and purl without having to change positions.

Starting Chain Tip: If you’re new to crochet and have problem with your initial chain and then attempting the next row try this. Use a hook 2x as big as what you will be using on your project for the initial chain. That will prevent you from making the tension in your starting chain too tight and make your 2^nd row much easier to complete.

Hope this helps!

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April 13, 2011April 13, 2011

WIP: Fan Pattern Shawl Con’t

So my hope was to finish the shawl sitting around a camp fire while we were camping at Letchworth State Park this past weekend. Instead our camp fire dreams were stomped out by Smokey the Bureaucratic State Employee Bear!

Letchworth kicked us out of our cabin that we’ve rented for the past 11 years and tossed us in another one while our usual cabin was geting an overhaul. Why? Because….
Letchworth took out ALL wood burning stoves from ALL of the cabins
Letchworth no longer provides campers with firewood even for outside camp fires
Letchworth pissed me off and totally ruined our camping trip! ARGH

The first night we all stood around what used to be a fireplace and did nothing but bellyache about Letchworth. We were so bored we all went to bed at 9pm totally sober and irate.

Day 2 was a little better; we drank beer, ate bacon and eventually went on a hike. Later we drove all the way back to Geneseo to pick up some of those manufactured logs just so we could have an outside camp fire. More drinking made the processed fire almost look realistic.

Since most of my time was spent complaining about the State of New York and Letchworth State Park in general I only got 1 pattern row done on my scarf. But, the good news is I’m almost done with a skein and there’s 1 more skein left to work and the other one will be used for fringe.

Oh, I also read a book called “A Dog’s Purpose” by Bruce Cameron. If you’re a dog lover I highly recommend it. If you’re a crier keep tissues handy. I slobbered all over my sleeping bag and pillow on several occasions.

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April 6, 2011April 5, 2011

WIP: Green Shawl Progress

I’ve been working away on the green fan shawl when I can. It’s to the point now where I hate doing a row because it takes SO long and there’s little visible growth. But, I got 3 full pattern rows done on Tuesday which added another 6” to the shawl so I’m happy

crochet_fan_pattern_shawl

Size wise it currently is the length of 1 arm, my chest and to my elbow of the other arm. I have a 6 foot wing span so I’m thinking it’s about 4.5 ft wide and about 2.75 ft long. Yes, this is how I measure things. Very scientific isn’t it?

This is actually the first time I’ve used the 3.75mm crochet hook and it’s been angering my pinky. The hook shaft must be rubbing on a nerve in my pinky finger and the darn think tingles after just a few minutes. So I started modifying it. At first I put on one of the rubber crochet grippies but that did nothing. Next I added a post-it note and a sticker but it wasn’t fat enough so 3 more stickers were added. Then the post-it note gave up its grip and the whole thing started to slide around so I added 2 rounds of scotch tape and slid the apparatus over the tape and it stuck nicely. Lastly I still wanted more bulk on the end so took the rubber grip off my pen and put it on.

Tada! My nice fat grip 3.75mm crochet hook. Oh yeah, the only reason I did this is because the new ChiaoGoo hook that I bought that has a nice flat and fat bamboo handle made stitches too loosely compared to the hook I was using. Ugh. Oh well, I’ll use it on another project from start to finish.

With any luck I will have this shawl finished in time to go up for sale this coming Fiber Market Monday. What is Fiber Market Monday? It’s a new link party specifically geared to promoting handmade fiber items, raw fiber or fiber animals so come on back this coming Monday and check out all the goodies!

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