Of Skipping Ropes and Fish

I thought I'd start another curds and whey lace as a 'handbag project', but when I was looking in the book, Tatting with Visual Patterns, for the pattern, I came across Mary Konior's skipping ropes edging and decided I'd work that one instead. I scribbled a copy of the diagram so that I can take it with me instead of carrying the whole book. The pattern is worked entirely in chains, so that one shuttle full of thread should go a long way. The thread is a charity shop find, I don't know what brand it is, but the colour is mink, subtly variegated.

I also wound thread for Carollyn's fishy tat along, which is here. It's a small project, the perfect diversion from my crochet.

Pecan Pie

Not far from us is a big irrigation scheme called the Vaalharts Scheme. Here's a link to a Wikipedia entry for it. They grow a lot of pecans there, most of which are exported to China. As a local, it's possible to get hold of the best quality if you know who to ask! Perfect for pecan pie.

Spot The Difference

I did try to make sure that all the balls of crochet thread I bought the other day were the same size, but an odd one sneaked through. The one on the far right is size 5, the others size 8. It's not too serious because I bought way more than I'll need for my crochet top. It's firmly spun, I think it'll tat up well, so perhaps there are apricot bookmarks in my future.

I am making progress on the top, I've got to waist level:

Better?

I decided to use the 2 mm hook, so that there isn't too big a difference between this section and the central panel. I like the more open look, though some of yesterday's commentators say they like the denser fabric. It was easier to get going this time round because I made the mistakes on the first version! One thing I like about this pattern stitch is that all the shells are worked from the same side. Crochet definitely has two different sides; working back and forth they usually alternate, but in this case the mainly chain row is worked on the 'wrong' side.

Drape

I'm making heavy weather of this. I've done some work on the main body of my crochet top, but it feels very stiff to  me, it isn't going to drape well. I crocheted some samples using different size hooks. 3.5 mm is clearly too big:

The next sample uses a 2.5 mm hook on the bottom two rows and 2 mm on the top two rows:

Dither, dither, not sure how to choose between those two. I'm hoping that I can keep the central section I did using a 1 mm hook, and use that hook for the edging that is in the same pattern.

On Tuesday we had an 'information day', where experts gave us tips for the competition articles. The crochet fundi says an evening top should be in black or red, or perhaps grey. Hmm. Apricot not on her list!

One of the examples shown on Tuesday used an interesting asymmetrical shell pattern. I made a sample of it in the hope that I will remember it:

Here Be Dragons

Well, a dragon anyway.  I knitted this beaded dragon some weeks ago for my daughter Penny, who likes dragons. Penny reads my blog, so I didn't show it until she had safely received it.  I didn't really think in terms of usefulness, but Penny has put the dragon to work:

Good,  I like the idea of it being useful as well as decorative.

Another

Another skirt cut according to my (insufficient) cloth. Crafty Sylvie commented that no one but me knows what skirt I originally intended to make. Good point!