oh, this happy adventure…

1/22/14 It continues to grow… It is like painting with yarn. I just cannot capture how beautiful the colors of the Madelinetosh are.

2/5/14 This is one of the most fun projects I have ever done. (We’ve had nothing but cold, gray days… the colors are so short of what they look like in person). That said, here are some notes to self:

• I cast on (or chained or whatever you call it) with a larger hook, KNOWING I tend to do things tightly when I
  learn. (size K)

• Counting stitches is important to
  having a somewhat straight side
  edge. Know that your count number
  will increase in the middle of the
  chevron stitch until you are on the last row… that’s just how that
  stitch is formed.

• MORE important, is trying to keep a relaxed tension in the chain part of the Catherine’s Wheel stitch and in the single crochet rows!! I got
  much better as I went along, but
  still have room for improvement.

• Blocking works wonders. I’ll have to admit to being a bit sick at my
  stomach as I saw my edge when I
  finished the rows… I resorted to
  using the wires (18g stainless
  steel… you could probably get in any hardware store) I use to block my lace knits.

• I’ll admit… wet blocking this
  beast was like wrestling a bear… I might try steam on another. ;)

• For my edge, I knew the side I
  picked up (or whatever you call it)
  would be less pleasing to me than one might hope, so I decided to work it on the backside of the casing
  with the ends facing the front on the first row, which I did in hdc.

• I decided to do the border all the
  way around instead of just on the
  sides since my project was an
  afghan, not a blanket. I started
  with the hdc instead of the dc to
  make the front overlap the back as I folded it forward to encase the ends.

• I was bored out of my mind doing the edging, so added the bobbles! One
  of my favorite things about this
  creation!

• Increases on the corners of the
  border: three stitches in the corner
  on the hdc and next two dc rows.

• Decreases in the corners of the next
  three dc rows (front of casing) 3:1
  each corner.

• To sew the border down, I pinned
  each side before sewing with stitch markers. I’m sure I would have
  gotten off if I had not. I loved
  sewing the edge down… same kind of
  pleasure in seeing an invisible hem in French hand sewing or the perfect
  approximation of an incision in
  surgery… sigh… it is the simple
  pleasures!! ;)

  In the end, my sides are still a bit whomper-jawed. A good part due to my lack of skill with crochet… much like when I started picking up stitches for plackets in knitting and ended up with too many. I would hope to improve on that if I do this again. But, it looks good folded or draped and wraps like a dream. So, for a first real crochet project, I am happy.