Tristan - Cast On

 

I finally cast on for the August Camp Loopy project this past week.  The theme this month is “Showstopper”.  I had a terrible time settling on a pattern.  I was going to make “Leaf Lettuce” by Ursa Major Knits, but changed my mind.  I spent several evenings perusing Ravelry without finding anything that really grabbed me, until I decided to look up the yarn I had bought - Rohrspatz & Wollmeise Pure (colorway Tristan) on Ravelry and look at the pattern ideas.  The pattern I ended up settling on is “Conic” by Cookie A.  I have several of her books and have been in several of her sock clubs, but she vanished from the knitting scene back in 2016 and I don’t think we’ve heard from her since.  The pattern is not without its errors, starting with the mismatch between US needle size and the metric equivalent - I went with the metric equivalent.  Then when I tried the first row of the cable pattern the chart was two stitches short.  I ended up charting the entire back with the decreases, the straight section and the increases (the pattern only had the decreases charted).  The chart is simple, so you could work it without everything, but why make yourself keep track of extra stuff?

When I restarted I cast on 68 stitches and purled one row.  The pattern had you cast on 58 stitches, and do a set up row where you increased to 68 stitches by working several purl-front-back-front stitches.  I didn’t much care for that, and figured picking up stitches for the ribbing at the end would be easier if I just cast on all of the stitches at the start.

Pattern:  Conic by Cookie A

Yarn:  Rohrspatz & Wollmeise Pure in Tristan

Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Claude the Octopus - Finished!

 

I finally finished up Claude the Octopus.  All I had left to do were the eyes, and they were incredibly simple to work up, although stuffing them and sewing them to the head were a little bit challenging.  Getting the backs on to the safety eyes wasn’t easy either.  Getting the tension right on the tentacles was the most challenging part, and I was not entirely successful.  There are gaps in the crochet that you can see the stuffing through.  But not bad for my first attempt at Amigurumi.  He now hangs out on top of a lamp in our living room, keeping a sharp eye on things.

Pattern:  Claude the Octopus by Kate E. Hancock

Yarn:  Adrienne Vittadini Dianna

Hook:  4 mm (G)