Indivisible MCAL - Loop On!

Expression Fiber Arts is doing another year long Mystery Crochet Along and I signed up, even though I have lots of other projects going and planned for the year, I just really enjoy these.  This time we can make a blanket or a shrug.  I haven’t decided yet which one I will do, but I am leaning towards the shrug.  They have three different colorways this year and I went for the jewel tones.  The first color is Mountain Stream and I really love it, it looked great sitting next to the yellows in my Smaug shawl.  The yarn is Crema Worsted, which is 70% Merino, 30% Silk, and it is very lovely to work with.

This square took me several tries to get right.  I started out on a 4.0 mm (G) hook, but that was coming out a fair bit smaller than the pattern called for, so I went up to a 5.0 mm (H) hook.  My square is still a little smaller than the pattern calls for (14 inch instead of 14.5 inch) but I would not want to work it any looser.  I had originally done the Foundation Double Crochet as recommended in the pattern, but didn’t really like how it looked, so when I went up a hook size I did a chain and double crocheted in to it.  The pattern also called out a Chainless Starting Double Crochet, which I managed to work, but didn’t really like it either so I went back to just chaining at the start of the rows.  The pattern also had some chains at the beginning of the rows that were not counted as a stitch, which made for some asymmetry and some bulgy edges, so that required another rip back when I decided to omit those.  But all of that ripping (really just three restarts) was worth it as I am very happy with how it has turned out.  The pattern came with a chart, which I used.  I love charts, so much easier for my brain to wrap around than written instructions.

Pattern:  Indivisible by Johanna Huck

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Crema Worsted

Hook:  5.0 mm (H)

Lato - Almost half way done

This past week I put aside my other projects and focused on this one as the crochet along ends May 1.  I have made a lot of progress, but it doesn’t look like I can finish it by the end of the month (without more effort than I want to expend, and being way more monogamous with my crafting than I typically am), so I will relax and finish it in my own time.  I do have the two main patterns memorized at this point, and I make sure that I count the stitches regularly to make sure that I haven’t lost any.  During the double crochet V section I don’t tend to count as often as the pattern is straightforward and harder to mess up.  I do visually check each double crochet row to make sure that I haven’t forgotten to work a double crochet or a chain stitch, and I count stitches before I start the transition section.  On the wave section I count after completing the single crochet row after the wave row to make sure that I still have 133 stitches.  In the first wave section I screwed up a couple of times and lost a stitch or had too many and didn’t discover it until working the next wave row when things weren’t lining up properly with the previous wave row.  I also visually check the wave row before working the single crochet row to make sure I haven’t missed anything there as well.  Of course once I started the extra checks I haven’t messed up, but I know that as soon as I get over-confident and don’t do an extra check I will make a mistake and have to rip back to fix it.

Pattern:  Lato by Johanna Huck

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Blossom Fingering in Passion, Inflorescence, Budding and Cultivar

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

 

Lato - One Section Done

Although I haven’t made any progress on this project lately, having become a little obsessed with colorwork, I had made some good progress on it before I set it aside.  You can tell it has been sitting in a project bag - it is all wrinkled.  All four of my colors are now in the piece and I like them.  I just need to get back to this in time to finish it before May 1.

Pattern:  Lato by Johanna Huck

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Blossom Fingering in Passion, Inflorescence, Budding, and Cultivar

 

Lato - Loop on

Expression Fiber Arts is also hosting a Winter Crochet Along for the Lato Shawl, which I decided to participate in.  I am not using the recommended yarn, which is Vellum Fingering - a blend of baby alpaca, silk and yak - as sometimes alpaca bothers my hands.  Instead I am using Blossom Fingering, which is a blend of Bamboo, Merino and Tencel.  I had bought a number of skeins last year when they were hosting a crochet along and a knit along of two boomerang shaped shawls.  I dropped out of those as they were just too boring, and required lots of counting to make sure the stitch counts remained correct.  I got off on both of them and just didn’t feel like figuring it out and making it right, so they both went off to the frog pond.  

The two colors I am using so far are Passion and Inflorescence.  I’m not sure what my other two colors are going to be yet.  I will decide when I get there.  The start was a bit of a challenge, especially the row of front post single crochet.  That took me several tries and I almost gave up.  I kept losing stitches because it was easy to miss a post and thus skip a stitch.  In the end I put stitch markers every 20 stitches and did a lot of counting, but at least I only had to rip back a few stitches when I came up short on a section.  I still came up 1 stitch short, but I sneaked one in and now I can’t even see where I did that.

I did work a gauge swatch, sort of.  I only worked a couple of rows to see how it worked up and what the fabric and stitches were like and how it felt to work, then I just started, but based on the picture I think it will come out close to the given measurements in the pattern.

Pattern:  Lato by Johanna Huck

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Blossom Fingering 

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)