Intricate Knits

This week I want to share a few thoughts I’ve had from reading other blogs.

The first one is from Erin. Do you follow The Sewing and Life Adventures of Emerald Erin? On her June 11th post Erin made an announcement:

“A Special Summer for the Bra-A-Week Challenge!

Hi All! I said earlier this week that I would announce the summer host for the Bra-A-Week Challenge – and here is the announcement!

I am delighted to announce that the Bra-A-Week Challenge will be hosted by the lovely….

Michelle!

Of Michelle’s Creations

“Michelle is such a wonderful fellow bra-maker, and I’m sure you’ve all admired her work over the last 21 weeks like I have, and she most generously offered to host the challenge for the months of July and August for me!!”

Thanks, Erin! I’m pretty excited about hosting the challenge, and hoping some of my bra-making friends will join me and sew up a bra or two (or more) along with all the other wonderfully creative sewists who have contributed. There’s more information on Erin’s blog if you’ve been participating in the challenge already and want to continue. You’ll still send your submissions to Erin. I’ll just be doing the write-up and posting it.

It’s great that the challenge will continue over the summer months!

This next blog comment I want to make really has nothing whatsoever to do with sewing – or does it? My good friend, Valerie over at Intricate Knits has been blogging about and telling me about her favorite author for years now. She just recently posted some scarves she designed that were inspired by Susanna Kearsley’s novel A Desperate Fortune. You can see Valerie’s designs here. After seeing the scarves, and having heard so much about Susanna, I decided I’d get A Desperate Fortune and read it myself.

This photo is from Valerie’s blog and shows a couple of the designs Susanna’s book has inspired. Valerie does such beautiful work. Check out her blog, and if you see something you love, she sells her beautiful creations on Etsy.

Aren’t these lovely? This morning as I came into my sewing room, I didn’t even want to sew! I wanted to get back into A Desperate Fortune. So far, I have to say, I can recommend Valerie’s favorite author as well.

Happy creating!

I’ve been having a struggle with my thoughts. As a teen I learned to crochet and knit, but by time my 20s came around, I was only knitting. I’d crocheted more than one afghan as gifts, but for whatever reason didn’t keep up with it.

Well, because it’s been so long since I’ve crocheted, I don’t really feel like I can crochet. So I’ve been challenging myself to pick it up again and overcome this thought that I can’t do it.

Scarf

Buying this pattern was my ‘jump’ back into crochet. I bought the pattern on Ravelry, and although it looked so beautiful, and I spent way more on wool than I’ll ever admit to my husband, I could not get the pattern to work. I tried numerous times.

One time was rather funny. My husband came into the room just as I was tearing out the work I’d done and the look on his face! He looked horrified. I had to assure him I could do this over and over it nothing was harmed in the tearing out.

But this pattern really frustrated me because no matter what I did, and I tried a few variations, I could not get the same look. It wasn’t encouraging to me.

I met with my friend, Valerie of Intricate Knits, and took my pattern & wool to her to see if she could figure out the pattern. She couldn’t get it either. She said she could probably take a lot of time and figure it out and re-write it but it just wasn’t worth the time.

This past year we got a PVR and I search for craft shows, well sewing, knitting, crochet and jewelry shows primarily, and record them. Just a few days after meeting with Valerie I was watching Knit & Crochet Now. I was so surprised to see them showing this pattern:

4-213-crochet-scarf-2

This is close to the original center crochet pattern, but after looking at it and reading it, and contemplating it, I decided it was too ‘thin’ looking for what I wanted. So I started searching again. However, it is a beautiful pattern, and I will add it to my pattern stash. Here is the scarf pattern on Knit & Crochet Now: Madena Lace Scarf.

So, next was to find a pattern I really did like, I felt I could do, and would make me happy replacing the original pattern. After some searching on the net, I found a wonderful tutorial with nice clear pictures to explain any changes in the pattern she’d made. Here’s her blog site with this pattern & tutorial. It was great! Easy to follow and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. Perfect for replacing that original crochet part of the pattern.

red crochet pattern

My ‘camera’ (phone) doesn’t do this justice. It’s a beautiful rich variegated red going from vibrant reds to deep burgundies and pale blushes. The wool is a blend of Merino, Cashmere and Nylon. It’s wonderful to work with, and to feel. So nice!

I’ll have the knit part done this week and sew the scarf together.

Happy Creating! And I encourage you to do something you don’t think you can!