missy42's Shells & Arches Square (original) (raw)

Patterns Used:
Luxurious Wrap
Waves of Lace Afghan
Shell Lace
Border: Tunisian Simple Stitch

May 04, 2010 For the May, 2010 square, crochetkween said she likes free-form work. Well, the closest to freeform that I’m comfortable with is combining different patterns. So that’s just what I’m doing. I’ve dug out three different stitch patterns that I’ve done in the past that I really like the look of. The first is a v-stitch/shell combination I did for the Samantha Anne Baby Blanket call the Luxurious Wrap. The second I took from the arches in the Waves of Lace Afghan pattern, which I used for a scarf I made for my grandma several years ago. (I’d post it, but I don’t have any pictures, and Grandma seems to have lost it. It was one of my earlier projects, so it was super tight and curled like mad.) I really liked the look of the arches, and I like to refer to it as the Aqueduct stitch, because it looks like the old Roman aqueducts. Finally, Jan Eaton’s Shell Lace. Each of the three stitch patterns will be separated by a few rows of single crochet.

crochetkween also said that she loves things that drape nicely. Of course, this made me think of DavidBurchall. So I’m using yarns he gave me. I also wanted to incorporate his love of Tunisian crochet. Originally, I thought about doing the whole thing in Tunisian stitches, but I decided against it. However, to try to avoid the sizing issues I had last month, I think I’m going to make the stitch pattern square smaller (9”x9”), then border it out in a Tunisian stitch until it hits the right size. I was thinking I’d challenge myself to doing a log-cabin border. To get the drape that crochetkween wants, I’m using a hook that’s much larger than the yarn calls for. I’ve done a few “tests” of the patterns and it’s been coming out wonderfully.

The colour scheme is proving to be a little more problematic. crochetkween likes lime greens with orange, purple and teal. I have this variegated Paton’s Grace yarn in both Spearmint and Tangelo. I’ve done the two shell pattern stitches in the Spearmint colourway, while the middle “Aqueduct” stitch is done in the Tangelo. One row of sc is being done in the solid “green sheen,” and I was going to do the border mostly with this yarn, as well. But I’m not sure I’m loving the Spearmint yarn as much. I think I want more of the “green sheen” and the Tangelo without the Spearmint. The former two offer a higher contrast, and I’m liking the citrus-y feel I’m getting from those two alone together. I think I’m going to try it using the Tangelo for all three of the pattern stitches, with three rows of the green between the stitch pattern rows. We’ll see.

May 14, 2010 Changed up the colour scheme so that the two shell stitches are in Tangelo and the aqueduct stitch is in Spearmint. I also changed the number of solid “green sheen” rows from 1 to 3. It’s so much easier on the eye! The only problem was getting it the right size. I did and re-did these rows several times trying varying tensions and hook sizes, and never got it quite where I wanted it. So Wednesday night, I just sat down and told myself that I’m going to get it as close to where I wanted it to be, and however it came out, I’d just have to work with it. So I did.

Yesterday, I added on and completed the log cabin border in Tunisian Simple Stitch, alternating the Spearmint and the “green sheen.” The pooling on the variegated Spearmint is looking really cool in the Tunisian Simple Stitch! Finally, I rounded off the whole thing with a couple rounds of Tangelo. It gives it a nice border/frame, ties in the outer colour scheme with the stitch pattern square in the middle, evens out the Tunisian a little bit, and brings the square out to the full 12”x12”.

Now that it’s all put together, though, it’s pulling and lumping in odd places. Right now, it’s laying flat on the coffee table with a couple books weighing down the curl of the Tunisian segments. I’m hoping the washing and blocking process will help work out some of the unevenness without stretching it beyond the square foot limit. It’s not quite how I envisioned it, but I think it’s growing on me.

May 28, 2010 Got it through a laundry cycle on the 18th, blocked, photographed and in the mail on the 19th - a whole day early! The blocking did even it out wonderfully - as blocking is wont to do. Just got confirmation that crochetkween got it. I’ll put pictures up tomorrow.

♥