Experiments in yarn


In the last post, I tempted you in with pictures of yarn and in the end didn't really say a whole lot about it.  A bit of a tease really.  Naughty.

Today I'm here to right the wrong and let you know what I've been up to.

Last week, once Little Miss had been safely delivered to school, I decided to treat myself to a whole day of decadent laziness.  No housework, no jobs, no errands.  Just pure unadulterated crochet time.  How blissful.  How perfectly perfect.

I don't know how it is with you, but normally, as I reach the end of a project, I'm so full of plans and schemes for the next that I work in at fever pitch to finish the one I'm on and then immediately jump into the new one.  Occasionally however that doesn't happen.  It's rare, but sometimes I haven't exactly settled on the next thing and I get to enjoy a strange feeling of freedom and 'world is my oyster'-ishness that is a very exhilarating and joyous thing.  I could make anything I like?  What should I choose?  The possibilities are endless.


Even more rarely though are the occasions when I haven't decided on what I shall leap into next but at the same time nothing seems quite right to be 'the next big thing'.  Not so joyous.  Plenty of ideas, yes.  A long list to select from, certainly.  But no one thing that stands out and says 'I am worthy of being chosen'.

This time, I think there were too many ideas jostling for a place, too much inspiration.  So many things to make that the possibilities were too much for me.  A happy problem maybe but still a confusing and a hook paralysing one.

What to do?  How to solve the confusion?

Get some ideas out of the head.  Have a play, try some ideas and see what was good, or not.  That was my plan and how I spent my first day back at school.  It was a good day.  A very enjoyable one, obviously, but a productive one.  I worked on two ideas that made me particularly happy and at last, I had a direction to take.


Inspiration for the first was a new dress.  It's a CK one, as you might well guess, and I adore it.  As I've been wearing it I've been immediately taken by the gorgeous colour palette.  Hardly original, I know, using a Cath palette for a project but it's that navy that does it for me.  The way it makes all the other colours just sing and shine.  Beautiful.  I notice also, that navy has been floating my boat in a major way lately and been giving me lots (more) new ideas for projects... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  One thing at a time.

I had to rummage through the stash to see what could be dug up to approximate these colours as closely as possible.  Happily I had enough colours that more or less fit the bill.  A little bit of a yarny mish mash in there but the colour was the key to this for me, so details like weight and fiber content fell by the wayside.

Experimentation with these colours lead to these little puffy flowers.  Daisy Puffagons I've decided to call them as I'm nothing if not literal.  I'm rather in love with them actually as I've found a way to make them look virtually perfect to my mind.  You can't see the beginning and ends of rounds anywhere I don't think and that makes me a happy little soul.


Next up is a slightly more delicate project.  I got these gorgeous Drops Alpaca yarns at Fiber East without any clue what they'd turn into and I thought I might just get them out and look at them and see what happened.

What happened was a bit of fillet crochet and a patchy sort of pattern that I'm liking very much.  Actually, I think it's mostly the colours selling this to me.  They are absolutely beautiful colours, so adorable, so compatible with each other.  I love the texture of the yarn, I love the sort of fluffy hairiness of it.  It looks divine.  It screams 'fair isle knitting' at me and it's got my brain clicking into overtime with ways to use it.  But...

There's one thing stopping me falling head over heels with this yarn.  It's my old nemesis, the dreaded Itchy Factor!  The very hairiness that I love is also my downfall.  Drat to me and my sensitive skin or whatever the problem is.  Darn and poot a hundred times over.

I will have to confine myself to making things that don't need to sit right next to the skin where this yarn is concerned, which is a shame.  Still, these things can be worked around and I'm thinking maybe a little cushion cover.  Actually part of me is longing to make this into a baby blanket.  But there is no baby in need of a blanket.  And anyway, would a baby want an itchy blanket?  I can't help think it really wouldn't.  Even if it existed.  Which it doesn't.

Oh well, I shall make it cushion cover size and see how I feel then.  Or maybe you have a better idea?

S x





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Comments

  1. The little flowers are so cute! New to your blog and looking forward to what you have here to see as I am also new to crochet!

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  2. That Drops Alpaca yarn looks really dreamy. However, like you, I'm allergic to most wool and anything hairy gets me itching before I even touch it. So annoying! Those puffy flowers are gorgeous surrounded by their little navy hexagons!

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  3. Loving the puffagons. I thought alpaca wasn't meant to be itchy?? But i suppose its still an furry animal fibre. I hate itchy jumpers, it's so annoying to find a beautiful jumper and then look at the care label finding out it pure wool.

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  4. I'm overly sensitive to those lovely wools too. It has to be cotton if i'm going to wear it - no matter how expensive the yarn is! I love the little flowers in the hexagons. :) Lucky you to get a whole day to crochet. I'm struggling to find an hour or so! x

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  5. You know that maternity dress I was telling you about, well you'll never believe it but it was almost identical to your dress - except mine had a cutsie little Peter Pan collar and a l-u-v-e-r-l-y little velvet bow at the neckline! Lots of lovely things here, Sandra. Well done on your crocheting which is so beautiful. Keep going - it's a sight for sore eyes alright!

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  6. Hello Cherry, your work in progress is awesome, I just love your Daisy Puffagons, delightful. You always find a way to use colour so brilliantly in your projects. I haven't done much with colour as yet, you inspire me try outside of my colour comfort zone. I have recently finished a (oatmeal colour haha) baby sleeping bag, as I was working it I savoured this project because I didn't have a next project in my mind at all. I am still pondering on what to make next. As I am quite new to buying and using yarn my stash is surprisingly limited ..... maybe I should be brave and buy some colours.

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  7. How utterly indulgent and wonderful for you to take the day just for creativity and crochet! Especially if it turns out such gorgeous crochet as this...the puffagons are simply delightful! And I'm just the same with wool, drat! Chrissie x

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  8. I love your daisy puffagons and your colours are brilliant. Navy is one of my favourite colours, but never thought to use it for blankets or cushions. Seeing yours though has totally changed that.
    Looking forward to seeing it finished.

    Sally xxx

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  9. I adore those pastel colors you bought in the Drops alpaca yarns! Totally yummy :D
    Hugs

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  10. Try using an Aloe Vera cream or moisturiser on your skin - it may take up to three months before you feel the benefit...

    Penny
    x

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  11. I do so like your daisy puffagons. They're really pretty. I love Alpaca yarn, it's so soft. Unusual that you're allergic to it as it's meant to be less irritating for the skin.

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  12. Now that's interesting, I might just do that. Thanks for the tip! :D
    Sandra x

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  13. Thanks so much. Yes, someone else said the Alpaca isn't supposed to be so bad. It's not that it brings me out in a rash or anything like that, but I do seem to end up feeling uncomfortable and itchy. Not that I've actually made anything to wear out of it yet, I've just put it on the inside of my wrist and I can feel that slightly scratchy feeling. Even though the yarn is wonderfully soft. It's weird. Or I'm weird. One of the two! ;)
    Sandra x

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  14. Your wish.... ;)

    Tutorial coming soon!

    Sandra x

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  15. The flowers as just adorable! and I love the blue background :-) Can´t wait to see the progress...
    ♥ Ana BC

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  16. Hi Sharron,Those little flower-hexie-puffs are beautiful!!!Could we possibly be looking forward to a tutorial somewhere in the future??!!Have a happy creative day!!!
    Love
    AMARIE

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  17. Oh, those flowers are just the sweetest!! Love all the pretty colors with the blue!! Gorgeous!! I think a cushion cover would be so pretty! xo Heather

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  18. I love both - and the drops yarn, lovely x

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  19. Ooh, so much crochet gorgeousness here! The puffagons are just so perfectly, well, puffy. I adore the colours in your alpaca yarn - what a shame they irritate your skin. I get a bit twitchy if I am completing a project and have nothing in the pipeline, I need that list going round my head. x

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  20. I'm loving the Daisy Puffagons ... I reckon we'll be seeing them everywhere soon.


    You're unlucky, most folk who find wool scratchy cope better with alpaca as it has a different fibre structure. The Drops is a lovely yarn although it can be quite 'sheddy'. I do like the colours you've chosen :)

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  21. That would make an adorable scarf ... the Drops project I mean ... if not for the Itchy Factor! Those puffagons are perfect - and how very satisfying to have invisible round joins. (That is always my goal in crochet but so many times it is unattainable.) :)

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