My morning began as it usually does.
I got up before sunrise, helped my son get ready for school, walked him to the bus stop, and saw him off.
Then, after a cup of coffee, I was on my way to dog sit my mom’s dog, Toby.
While she took care of some business, Toby oversaw my activities, and, as usually happens when I dog-sit Toby, I got a fair amount of work done.
My main function is to be there for Toby to ignore, but I also offer him reassurance should he need it. Toby, as always, did an admirable job not noticing me, and I got a fair amount of work done.
While I made substantial progress on the scarf during the dog-sitting venture, my mother finished with her business fairly quickly, and I was soon free to go on my way and complete some errands.
The scarf did not get finished until early afternoon, but the motifs worked out just right, and I used all but about 2 feet of the skein. Here is the scarf before the ends were woven in:
and here it is after the ends were woven in and it had been soaked in warm water and rolled between towels:
Pleased with both the stash bag and the scarf, I was ready to move on. After perusing the book Crocodile Stitch Fashions (one of my acquisitions from the Chain Link conference in Greensboro, North Carolina):
I decided that I wanted to make the shawl using the four skeins of variegated blue dazzle aire that I got in my recent stash acquisition.
The pattern calls for a fingering weight yarn with mohair in it. Because mohair can be a beast to unravel the author, Lianka Azulay, recommends that you start by making a swatch in a frog friendly yarn (one that unravels easily), which I did:
Pleased with my success, I decided that beginning work on the shawl would be the perfect project for my son’s trumpet lesson, so I gathered together the book, the yarn, and the hooks I would need and headed out the door.
As I was using a yarn that is a heavier weight than fingering, I used a hook a 6.5mm hook rather than the 5.5mm hook called for. Diligently working my way through the trumpet lesson, I got this far:
I had been concerned that the crocodile stitch would be difficult in some way, but it is a surprisingly straight forward stitch, once you get the hang of it, and I am looking forward to seeing how this shawl turns out.
You probably don’t remember me at all, but I was a friend of Simon’s in college. I hope all is well with both of you, and just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your blog. I find it fascinating. I am not coordinated to crochet, but I do still have the purple rooster that he gave me that you made. haha
Of course I remember your! I am so glad your rooster is continuing to accompany you on your travels.
That is an absolutely beautiful stitch, can’t wait to see how the shawl turns out!
My fingers aren’t properly hooked up to my brain but if they were I would make the red Queen Ann’s lace scarf and the alligator stitch shawl. Both are fantastic!
So glad to know its not a beast of a pattern its on my wanna try list as well…. the variegated yarn is such a departure from your usual color choices (I know it was driven by the recent stash acquisition) and am pleasantly surprised its working up so cloud like!!!!!
That shawl is going to be so pretty in that yarn!
That shawl is very enticing…
The scarf is beautiful, as all of your projects that I’ve seen have been. But the shawl…wow i cannot wait to see how that turns out. That is going to be absolutely gorgeous!