Saturday, July 28, 2007

Netting - two colors at the same time

My daughter-in-law wanted a black and white snood / hairnet. I decided to give her a variety to choose from. I did a plain white one and a plain black one.





Then I wondered what would happen if I combined two threads - a strand of white and black. I tried it and the two on the bottom are the results. The one on the bottom left was made with size 10 crochet thread and the one on the bottom right was made with size 30 crochet thread.




It was interesting to see the effect of the two threads held together and treated as one thread.






With the thin threads the black disappears when it is worn.



Both colors show with the thicker thread.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Gauge - Knitting and Netting

I thought about gauge this past week. It is something I frequently ponder while working on knitting projects that use small needles like the mystery stole 3, or a pair of socks. I am so relaxed when knitting that I usually have to use needles several sizes smaller than suggested in whatever pattern I am using. This is not a problem unless the pattern calls for small size needles to begin with, then I end up using extremely small size needles, which is what happened with the socks I started yesterday.

That is one of the things I love about netting. While there is a need to be aware of gauge in netting, it is not dependent on the mood of the netter. It depends on the size of the mesh sticks. Below are two doilies, Crystal Shards (large and small), that illustrate the principle of gauge (as pertains to netting). The instructions for these two doilies are identical except for the size of the mesh sticks used. The small doily is 8.25 inches in diameter and the large one is 13.75 inches in diameter.



Thursday, July 12, 2007

MS3 - clue 2

I finished the second clue of mystery stole 3 (just before the third clue arrives). I had to see what I had been creating, so I split it between two straight needles. I like it. I am also impressed with myself that I have been able to follow a knitting chart.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Net Snoods and Hair Lengths

Today my youngest daughter got her hair cut. She has been growing it for three and a half years in preparation to donating it to Locks of Love.

This is her with long hair and with her long hair in a medium size eyelet lace barrette snood.




















This is after her hair cut (she had at least 10 inches cut off) and with her short hair in the same snood. The snood looks similar from the back, it is not as thick when seen from the side.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Last of Grandma's doilies now have directions

About 30 years ago I contacted one of my aunts to ask if she would photocopy some of my grandmother's doilies so I could reproduce them. I especially wanted the ones with the pyramid shapes. When I had asked Grandmother about my making one of them (while I was still learning from her) she said that they took too long for me to do at that time. My aunt made the copies and it has taken me this long to re-create all the doilies that were photocopied. This past week I finished the last one. I call it "Holiday - large". It is 17.5 inches in diameter and has over 17,000 knots. ("Holiday - small" is the same except it does not have the last ring of pyramids.)



Saturday evening I finally starched this doily and one I made earlier from a photocopy of Grandmother's doily. I called this second one "Faith - large". It is 18 inches in diameter and has over 14,000 knots. (Yes, there is a "Faith - small" which does not have the last ring of pyramids.)