cotton + lace = love

back in september my mum came out for a visit, and in our shopping travels, i finally picked up Debbie Stoller's lovely volume for crocheters stitch 'n bitch crochet: the happy hooker. it is really fantastic, and i credit it with reviving my interest in crocheting. fresh new patterns, coupled with the fact that i am no longer in grad school, has had me fiber crazy. i went on a short cotton yarn kick this fall and these are two of the projects i made from ye olde happy hooker.


first we have a cropped bolero.
Short 'n Sweet
by Angela "La Vonne" Best

i made this one up in 5 hanks of Tahki Cotton Classic 100% mercerized cotton in a lovely aubergine shade on a size I hook. i'm sure the stitch work would have shown up better in a lighter color, but i don't really do light colors for myself. the yarn world should just be happy that i have moved beyond making everything in black.
this was my first lace project, and i think it turned out pretty well. i had to do a little improvising on the left front side to make it identical to the right front, but i think it stems from unpublished pattern errors. i did all of the published patterns corrections, which were super helpful.
there is one kittythin(g) error--i accidentally worked two extra stitch on one side of the front border. as the cotton stretches out (and it will stretch out) that side tries to slide off my shoulder. it doesn't happen until the 3rd or 4th time i wear it before washing and blocking.

this was the first project i made in mercerized cotton, and i loved it! i thought i hated cotton yarn, but that was because i had only made things out of kitchen cotton before. that's fine for dishcloths, but it is not representative of cotton's lovely possibilities. speaking of those possibilities...

Violet Beauregard
by Heather Dixon

crocheted with a size G hook in Tahki Cotton Cassic 100% mercerized cotton: 5 hanks black, 2 hanks magenta, 2 hanks hot pink. tahki doesn't list color names, so you get my best approximations. the name for this project makes little sense because the designer named it for her original color scheme: violet body with orchid and magenta accents. my colors are a little crazy in a 1980s sort of way, but i'll wear them more than a blueish purple. i intend to make another similar cotton skirt from sweaterbabe.com's fabulous and flirty crochet in more "sedate" or "mature" (ha!) colors some time this year. i like to make skirts because i wear a lot of them and they tend to be worked in the round, so they have very little finishing.

the downside of a crocheted skirt is that they stretch out a lot. i have to reblock this one every time i wear it. i think the fact that it is cotton does not help. we will see how my next skirt shapes up. i already have the yarn to make the citrine skirt from the fall 2006 interweave crochet. it is a wool-acrylic blend, so we shall see. (yes, that is correct. i have the other cotton skirt planned, but there is another friend that needs to be finished first. believe it or not, i have a "to do list")

time to sign off. coming soon: more Cotton Chronicles and a little taste of Real Work.