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I set out to make this raised square pattern for a quilt but it did not go well. I knew it would be a little more complicated than the other square I made but I had no idea the pattern would make it even harder.  The pattern tells you what stitches go into the square but doesn't necessarily give you a start to finish round. For example round three says, "1 double crochet on each of the three double crochets along the side, 3 double crochet on the centre stitch of the three double crochet for the corners." This is fine because it's a fairly simple row but they kept it up as it got more complicated. Round 4 had you turn the work and make the tufts on the wrong side but there wasn't any instructions on when to turn back. I restarted this project three times and then gave up. The was the end of my last attempt.  I wanted to have a project for this week so I turned back to the Second Series and tried out a tricot (aka Tunisian) stitch called the Josephine Stitch. There was no photo for the stitch but it is described as, "a pretty variety of tricot stitch, and being light and lacey comes in very handy for shawls, scarfs, antimacassars &c." I'm not sure antimacassars would be very protective of the furniture if they're lacy but it sounded interesting and I haven't tried a tricot stitch from Weldon's yet. The directions says you can use any wool you want to and assumes you'll pick the appropriate hook. I used a skein of Knit Picks Swish DK in Pale Lemon and 5.5mm Tunisian hook. The directions were pretty easy to follow and did make a lacy strip of...something.  Here is the finished stitch pattern that I intended to make as a scarf but it's only about 4.5 feet long which seems a little short on me. Still it's a fun pattern and would look cute in a swim cover up or a lacy shawl.  I'm not going to rate the unfinished project but I'll give the Josephine stitch a 3.5 out of 4.
It was easy to understand. Someone would wear it and I enjoyed making it. The only thing that dropped it down that half point was that there was no drawing to compare to.
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 The Eleventh Series has 18 patterns and 21 illustrations. One edging pattern doesn't have an illustration but some of the others have 2 and even 3 illustrations. There are some interesting projects this time. I liked the Sylvester Cape shown below and marked that as a possible Fair project. The Toboggan Cap is cute with the little poms.  This Bulgarian Head-Dress stood out. This pattern had three illustrations and the pattern says that it "is a novel and exceedingly pretty style for the opera or theatre."  I thought this Tea Cozy looked fun. They suggest doing it in eight shades of Crimson and along with black to give it a gradient look.  This is at least the fifth "Tam O'Shanter" I've seen. This one is for a child of 5-10 years.  There are more cute kid's clothes in this series; a Pelisse, a dress and a petticoat.
 Since I didn't do the square for a quilt from the 10th Series I thought I'd do the one from this series. This one looks much more complicated than the St. Andrew's Cross from last time. It's called Raised Square Pattern for a Quilt. Find out how that turns out next week!  When I first looked at these I thought they might be half mittens with the top open. Something about the flat top and the thumb placement I think. They are not half mittens.  The pattern says to procure 1.5 oz of brown Berlin fingering and a No 12 crochet needle. I found a few mini skeins of brown fingering weight yarn in two shades that equaled 1.75 oz and a 2.75 mm hook (The equivalent size according to the Bell gauge). The mittens are entirely made up of single crochet and slip stitches in the back loop. It makes a nice stretchy fabric that probably does an excellent job of holding heat in. This was pretty simple and everything was going ok until I got the part that said, "repeat these two rows till 51 rows are done, or till the mitten is the right size to fit round the hand". I don't have large wrists but it took 72 rows to get it to fit around my wrist. Are they sure these are for a "Gentleman" and not a small child? I pulled out another mini skein in brown mini skein; I could see this was going to take more than the 1.75 oz I had ready. Then I got to the thumb. The thumb was a little weird. It's done in a short row technique but it also seemed a little small. I started sewing up the first one and noticed that the thumb placement was a little off. In the illustration it was almost all the way down to the wrist band but my version was oddly placed. I took out the thumb and redid the count so it was lower and since I'd pulled it out, I added a few extra rows. In the photo below you can see how far up the thumb is. In their illustration the thumb goes all the way up to the top of the mitten. Is your thumb long enough to be even with your fingers? This is also the point where I realized how short the hand part was. The hand portion of these is about 5 1/2 inches and my fingers stick out a little.  I ended up adding three extra rows in the thumb and putting a little cap on the top after I sewed it together. I should have done the same thing for the top of the mitten but I just seamed it with a row of single crochets per the instructions. My alterations made them fit but just barely. Instead of seaming the top to make it look like their illustration, I seamed it so the mittens are the same and it doesn't matter which hand is which.
If I were to make these again (I won't) I think I'd go up a yarn and hook size. Using sport weight yarn would help with the sizing issue. The thumb will still need to be placed a little lower on the seam but it would at least solve one problem.
On to the scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes... it's wrong but easy to understand. 0.75 Does it look like the illustration? Sort of. 0.50 Would someone wear this? For it to be comfortable they'll need hands slightly smaller than mine but I suppose it's wearable. 0.75 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. I chose a yarn and hook that worked pretty well for working in the back loop of slip stitches. It can get kind of tight sometimes and this worked well. I did get a little annoyed at the weird thumb placement but I figured it out. There were a lot of moments that I just laughed because it was so strange. 1.0 Total Score 3.0  The Tenth Series brings us 17 patterns and 20 illustrations. Three of the patterns have multiple views including close ups of pattern stitches or parts of the pattern. There are many different types of patterns as the title suggests. Let's take a look at some of them.  The doll's walking costume above is one of the more detailed and comprehensive ones I've seen. The pattern includes instructions for crocheting a pelisse, cape, hat, muff, shoes, and bag. Plus directions for making a pair of knitted drawers and a knitted petticoat are given. It takes up three pages of the series. Items for kids include a "vest", A Baby's Petticoat (adding this to a possible County Fair list), a petticoat done in Tunisian and a pilch.
There are a couple of shoulder warmers:
For blanket and quilt options we have a Cot Quilt done in Tunisian Squares with cross-stitching on top, another square for a quilt called the St. Andrew's Cross and a Diamond Lattice pattern that looks very cozy. 
There is also trimming for a chemise, a "Handsome Wide Border" and two "D'Oyley's" that are edgings done around a piece of fabric.
I thought about making the St. Andrew's Cross above but ultimately decided on a pair of Gentleman's Mittens. These mittens look like they're open at the top but it might just be an odd illustration. Find out next week how that went. Also, Happy Birthday to the person who gave me this fun book! This week we have the Pretty Pattern with no illustration. I'm putting a photo of the instructions below and if you read through them you'll quickly realize what kind of pattern this is. Hint: "The work is crocheted in squares which are afterwards joined together."  If you read through the color scheme you'll notice that while they are giving you an option to use "odds and ends" they also want you to use some of the same colors in the middle and on the outside to give it a cohesive look. Their color scheme from inside out goes like this: white, yellow, "other color that may be at command", black. The edging is done in amber, green and crimson. I decided to do just one square with the edging in some scraps that were in gradient shades that I had left over from a shawl. I used an F hook which is close to the same size as a No. 9 bone needle they suggest.  The square under the yarn is an illustration of a "Square Medallion for an Antimacassar" By now you may have figured out that this is just a granny square. The square itself was easy enough to make but the edging was a little harder to read. I think I got it but I didn't like how it looked on the square. If I'd done a dozen squares and added the edging it probably would have looked better. The first photo below has the edging all the way through the last of the 3 rounds with the lighter color being the "ball edging" round. In the second photo, I've pulled out the third round of the edging and blocked it without it. The edging doesn't quite line up with the other stitches and again, if I'd done more squares and sewn them together it might have looked fine.
Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. I thought they did a good job on the granny square part though there are places where they could have used "repeat x times" and it would have been easy to read than listing out every stitch. .90 Does it look like the illustration? .50 (Standard answer for patterns without one) Would someone wear or use this? Yes. It is a pretty little square. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. The colors I used made it more fun but it would be pretty in their color scheme too. 1.0 Total Score: 3.4 Next week I have the tenth series patterns and illustrations to share. |
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