For the Third Series project I chose the Cloud. The Cloud is described as a "light and elegant wrap" and there is no illustration of the finished item. They ask you to procure 8 oz of white 3-thread Lady Betty Wool and a No 9 bone needle. The glossary in the front says that a modern substitute for that is worsted or mohair yarn and the recommended aluminum needle is an H-J or 5-6mm hook. On the Bell Gauge a 9 is equivalent to an F and that seems pretty small for worsted weight yarn so I went with an I. I had four 50 gram skeins of Unger Fluffy, a worsted weight yarn with a definite halo but not quite mohair-like, so I used that to start the wrap. 200grams is about 7 ounces so I thought it would be close enough. The directions are fairly simple for the main part of the wrap. It is all done in back loop and it's three rows of single crochet and one row of what we would call a star or daisy stitch. It's worked from one side to the end and then you join to the starting chain and work the other side. After I finished the first two skeins of Unger Fluffy I had only 15 inches completed and the pattern asked for 27 inches so I knew I wasn't going to have enough yarn. I worked the other side and then waited for the Textile Center Garage Sale hoping I'd find some to finish it. The garage sale had Unger Fluffy but only in brown and i didn't think that was a good option for a cloud. Instead, I picked up 5 skeins of Dolce by Wendy in a light turquoise color donated by someone who wrote the date they bought it, the location, the amount purchased and the cost on the band. I ended up picking up several groups of this particular person's yarn donation and used one of them for a baby layette. I now had an additional 8.8 ounces to finish the wrap so I did two skeins on each side thinking it wouldn't take more than one for the edging. Dolce is a very fuzzy yarn and difficult to pull out so I tried to figure out the edging with different yarn first. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where some of the stitches were supposed to go. I was fine for this part (stitches changed to US terms) "work one single crochet on the first single crochet of the last row, *10 chain, wool over the needle, insert the hook in the fourth chain from the needle and draw the wool through loosely, raise 6 more loops in the same way, wool over the needle and draw through all the stitches on the needle, 1 chain to keep the ball firm." After that I just couldn't quite figure out what to do. At this point you've used all of the chain stitches you made but you need to slip stitch in the first chain stitch from the ball, make 2 chains, miss two chains, 1 single crochet in the next, 2 chain, 1 double on the third single crochet from the last row. I tried turning and doing the slip stitch and single crochet in the same 10 chains but that didn't work well. I tried shortening the "ball" and doing the slip stitch, chain 2, single crochet in the last chain left. I thought that would work so I tried it and it used almost a skein to finish the row which meant that I wouldn't have enough to do the second side. This is where an illustration would have been helpful. I ended up pulling this version out which took some time since those extra fuzzy fibers like to stick to each other. After looking at some of the other edgings in the book I decided I would just use a simple shell stitch for edging. I had 4 grams of yarn left when I was done with the new edging. The finished wrap was supposed to be 54 inches and mine is 66 inches by 20 inches. I could have stopped when I got to the right size but I thought I'd finish the two skeins of Dolce on each side to use it up. I'm not sure I would call this light and airy but I also used almost twice the yarn they asked for. It was 15.7 ounces at the end vs the 8 ounces they said I would need. Here is the finished wrap: The color in the first photo is more accurate. It's more turquoise than sky blue. While the border was a little frustrating this wasn't difficult to make. It did take a lot longer than most of my projects and I was happy to be done with the fluffy yarn.
Was the pattern easy to understand? Yes, except for the border. I thought their description of how to do the special stitch aka star stitch in this was pretty good. 0.75 Does it look like the illustration? No photo so it gets a 0.5 Would someone wear or use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes, until I had to pull out the Dolce on the border. I think if I'd chosen easier yarn to work with I would have enjoyed it more. I'm not going to mark it down for that since the yarn was my choice and I knew what I was getting into. 1.0 Total Score = 3.25 out of 4.0
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AuthorI'm from Minnesota and have been crocheting since 2003. I inherited a box full of Workbasket Magazines from my mother-in-law and became obsessed with the vintage patterns. Archives
December 2024
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