I ran out of brown fabric when cutting out the pieces for the oars. I swear, I only needed 5 sq inches, meaning I had to pause progress until I had time to run to the same fabric store where I originally bought it. While I was at it, I also bought the perfect backing fabric :D After that, I was off to the races! I figured out placement, sewed them into columns, added spacing strips out of my bg fabric, and then began the painstaking process of removing the foundation paper backing with my trusty tweezers. I think that alone took 5 hours...
My last step was cutting and sewing the borders, and I was done! I plan on taking it to a local longarm quilter to finish it off. This is my very first completed quilt top, so I hope it goes well!
I realized there is a long time I don't post stuff in here and it doesn't necessarily means that I stopped crochet, so here is a major update of everything I did since April (last post). I'm doing this now so I can just go ahead of it and post the future things instead of be always "nah, i need to post in order to follow my progress" and then never post again, again.
Starting with the three projects that were on the list in the pinned post:
The pink summer vest, which is my favorite piece to date. It was made with a fine thread, Clea Duplo from the Brazilian brand Círculo, and although it took a LONG time, I loved the result and want to buy more of this yarn to make other wearable pieces.
I finished it at the end of March.
After that, I made two orange sweaters, one for me and one for my beloved. They are identical and took a lot of work. I tried to follow a pattern, but it was poorly written, and in the end, I had to follow my intuition. I made mine first and then made their, but even my intuition wasn't good enought for how I wanted it to be. It's wearable, but quite problematic. It's difficult to take off, and the cuffs are tight, so you can't pull it up, plus it takes up a lot of space when folded. The good thing is that it's VERY warm.
I started at the beginning of April and finished the second one in mid-May.
My friend's mermaid top. It was supposed to be a birthday present, but it took me a while to finish it because I ran out of yarn halfway through and it took me a long time to find the same one again. Besides that, it was a Frankenstein-like project: I took the bust from one tutorial, the body from another, the sleeves from a third, and the back from a fourth, because I couldn't find anything that was exactly what I wanted to give her. It took me so long that she ended up losing weight and the top became loose, so she improvised a way to wear it.
She allowed me to post this photo and said I didn't need to blur her face.
What these three projects taught me was that patience is truly a gift. And that crocheting for someone has to be for someone you love, because it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. It's not just the piece itself, it's the care taken in choosing the material, the design, spending days making it and thinking about the person, what they will think, if it will fit or not.
I haven't been able to see my love wearing their sweater yet, because where they live it's not cold enough for that and they're not as sensitive to the cold as I am, but I hope to see it soon. My friend went to the beach wearing the top and I felt very proud of myself when she showed me the photos, and also very happy because she liked it enough to wear something I made with my own hands in public.
In the next post I'm going to show the rest of the pieces I made between these three pieces and after finish them.
I am finally done with all the pieces of the Seawaves sweater! Now for the sewing. I made the initial ribbing in the round so thankfully I have one less seam to deal with, but the little swirlies take forever.
Tecidos de lã que vi em visitas recentes à Covilhã e a Manteigas. Na Covilhã, visitámos o Museu de Lanifícios e A Transformadora e em Manteigas, fomos ver a Ecolã e a Burel Factory.
Wool fabrics I saw on recent visits to Covilhã and Manteigas. In Covilhã, we visited the Wool Museum and A Transformadora, and in Manteigas, we dropped by Ecolã and Burel Factory.
Andei desmotivada uns mesinhos devido a um pequeno desentendimento com um projeto, mas no outro dia fui fazer uma visita aos meus favoritos no Pinterest a ver se me dava vontade de tricotar alguma coisa. Nisso, lembrei-me que desde que fiz uma meia da concha (abaixo) do "Malhas Portuguesas" tinha ficado de explorar mais o mundo das meias tradicionais portuguesas.
I was unmotivated for a few months due to a little disagreement with a project, but the other day I paid my Pinterest favourites a visit to see if I felt like knitting anything out of there. As I scrolled, I was reminded that ever since I knitted a concha sock (below) from "Portuguese Knitting" I'd been wanting to further explore the world of traditional Portuguese socks.
Queria uma meia que fosse simples mas divertida de tricotar e acabei por escolher um par (abaixo à esquerda) feito por uma tricoteira da Serra de Montemuro, no noroeste de Portugal. Essas meias foram feitas numa lã grossinha, mas eu fiz as minhas (abaixo à direita) com um fio fino de algodão e viscose de bambu, então os desenhos em forma de V ficaram maiores.
I was looking for a sock that was simple yet fun to knit and I ended up choosing a pair (below on the left) made by a knitter from Serra de Montemuro, in northwest Portugal. They were knitted in a thicker wool but I made mine (below on the right) with a fine cotton and bamboo viscose yarn, so the v-shaped designs turned out larger.
Os desenhos são muito simples de tricotar. O trabalho é dividido por quatro agulhas e em cada uma temos um número par de malhas. Em cada agulha, vamos fazer dois pares laçada-mate, o primeiro nessa ordem e o segundo ao contrário (mate-laçada), para ficar simétrico. O mate é sempre o mesmo: duas malhas trabalhadas juntas – podem ser trabalhadas sempre em liga ou sempre em meia, dependendo de se estamos a tricotar pelo avesso ou pelo direito (eu tricoto pelo avesso porque é o método tradicional em Portugal). Os dois pares laçada-mate começam de cada lado da agulha – mas deixamos uma malha extra no início e no fim para dar espaçamento – e vão-se aproximando por uma malha até ficarmos com dois mates no meio. Após cada volta rendada fazemos uma lisa.
The designs are very simple to knit. Our work is divided into four needles and on each one you want to have an even number of stitches. On each needle you're going to work two yarn over-decrease pairs, the first one in that order and the second one in reverse (decrease-yarn over), to keep things symmetrical. The decrease is always the same: two stitches worked together – they can be purled every time or knit every time, depending on whether you're knitting from the wrong side or the right side (I knit from the wrong side because that's the traditional method in Portugal). The two yarn over-decrease pairs start out on either side of the needle – but you want to leave an extra stitch at the start and end of it for spacing – and will move closer by one stitch with each lace round until you have two decreases in the middle. After each lace round you do a plain one.
O diagrama abaixo (a ler de baixo para cima) descreve como se fariam as voltas rendadas se tivéssemos 12 malhas por agulha, como na meia original – os ●'s são ponto liso, os ◎'s são laçadas e os ▲'s são mates:
● ● ● ● ◎ ▲ ▲ ◎ ● ● ● ● ( 7 )
● ● ● ◎ ▲ ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ● ● ( 5 )
● ● ◎ ▲ ● ● ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ● ( 3 )
● ◎ ▲ ● ● ● ● ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ( 1 )
The diagram below (to be read from the bottom up) describes how the lace rounds would be worked if you had 12 stitches per needle, like in the original sock – the ●'s are plain stitch, the ◎'s are yarn overs and the ▲'s are decreases:
● ● ● ● ◎ ▲ ▲ ◎ ● ● ● ● ( 7 )
● ● ● ◎ ▲ ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ● ● ( 5 )
● ● ◎ ▲ ● ● ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ● ( 3 )
● ◎ ▲ ● ● ● ● ● ● ▲ ◎ ● ( 1 )
A minha divergência na escolha de fio (e a consequente maior densidade da malha) resultou num par de meias que parecem fazer referência às rendadas do traje de lavradeira (acima à direita), mas achei uma convergência engraçadinha com outro tipo de meia tradicional.
My divergence in yarn choice (and the consequent finer stitch gauge) has resulted in a pair of socks which seem to reference the lacy stockings from the lavradeira folk costume (above on the right), but that's a welcome little convergence with another traditional sock type.
Para quem quiser saber mais sobre o traje à vianesa (outro nome para o traje de lavradeira), ele tem um caderno de especificações – porque é um produto certificado – com carradas de imagens dos vários elementos que compõem o traje, incluindo as meias rendadas. Pode ser encontrado nesta página, onde diz "Caderno de Especificações", abaixo de "Documentação".
For whoever wants to know more about the vianesa costume (another name for the lavradeira costume), it's got a specifications booklet – because it's a certified product – with heaps of pictures of the different elements that make up the costume, including the lacy stockings. It can be found on this page, where it says "Caderno de Especificações", just under "Documentação".
My piece for Giant Robot Gallery’s Doggo Show. The show opens March 30 and runs until April 13. I LOVE how this guy turned out! Thank you Cassia Lupo for the invite!
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