Tuesday, November 2, 2010

a good excuse

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have had a good excuse.  I have been working on a gift for my Mama.  I would have loved to have finished it by her birthday, but it came and went a couple of weeks ago and I have just finished the gift tonight.  I think I am happy with it, though I am tired of looking at it, but most of all, I think she is going to like it and isn't that what matters?

So, for those of you who haven't seen this yet ... I have been crocheting like a crazy woman for 2 weeks to finish this:  the pattern name is Simply Shawl by Caron - which is the brand of yarn I used.  I think it turned out pretty good, except that it is a little smaller than I pictured it to be.  What I liked about the pattern is that the rows in the body of the shawl are identical from row 2-98.  This made it easier since I didn't have to keep looking at the pattern to see what to do next.



I really struggled with the decorative stitches that make up the two outside rows of the border.  I had never heard of the stitches before I started this project, so I had to learn how to do them ... the tall ones are called double treble stitches and they are very hard to keep going correctly, at least for a beginner like me.  The smaller stitches on the outside edge are called picot stitches and they are relatively easy to make, but much harder to keep even.


I had thought that since I couldn't give this to Mama for her birthday that I would save it for Christmas, but I'm not.  I plan to give it to her tomorrow, if I can get to her house.  The weather we are having now is much more suited to this kind of shawl than it will be after Christmas, so I just can't see waiting.  Besides, I don't think that I would be able to keep it to myself for that long.

8 comments:

Felicity said...

It looks lovely Jennifer! I prefer crocheting to knitting anyday, but I don't do it much at all. I once crocheted a blanket, and that was about enough for me... ;-)
I'm sure your mother will love it!
HOw cold does it get by you in winter?
Take care
Felicity

Katharine said...

This is beautiful! What a wonderful gift! I crocet a little, but I wouldn't attempt this, you did a great job!
Blessings on your day!

Jennifer said...

Thanks ladies! Felicity, I live in the south eastern part of the United States. It gets very hot in the summer and is humid all year long. We don't have extremely cold winters, I would say that some where between 40 and 60 degrees (farenheit) is about average. It can get much colder though, dropping into to the teens or even single digits on rare occasions. People from the Northern US usually talk about our cold as a "wet" cold, which makes it feel even colder than it is.

I know, long answer to a short question ... sorry!

Greg and Donna said...

Jennifer its gorgeous! You did such a good job! I hope your mom will love it!

Trixi said...

Jennifer, this is absolutely beautiful!!! Oh, I wish you could teach me.

rutledgeramblings said...

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! Your mom will be thrilled!

justcallmerie said...

It turned out just lovely! You did such a good job. It is precious of you to do this for your mom. She will be so proud, and not just of the shawl, but of the daughter.

Prairiemaid said...

Its beautiful, Jennifer! She'll love it. I learned to crochet on a similar pattern!

BTW - If I lived close, I would bake the police dept. there some cookies.;)