Sunday, May 17, 2015

The Tale of the Super Secret Project

     I have been working on a super secret project, for my future daughter-in-law, to give to her at her bridal shower. It has been quite a journey! I found a pattern that I wanted to make, and found what I thought was the perfect yarn. 


    So I started crocheting. After a while, I realized I should probably check with her about the color of her wedding dress. The yarn I had chosen was WHITE white with silver sparklies, and I didn't know if her dress was WHITE white or one of the many other options that are now available. 


    It's a good thing I checked. Her dress is ivory. Back to shopping for more yarn. With help from a knitting bestie, she found and I ordered an Ivory yarn with much subtler sparklies. Again, I started work. I like it, but it's still not quite what I had in mind. The end result is too heavy, and I want light and airy. I've decided to finish it, it could come in handy as a gift someday. 


    Once again, I am yarn shopping. I was looking at LYS really expensive super shiny, beaded and sparkly yarns. To get the yardage I need would cost more than $150. So it really wasn't an option. Then I came across what turned out to be the perfect yarn. I bought enough for my project, and once again started crocheting. 


    This time the problem I had was with the teeny tiny hook. First of all, I am most comfortable with great big size N hooks. I am currently using a size E hook. That's 10mm versus 3.5mm. The hook I had was a Boye. The heads on those are rounded and I was having trouble keeping the yarn on the hook during the many many chain 5s in the pattern. I decided to try using a hook from Susan Bates, as the heads on those hooks aren't as round, and they have a nice deep notch that should hold the yarn in place during those pesky chain 5s. The only problem is that I don't own one in size E. 


    Off I go on a playdate yesterday with my knitting bestie. Once again she saves my butt. I was able to purchase the hook I was after. Once I got home, I was able to crochet much faster with the new hook! The yarn stayed on the hook. It still came off occasionally, but about 10X less than with the old hook.  


    I am very happy with the results of the newest yarn and new hook. The only problem is that the final yarn is not sparklie at all. I think I can live with that. 


    There are no photos, as after my laptop crashed and was fixed, the photo app doesn't work. We still haven't tried to uninstall and reinstall the software for my camera. Another absolutely lovely and totally fracking frustrating thing, is that since the "fix" after the crash, the stupid cursor jumps around all over the place when I am typing.


     It keeps putting words and parts of sentences in the wrong place, and has even highlighted everything I wrote so that when I hit the space bar, IT"S GONE!!! It just did it while I was writing that it does it! 


    That's one reason I am writing about it here, as there is a really great "go back" button and I can bring back what got erased. Facebook doesn't have that feature. 


    I am also not mentioning what the project is because the bride-to-be reads my blog. I want this gift to be a surprise.  So if you know what I'm making, please keep quiet about it!