Diamond Patch Sweater

I went to my knitting guild meeting on Monday night and we learned to knit a modular square. Our teacher for that night, who is one of our guild members, brought lots of books and patterns to show us before she started our lesson. One of the books was Domino Knitting, and another one was Dazzling Knits, and there were several other patterns that she had ordered from Just One More Row. She brought a beautiful sweater that she had knitted called the Diamond Patch Sweater. I fell in love with it and there were lots of "ooohhs and aaahhhs" when she showed it. She made it for herself and then decided that the color didn't look good on her and gave it to one of our other guild members. I love the way this sweater hangs and it looks good on any figure. You don't have to be skinny minnie to wear it.

So, I've decided to make one. After learning to knit a modular square, which is using the same basic pattern that is used in the Diamond Patch Sweater, I love knitting these. I decided that I can make this sweater. So I'm going for it. I happened to have several skeins of one color of Berocco's Cotton Twist in my stash and decided that I would use that. I found one other person who has made one using Cotton Twist and I emailed her to ask if there are any tips she would be willing to share, how pleased she was using the yarn, etc. I haven't heard from her yet, but I'm anxiously waiting. I'm also anxiously waiting for my pattern to arrive. They emailed me and said it was mailed on March 22.

Last night I knitted my first gauge square in the Cotton Twist. I need to knit 2 more and attach them and then I will post a picture. I'm really excited, so I hope it goes well. I haven't read any complaints on the Internet from anyone yet who has made it. Everyone who has made it, loves doing it and says it goes pretty fast. So, we'll see how it goes.

My First Doily Finished!

I'm so excited! This is my first finished doily. It's a free pattern on the Internet. The pattern is here. Many thanks to Cara for sharing the information about it in her gallery on her blog. I wonder if everyone is this excited when they finish their first doily?

It just seems to me like I have accomplished the impossible. I never thought I could do it. I've tried crocheting in the past with the size 10 thread and the small steel crochet hooks and gave up without much success. It seemed like the thread and hook were so small, but my love of dainty, elegant doilies has won out. Ever since I crocheted the angel I've been hooked. Now that I have finished this lovely doily, I'm really hooked.

Tea Time Doily

After I finished crocheting the angel, my confidence was built up, so I decided to try some other things with size 10 crochet thread and size 7 steel crochet hook. I surfed the Internet and found this great site with doily patterns. They have lots of other crochet patterns too, but the doilies link is what I was looking for. I found this pretty Tea Time Doily that I thought I would try. I was doing really well until I got to Round 10. The directions in the first part of that line didn't make sense to me. I tried it every which way, but loose and nothing worked out or made sense. After several hits and misses and emailing the designer with no response back, I made a decision. Rather than scrap the whole thing and let the pattern outdo me, I just decided after completing Round 9 to just crochet a pretty border in white and finish it off. I haven't done that yet, but when I do I will post a picture. I hope to finish it tonight. It won't be as big as the original pattern, just a smaller version, but I will still have something to show for my efforts. And that doily is so darn cute, that I just didn't want to rip it out. Although, now that I think about it, there are probably some other doily patterns out there that are just as cute. I could still use two different colors in some of those instead of all one color.

While I was waiting on an email back from the designer, I thought I would try a different doily. A few years back my mother-in-law gave me two doilies that are the pansy doily pattern similar to this one. I remembered that a couple of years ago I had ordered one through snail mail from a company because I couldn't find one anyplace else. I started it, then for some reason, put it away and then found it again last night. I had already finished the white part in the middle, and all I have left to do is finish the pansy flowers and then I can attach them to the doily. I'm so close to having that one finished, that I think I'm going to finish it soon. I'll post a picture of that one when I'm finished too.

Then my boss wanted to go to our local yarn shop today at lunch. Well, I found a really cute poncho pattern that I want to try later on. It's made with Plymouth Encore and the pattern number is P471 from Plymouth Design Studio. It's a Mother, Daughter and Bear poncho pattern. It looks cute and fairly easy to do. I'm looking forward to working on it. I couldn't find a decent picture, but this one will give you an idea of what it looks like, even though the colors in the picture just don't do the poncho justice. They had one on display in the yarn shop. I plan to make it for my 3 year old niece. I couldn't find all of the colors that the pattern called for so I chose a pinkish mauve color (#180), a gray color (#194) and the main color (#2764).

I wandered around the shop for awhile and went into the back where some scarves were on display. I found a really pretty elegant looking scarf that would be super easy to make. The tag said it was made with one strand each of Tahki Cotton Classic and Trendsetters Eyelash held together. It said 15 and 15, which I assume means you cast on 15 and use size 15 needles. It looked like you knit 3 or 4 rows in garter stitch and then purl a row until it's as long as you want it. I know that I have oodles of cotton classic at home, so guess what? I'm going home tonight and see what colors I have and decide on one, then I'm going back to get some eyelash yarn and make one. I have discovered that every time I wear these neat scarves, I get all kinds of compliments and people want to know how they can get one. Or they say something like, "Ooohhh, I want one."