The hat to match the bag is COMPLETE. Because it’s not worked in the round I had to find a seam that was neither glaringly obvious or ugly. I settled on a two-step process that is, unfortunately, still visible, but not ugly and mimics the look of the hat enough that it blends in just enough. I’m sure there will be a better option discovered in the future, but for now it fits both design and need.

The only thing–things, I should say–left to do is to insert the support bottom of the purse to keep it sturdy, and line the bag. Baby-Sister-in-Law will model for photographs, and during all of this, I’ll be writing up the pattern for a couple of testers. If all goes well–when all goes well, that is–it will be up for sale. It’s an intermediate (possible intermediate-advanced) project, I would say. Lots of tunisian knit stitch, shaping, a few treble post stitches, reverse single crochet edgings, and a tunisian seam and chaining. Good fun, really!

Josi’s doing it again! Via her blog, Josi has started a tunisian crochet swatch-a-long for the purpose of playing with surface texture and developing new stitch patterns. She and I have both been on a massive tunisian kick for a while, and with good reason! Tunisian crochet kicks a lot of butt.

This style of crochet creates a delicious dense fabric when you work with the common stitches but, with some creativity, you can create open work with great stability and versatility. Tunisian doesn’t exist to merely mimic our knitting-counterparts’ knit and purl stitches. Instead, tunisian exists as a relatively untapped source of new stitch and design options! Read the rest

WW; H-hook.

This is a swatch that started it’s life out as my attempt to do linked-treble stitches in the round. It’s tricky due to the type of stitch. Once you finish the last linked stitch of the round you have to figure out a way to reach proper height again. Ugh! Read the rest

I bought two of the Harmony Guides (vols 6 and 7) from Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago. This was the first swatch I made from one of their stitch patterns. I thought the spiral effect of the tunisian stitches, and the method in which it’s created, was breathtaking. Read the rest