grey days

We’ve had a bit of spring weather with some lovely sunny days and warmish afternoons, but there are still more cloudy cold rain/snow filled ones than not. We even had a hail storm earlier this week ..oh poor car!

Feeling extra delicate lately, with these ghostly wools and foggy bag views.

I really wanted to make this shawl with thread weight, but I also wanted it to not take me 3 years to finish. I love fine crochet so much, and wish I had more tolerance for larger projects. Today, sport weight wins and while this crochet hook is incredibly gorgeous, I feel like I could snap it with my mind.

More than halfway, for scale the hook is 6¾” long.

I don’t talk too much about these hooks, because I’ve had quality issues almost every time I’ve ordered them, and to get semi complete sets of semi perfect hooks took a lot of back a forth between myself and the company. Although the company was always really great about resolving any issues quickly and without fuss, it became frustrating to always expect there would be something wrong with my order, wrong size/kind sent, bad etching, surface bubbles, chips, resin defects. But dang, when they’re good, they’re just so good.

Cream Streamline Swirl: G/4.0 – G+/4.5 – H/5.0 – I/5.5 – L/7.0 – N/9.0

(Note: My hook collection is older, it’s been a few years since I ordered anything, so current experiences might be different.)

Everything I love about each one being absolutely unique, beautiful and one of a kind, is exactly what I hate when trying to have a uniform collection. Currently under the spell of functional art. It’s a weird relationship.

Cookie Streamline Swirl: G/4.0 – G+/4.5 – H/5.0 – I/5.5 – J/6.0 – M/8.0

There really isn’t a final border on this shawl, it finishes with just a simple row of dc, which is so nice because I wet block everything and pinning out shawl points and curves is miserable, and I’m not really a ornate edging kind of person ..but I couldn’t resist adding the tiniest baby scallop border (my standard move).

I also used up a chunk of stash wool, not quite all of it, but still feels good.

This dress, it’s one of my favorite sews and seeing this shawl layered up with it, has all the old timey “Ma up early on a chilly morning making griddle pancakes” mood that my wannabe prarie life requires.