Work In Progress Wednesday – Dragon Scale Cape

So, I started out making the Crocodile Stitch Shawl, then I changed my mind, so now it’s going to be more of a triangle I can wear in my hair to keep it out of my face, like a handkerchief permanently folded in half. I will probably eventually try making the shawl again, but I realized that I needed to use a much lighter yarn, something more towards lace weight or fingering.

Instead, I’m jumping off the end of the dock and trying out my own thing. I’ve started at the bottom of the cape and I’ve set aside one and a half skeins to do a dragon scale trim along the edge once I finish the actual bulk of the cape.

I originally wanted to do the scales all the way up the whole cape, but realized that it was going to be way shorter than I wanted if I did that, so I followed the general pattern from the cowl and hood. So, as you can see I have some of the crocodile stitch along the bottom (7 rows total) and then several rows of straight double crochet done through the backloops after the initial row.

I’m not sure I’ll finish it in time for Halloween since I only have a few days left, but I’m going to try. It’s definitely not going to be a full length cape.  I’m hoping that it’ll come close to my waist at least, so it’ll be more of a capelet.

Dragon Scale Hood (aka Crocodile Stitch Hood)

I’m still working on felting my bowls. I’ve done one round of felting by hand, but they still haven’t felted enough. I’ll probably try a round in my washing machine to see how they come out. But over the weekend I started a new project and managed to finish it.

And thus we have my Dragon Scale Hood (aka Crocodile Stitch Hood). It was a lot of fun to make and I decided to use a variegated yarn so that no two scales would look the same. The yarn I used is Lorna’s Laces in Black Purl.

This is a 100% superwash wool and it feels great. I just wish Texas was a little colder so that I could have more excuses to wear it. But I will be wearing it along with a shawl/cape that I’m making in the same stitch pattern for Halloween.

Both the Hood and the Shawl can be found in Crocodile Stitch Fashions. If you take a look at the pattern you may notice that I did two extra rows of scales on the hood portion and I added two extra rows (which isn’t very visible) to the back of the hood so that it would line up better with the cowl, which had more to do with my gauge coming out slightly smaller than what was called for on the rows.

Now I just need to find a staff to complete the outfit (and of course finish the cape).

Work in Progress Wednesday – More Felted Bowls!

I’m back! And I’ve started a new set of nesting bowls. This time they are done in a knit style. I’m not really sure how this set of bowls will come out, since the pattern seems very much like I’ve made a hat rather than a bowl, but they are very similar in shape.

I’m still using up my Pattons SWS yarn. This time I’m using the Natural Geranium color. I used most of one ball on the first bowl shown above. And depending on how much I use on the second bowl I may only end up with two bowls in this color and style. But I might be able to squeeze out three depending on what’s left over after the second one.

The pattern is, overall, very simple. Cast on as many stitches as needed to achieve desired opening (with the idea that it will shrink). Knit for several rows in the round (30 for the largest bowl, 25 for the next one and 20 if I can squeeze out a third). And then start a slow decrease. This pattern called for K2 TOG, knit 7 for the first round of decreases which meant I needed a total for my cast on that was divisible by 9. Each round after called for once less knit in the repeat and a few rounds of just plain knit interspersed between decreased rows. And then the bottom is sewn up after you bind off. I did a few extra rows of decreasing, though the pattern called for only 12 rows once you started the decrease, just because I didn’t like how big of a gap I needed to sew up.

Hopefully I’ll get all my bowls finished and felted to actually share the finished results with all of you. And then I can figure out which one I liked best so I can start making lots of felted bowls!