Yep, this is one of those posts—I’m working on a quadzillion fun, exciting things, but I can’t show them to you yet. Of course they’re rather out of season too. I’m currently working on Fall/Winter releases, and it’s almost 100 degrees outside. Humidity 37%.
But I can always show you my personal projects (unless I’m making a baby shower gift or something of that ilk…ahem. Forget I ever said anything.). After crossing Barocco off my 9-project challenge for this year, I decided to keep going, seeing how I was on a roll and all. With sweater weather cycling out (see above), the next item on my list was something small and not too warm:
This the Coral Story Blanket (Ravelry link) by Tatsiana Kupryianchyk—or rather A-Coral-Story-Blanket-Which-I-Am-Turning-Into-a-Pillow. The recliners in my living room have been in real need of some dressing up; but not an entire blanket. Besides, if I tried to make an entire blanket out of fingering weight yarn and only crocheted on weekends, I’m pretty sure that would be a year-long enterprise. Instead I’ll be making assorted hexagons and sewing them together to make a couple of pillows. I still haven’t decided I’m going to stuff them, though; hexagonal pillow forms aren’t exactly standard issue. Details, details.
I’m using WeCrochet Hawthorne Multi in color Burlingame (pink) and Hawthorne Tonal in color Springfield (green). Hawthorne is probably my favorite budget sock yarn; it’s bouncy but blocks well, doesn’t pill, and comes in scads of colors across four dye styles. Burlingame is mostly a vibrant peachy pink with shots of magenta, orange, yellow, baby pink, and pale green; Springfield is a spectrum of mid-tone greens with some dashes of yellow. When I ordered the yarn I was a little nervous about pairing these two, as there’s a bit of overlap in the colors that could obscure the pattern, but I went for it anyway. I think it’s working out fine so far. And besides, the variation will hide any imperfections in my brioche crochet. I’m new at this.
Crochet brioche has been on my to-learn list for several months. I’m undecided as to how I feel about it as a technique; pre-blocking, the fabric is rather thick and crinkly. The bounce in Hawthorne may have something to do with that, but it that’s the case it will relax after it hits warm water. The actual steps to execute the patterning itself are quite clever (I believe Tatsiana developed this method herself). However, the mechanics are difficult to describe; I assume this is why there are photos of every step included with the pattern. I rarely knit or crochet from photos, but I doubt I’d want to do a pattern like this without them.
Quibbles, though. This project has been quite fun, and restful to boot, despite the fact that I make a mistake whenever I’m not paying attention and then have to rip back. Ripping can be therapeutic too, in small doses. And pillows are nothing to be sneezed at.
