The Curse of the Crochet Hook

O.K. I know when I'm licked. I've finally thrown in the crochet hook on the York mohair shawl. As you may remember, I ran out of blue mohair from York and had to buy some varigated coordinating mohair at my LYS. It actually looked pretty good, although it was a slightly finer yarn.

I finished one end of the shawl with the new yarn and started adding to the other end, when I realized that the second end was MUCH broader than the first end. When I counted the little squares, I found that one end was about 1/3 larger than the other. Somehow I had added crochet links as I went so that the whole thing spreads out like a funnel. It's not really triangular, just misshapen.

This, along with the fact that somewhere along the line a huge hole developed inexplicably, has led me to the conclusion that this project was not meant to be.

The knitting gods are jealous gods and they have cursed my crocheting efforts. In an effort to placate them, I'm now engaged in unraveling yards and yards of mohair. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

Oh great knitting gods, please let this worthy mohair of distant origin find happiness in a felted hat or bag.

On a happier note, I'm pleased with the fingerless gloves I'm making out of my handspun merino/silk blend. I adapted the pattern from a free online pattern. My yarn was finer than the yarn in the pattern, so I had to cast on 56 instead of 48 stitches, so then I changed the cable to a 12-stitch right hand cable. I also did a 4 inch K2P2 rib at the cuff so it could be doubled over for extra warmth. So, I took the bare bones of the online pattern and changed everything. It's turning out nicely though.

I'm also pleased that I have nearly an entire bobbin full of angora singles. Andy is shedding like there's no tomorrow -- he looks really scruffy, partly bald and partly fluffy with long strings of clumped hair hanging off of him. I've been combing and plucking him and, after carding the fur on my drum carder, I filled a small cardboard box with it. I've been happily spinning away at it for a couple of weeks at odd moments.

A lady on one of my spinning lists was talking about plying angora singles with wool singles and inspired me to try that out. I've got some beautiful dark grey merino/silk blend roving that would look good plyed with Andy's fur. I've also got the blue merino/silk blend and some other nice rovings in my stash to try. Once I get the rest of this angora spun up, it's going to be a plying party!