Linen Sneak Preview

Linen Sneak Preview
Originally uploaded by rchach

As I was mentioning on Monday, some projects work out perfectly and well others go a bit astray.

Here's another example.

This tunic was crocheted by the wonderful Diane a few weeks ago. She did a great job, everything was to gauge and looked great. Only problem, the designer. Yup, me.

This happens from time to time, it is one of the pitfalls of not being able to crochet all your own designs (if only I could crochet at the speed of light!). Sometimes even the best plans need to adapt. But when you are not the one crocheting it, you have no idea of this until it is too late.

Not too too late. I should stop and explain that I have my awesome crocheters crochet the majority and then I do all the fussy bits. So that could be they crochet the panels, and then I seam and edge. They might join all the motifs, then I block and add the border. That was the case here.

I took the mostly complete project out, put it on Susie Q and scratched my head. Something was just not looking right. It was not draping correctly at all. I tried all my blocking methods to get it to hang and not pucker, to no avail. Finally I stepped back and smacked my head. It wasn't the blocking or the joining, but me.

See I had the motifs joined side to side (almost grid like), and they wanted to stay in that grid form. So instead of moving with Susie Q, they stayed in columns and hung funny. Some motifs do that. The solution? Turn them 45 degrees. Then there are no columns of motifs, and the motifs hang from the points (think of a diamond), which will be the most flowy. It was a great solution. Only problem was now I had to rip apart the entire project.

It took me a bit to get over that. I just hate having to rip back. Luckily, with motifs I only had to unwind one side (as most of you know who have made granny square projects that are crocheted as you go), to remove the motif and reposition it. Once everything was reconstructed, the edging and finishing moved quickly. So it just goes to show, that sometimes you just need to change your perspective 45 degrees.

This project is slated for a winter crochet magazine. As always I'll let you know when it comes out.