CAL a cowl and FROG

Well, well I had finished my project for the CAL with Rachel about two days after I took the picture of the cowl in its beginning stages, but I usually forget to take pictures of my finished projects....

I think it may be because as soon as one is done, I hook up another and forget about the old one.

Anyway, my cowl is done and I can tell you straight out that I hate it - totally dislike it.

Full.Stop

Somehow along the way I managed to miscount and when I came to sew the edges together it was apparent that one side was about five hooks shorter than the other.

How rude!

And that was a mistake I never even made as a beginner. Now that I am classing myself as pretty advanced, something like that should not happen.

I thought I would be nifty and hooked up a lovely Japanese flower to sew over the seam so no one would notice the crooked edge, but I think it made it worse - have a look yourself

The flower is too bright and makes it more apparent that it is sewn on slightly crooked as well.

Ho-hum.

But anyway, what I am going to do it to take the flower off again and frog the cowl, start afresh:)

Talking about frogging....here's another one I started and half way through the shawl I realised yellow is NOT a good colour for scarves and cowls unless you are

a) really old

b) really young

And I also realised that using cheap yarn like my fave Stylecraft DK is not nice for clothing and accessories but much better for pillows and Afghans. I really dislike it for scarves and wraps and that's why I splashed out this month and invested in some Rowan Cotton and Patons Smoothie
(it's acrylic but feels and hooks like cotton)

Teaming those yarns up with my newest obsession, Japanese Patterns, I am in crochet heaven :)

Within two days I turned this WIP

into a gorgeous shawl (I have to block it before I can share a picture)

And I already finished half a stole with Patons Mirage, but (surprise, surprise) I am already tempted to frog that one. Multicoloured yarns don't seem to "do it" for me unless I turn them into socks. But I carry on with the stole for now and see how it looks once finished.

But there are some projects I actually finish and keep, one of them is a headband-turn-collar which I did about two months ago but forgot to take a picture of.

No instructions were used for that one, I just hooked up some Patons Chunky and did row after row until it fit my a big head, like mine :).

The addition of a crochet flower just set's it off nicely.

I added two rows of button holes as I was thinking of doing a few more of these headbands and have them up for sale in my Shop - but as not everyone has a thick skull like me, I wanted to try the option for two head sizes.
When I slipped the headband off, it fell around my neck and that's when I realised that you could easily turn it into a funky collar, just by buttoning it up another way...look here:

I was super excited with that "discovery" and have already got a few more projects like this in the pipeline.

So, what other hooky plans do I have?
There are two stoles/wraps waiting to be done and one super cute vest - all done after some Japanese patterns.

If you want a really good deal on Japanese Pattern Books - I got all mine as eBooks from this seller on Etsy. She also has bundle offers and delivery is almost instant.
Sure, you have to print them out yourself,but is still works out cheaper than getting the book at full price and with the shipping costs on top too.
I have ordered and received eight books from the above shop and only spent a total of  $16.98 on them...bargain.

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