Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

In a move that surprised literally everyone, my uncle passed away recently. He lived his life up until the last conscious second, which is the best any of us can hope for. Needless to say, my aunt and two cousins (I have nine total cousins. My children hate when I say “my cousin” without explaining more specifically which one.) have a lot to deal with right now. There is little I can do but send happy thoughts and ask how they are. In an effort to try to be supportive, I am making my aunt a shawl. 

I picked colors based on what my mother would wear and look good in as my aunt is her identical twin. Accidentally, these colors are all shades of ripening bananas or parts of bananas. In my family, we are referring to this as the deconstructed banana shawl. I decided to use moss stitch because moss stitch is quick to use, doesn’t eat yarn, and is good for colorwork. I had visions of trying my hand at something like Andrea Mowry’s knitted Nightshift shawl. I love that shawl but I cannot knit, and I refuse to learn. Mowry’s design has been running around in my mind for some time, and I have thought a lot about it.

So I started the point to side wrap with a block of just yellow and then started my first stripy patch. I worked two rows of brown, then one row of light green, then two more rows of brown. I planned to do another row of light green but ended up frogging it because I was so enamored with the five row stripe I had created that I just wanted to make more of those. So I did.

I set up the rule, broken only once so far, I hope, that the next stripe cannot contain any colors found in the stripe before it. I tried stranding the colors up the increasing, sloped side, but it looked terrible, so I made sure all of the stranding occurs on the non-increasing, straight side of the triangle. 

And this has created its own faux pas. Each stripe begins on the straight, non-increasing side of the triangle with a broken end of yarn, thus all of those ends. I work two rows, join the new color back on the non-increasing side, work a row in that, and then break the yarn. I have now left the stitch pattern on the increasing side. I should turn my work and do the next row, but the other color is still attached to the far side of the wrap where it waits patiently to do my bidding. And here is the faux pas. I do NOT turn my work. I just scurry back to the beginning of the row, pick up the color I was using, draw up a loop in the first stitch I made in the contrast color, and work the next row stranding the first color up the side. Yes, two rows face the same way, one right on top of the other, when most of the other rows are turned each time. For those purists who must turn every row or work every row in the round in any given project, I have sinned against the crochet gods. My work is . . . inferior? Wrong? Ailing? My lack of a turned row is noticeable? Garish? Improper? 

I seriously do not care. I don’t find it noticeable at all. It is, dare I say, consistent through the entire colorwork section of my project. It is saving me time weaving ends. My project is not unstable or faulty. It is fine. We are fine. Angry flaming yarn balls will not rain down upon me and mine for this transgression. Relax and play with your yarn.

The project is going really well. I have most of it done, and I really like the stripes. I am making a lot of ends though. But, you know, ends are the means to greatness. I did weave a couple of ends early on. I tried working over the ends, but I have never liked that, so I frogged that bit. I even tried the Weavin’ Stephen method that Stephen West explains in a Youtube video. That works but I think the ends look best if I take the time to weave them carefully, so I will do that even if it destroys me.

I have left quite a mess of it as you can see. I am nearing the end though, so end weaving time approaches. The cat hairs you see in the pictures, as always, are a friendly free addition I make to all of my projects.