When I bought it, I thought it was pink, but John pointed out that it’s really more of a mauve (purple) color. On the way home, I’d already been thinking about what I would need to do to make the yellow cover match the pink handle and spoke tips (the little things that the fabric attaches to– on this umbrella, they’re tipped with mauve plastic). I was planning on using some pink beads, but when John pointed out the purple, I went to my basement and found some leftover beads from when I made Jenny’s stole, 3 years ago:

They match perfectly, and because yellow and purple are opposites on the color wheel, they really pop and give a very satisfying “put together” look to the whole project!

And I started crocheting this:

It is NOT a doily. I repeat: it is NOT a doily.

It is, in fact, the beginnings of this:

It’s a crocheted lace parasol designed by Ira Rott. You can buy the pattern at the link provided. Really gorgeous. If I don’t screw it up, I might enter it into the county fair next year.

So I made one.

100% cotton, mostly white with little bits of lime green and brown. Used an H hook and did 9 single crochets back and forth until it was about 34″ long. Then I wrapped it around and spent 30 minutes in 116 degree heat sewing it onto the wheel. It’s unique.

(Edit for LJ Friends: Sorry for the photodump! Didn’t even know it would do that….)

There was the crocheted beret that I made for a visiting friend:

Then there’s the knitted hat I designed:

The green double-crochet-hat that my godmother taught me to make years and years ago:

The “started out as a granny square, then I turned it into a slouchy hat” hat:

And finally, a pattern called the Baroness Beret by Susan Power:

This one has a bit of a story behind it. The yarn is souvenir yarn that I bought in London last October. It’s Toft Alpaca DK, but it’s a heavy DK, so perfectly suited to a worsted-weight pattern. When I bought it, it came with a beret pattern, but I already wanted to make the Baroness with something, sometime. Still, I put the yarn into my stash and periodically I would take it out, feel its squishy goodness, and think “I should really decide what to make with this!”

In my heart of hearts, though, I knew that I wanted to make this pattern, using this yarn. So on Monday, I cast on for it. On Tuesday night at the Sin City Hookers, I tied off the last bit and wove in my ends.

I’m now working on another “I want to make something out of this” project. I have about a pound of handspun yarn that all falls generally into the same “autumny yellow-purple” colorways. I’ve put all the yarn together and decided it would make a good looking sweater. Two problems: I don’t have enough for a plus-sized sweater, but I’ve gotten around that by deciding to make it as a hope sweater for the size I want to be this winter. And I didn’t have a pattern. So I sat down last weekend and wrote one, using the measurements I anticipate I will be in about November or December. It’s a sideways cardigan sweater, so I’m starting at the front button band and working all the way around, vertically, then seaming and adding sleeves.

Right front:

At least, that was the plan. Then I noticed that I have exactly one long-change skein of yarn. This yarn will do what Noro does– the color will change gradually over several rows. If I split this into two, there will be a color change stripe from, say, purple to yellow, and then another color change from yellow to red.

So instead, after finishing the right front, all the way around the underarm and to the point where I had planned to cast on to go back up to the shoulder, I did this:

It’s hard to see, I know. Look at the top. Attached to the right front shoulder is the right back shoulder, and then towards the left is the neck and the left back shoulder.

Here’s a closeup of the right fron shoulder. The color is changing veeery slowly at this point. I think I’m going to love how the back of this sweater turns out.

Tune in later this week, after I re-create the post and get it up for you.

Cross-posted from the Handknit Heroes Updates Blog. Comment here or there!