This is the funny thing about crochet - one minute you can't go round in circles at all and the next, you crack it and you actually can't stop! Instructions for keeping the work from 'cupping up' and threatening to become a wooly cylinder only clicked into place once i switched from joining rounds in neat circles to travelling in a continuous spiral. The maths is pretty simple (though i don't pretend that it makes sense to me): i began with a chain of 6 stitches which i joined into a ring. Then i made 12 double crochet stitches into this ring. Next round, i increased into every other stitch. Every round after this, i make an increase one further along than last time - so, for example, i am now increasing into every 23rd stitch. It's diameter is 29 inches....for now! I'm mostly using double-crochet with the odd round of triple. You get into a kind of mad race with yourself and don't want to slow yourself down with pretty popcorns or shells.
As with my knitted blanket, i'm using a mixture of very cheap acrylic yarn punctuated with the odd bit of lovely stuff. A great find has been this:
It's a chunky acrylic called Marble by J.C.Brett. This one is shade no. 27 - about a fiver but the chunky comes in generous 200g skeins. Sally made me a glorious wrapper from this kind of self-patterning wool. What's great about it in a mixed-colour item, is that you can pick colours from it to find matching plain yarns, colours you may not have thought would fit into the scheme.
And because i'm making it up as i go along, i'm finally finding a home for leftovers, erroneous choices (from badly photographed 'bargains' on ebay) and crazy, fancy stuff like this which i just bought because i liked it:
This is a shade called 'Donkey' (!) by V and A Products. The yarn is called Mo-et and is incredibly fiddly to work being a sliver of ribbon with a breath of mohair loosely twisted around it (and prone to unwind). The ball is a sensuous treat to hold - incredibly silky and slippy. I can't resist a bit of gold sparkle.
I spotted this at one of the haberdashery stalls in the market.
I'm not sure if it was a bargain or not - £3 for 100g of wool and acrylic blend by Jarol. I love the colour which reminds me of tonics two-tone fabric.
Obviously i can't carry on like this indefinitely. I'm thinking of making a series or triangles, petal-wise and then more triangles to fit the first ones, jigsaw-wise to make a square or a rectangle of it.
There's nothing so good as having a project on the go!
Many thanks to my glamorous assistant Mr Safko.
