Saturday, February 23, 2013

Try To Keep My Mouth Shut!!

I was browsing thru Etsy's crochet section,  I came across a fellow 'male' crocheter selling some ski caps. What intrigued me was his use of Tapestry Crochet. The majority of the designs were similar(mainly 'diamond' shapes).

  So, I decided to buy one.

  When I got the Cap in the mail, I first noticed what yarn he used (Red Heart Super Saver, in Grey Heather, with Black Diamonds, using 2 strands). That's OK, I didn't pay that much anyway! ;-)

  Then I looked at the construction, mainly the top of the Cap. I could tell he made a smaller Crown section, by making the increases quickly, by doubling each rnd until he got the desired amount of stitches to form as many 'diamond' shapes as possible.

  What happens when you do that, is you're forcing the Crown section stitches to 'stretch', causing open spaces ( I don't like to use the word 'hole' with regards to crochet). Now, that might be OK for my fellow 'White' brothers up in Utah, were the designer's from, but here, in Philly, the majority of our 'black' brothers don't have a lot of hair (up there!), so we need our Caps to be a bit tighter to keep our skulls a bit warmer.

 Well, I thought I'd give it a try, so I made my own. I haven't tried using Tapestry Crochet in a while, mainly just wanted to know how to do it.

    

  About a week later, I went to the local crochet class at the senior center that's close to me (used to be their teacher for more than 10yrs), and asked if anyone heard, or seen Tapestry Crochet. No one did.

  So I explained what it is, and how it's made, showing them the Cap I purchased. I then, showed them my version, and explained the difference. All I got were looks of indifference, or, asked if I just had the pattern for the Cap.

  Another week went by, and I ask the class if they ever heard of Bavarian Crochet, no one heard of it, which had expected, so I asked if anyone heard of the Catherine Wheel Stitch. Again, no one heard of it, and showed no interest in as well. Just wanted to know if I had a pattern for it.

  I need to remember that most people aren't interested in really knowing anything like that, as long as it's in a pattern. Then, they'll just ask someone to help them fgigure it out..

  I'll try to keep my mouth shut!! ;-)