Each time I start a new project or buy some new yarn, I always say that this time round I will write a post about it. Well, as you can clearly see I have barely brushed on the fact that I crochet in my whole blog!
I've taught myself this craft over the internet ... thankfully there are a lot of generous souls out there who have posted a lot of tutorials :) I will compile a list of helpful websites in another post some other time.
So I've cleared the "hooker" bit (if you haven't got it yet, the main tool crocheters use is a hook). Now on to the Rapunzel bit.
Meet Rapunzel ...
no not the girl! the top!
It's been created by Aoibhe Ni Shuilleabhain (you can find her here and here) and it's suggested yarn is Sublime Kid Mohair. Now, I'm not a girl who spends a looot of money on yarn, but I decided that for once I was going to use the same yarn that is mentioned in the pattern because I was totally head over heels in love with the design and didn't want anything to go wrong, so I bought it from English Yarns ... taking little notice that there was a nice insert on the side which gave you 3 options - save, spend, splurge. Yes, you've guessed right, the Sublime is the "splurge" option, arrrrggghhh!! But, to be honest I'm not regretting my purchase, honestly!
Anyway, I was super excited when I received the yarn, but I had some other ongoing projects and I didn't want to have another thing going on. I've earmarked this project for quite a long time, but I postponed it a bit because I was super afraid of using this kind of yarn. It had to many bits flying about and looked quite fragile, and I absolutely didn't want to ruin it for 2 main reasons - it's price, and the limited amount of quantity there is for this colour, so I left it to the side for some time.
In the meantime I got more yarn, worked on other projects, until I discovered that Tal-Lira (the Maltese version of the dollar store) sold yarn (!!!!!). Nothing special and no variety, just one thing, but a few colour options. It's a 100% acrylic yarn, but it had a very similar feel to the Sublime one (no, I'm in no way trying to offend the kid mohair!) - feels fragile and it looks fray-ey. I've done a whole shawl with this yarn (will feature in another post), and it gave me enough confidence and insight to be able to use mohair without ruining it.
So earlier this month I finally starting working on it, but halfway through the front half I noticed that there was something wrong ... it was far too big. I actually did do a small swatch, but as usual I didn't care much of the results. (I know! I should be ashamed of myself!) I was reaaaaally frustrated, and couldn't even frog it (it gets tangled up) but my mum offered to do the frogging for me. After a lot of grumbling and refusal from my side I conceded and she did it ... what took me only a few hours to wip up (let say around 5), it took her over 8 hours to frog, such is the nature of mohair. I tried to swatch again but I still couldn't meet the gauge and at this point I was really frustrated and disappointed, so much so I barely crocheted anything else - just a headband and a monster pouch.
Anyway, yesterday I went to the yarn shop and got some yarn to get some other projects done (and in a way to motivate myself to start crocheting again) and today, while I was browsing some patterns on Ravelry, I stumbled on the Inside Crochet discussion board. I half-heartedly went through the topics to check if there was anything about Rapunzel, and in fact there was one! And amidst questions and discussions about yarn and hook sizes there was this question which has proved to be a gem:
I have a friend at the yarn shop that wants to make your design and we were wondering if the DC is a British DC or an American DC.
Suddenly everything made sense! How could I NOT have thought about that!!! This is a pattern taken from a British magazine, and I was thinking of it in American terms!! Aaaaaaaaa!!!! I couldn't believe that it didn't occur to me, and it was such a great aha moment that I felt almost euphoric!
I'm still a bit afraid of starting it all over, but this time I will swatch and I will make sure that it comes out right. So yes, I'm a hooker and I'm gonna do Rapunzel (take 2) ... I will keep you posted on the progress of it :)
As mentioned at the beginning of the post, I will also blog about the new yarn I've bought, and in the future I will post pictures of my finished objects ... slowly but surely :)
ps: this pattern is featured in the second issue of Inside Crochet :)
pps: if you want to buy a digital copy of any issues of this magazine, you can obtain it from Yudu :)
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