October
2, 2004 -- "Fair Isle Fancy" afghan problems..This
photo is a detail of the start of the "Fair Isle Fancy" in the back
of Mosaic Magic: Afghans Made Easy 
By
using long double crochet stitches/front post stitches and others you can create
textures on crochet work and this is one of the best books I've seen doing this.
I bought it last year but only now have worked up the nerve to get on with trying
a pattern out. Lion
Brand yarn gave Lily Chin the yarns for the projects shown in the book and the
cost of the yarn put me off because you use SO MUCH in an afghan at first. Then
once I got 3 skeins of their "homespun" acrylic to play with thinking
I could do a sampler baby afghan based on one of the patterns in the book,
it drove me nuts. It feels nice, but it's a pain in the ass to work with
because it's so fluffy/variegated and it's hard to see. I read in crafty mailing
lists that other people hate it too. I don't blame them! I'm
making this in the suggested red-grey-white in Red Heart acrylic for this year's
Xmas afghan and I haven't yet decided who it is for -- a friend or my FIL. I <em>finally
</em>got the foundation to come out right and now it's working up quickly
since the pattern is already established. But man... getting that one started
was making me crazy! I was at it for 6 tries over several days to getting it down.
And you don't find out until row 4 if things are lining up so if you accidentally
miscounted your chain row, forget it! Unravel time. :P Now
it looks so good that I wanted to take photos as it works up. I'm kicking myself
for not taking photos of Xmas afghans past before giving them away. Sigh. At least
I'll have pix of this one. So
yeah, fair Isle techniques in croceht interests me a lot. I'm in love with Ruth
Atkinson's coat designs in Fair Isle crochet . Something to dream about. I
really ought to find simple knit fair isle patterns and try adapting it to crochet
fair isle.
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