Thursday, March 08, 2007

My Orchid (New Crocheted Project)

I bought yarns about 4 months ago from Elann. It is called Elann Sonata. Originally, I wanted to make Ivy from Knitty. When the yarn arrived, I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the yarn. It’s not as soft and shiny as I thought it would be.

In the end I don’t use the yarn to make Ivy, instead I am using it to make another version of Wild Rose. I love my Wild Rose and wear it many times already, so I must make another one. This time I will call it Orchid. Although similar looking, but the construction entirely different. This version, crocheted from top down, raglan sleeve, you can try it as you crochet, all in one piece. Because of the empire waist styles, this top will be flattering for any body types. I love empire waist styles because it gives you the slim effect.


No, this is not my hand. This is Lauri, trying to crochet

At this moment, I am almost reaching the waist. Just tried it on before writing this post, and I love with the result. I am definitely will write down the pattern.

In case you are wondering, yes, I am splitting the yarn again. Elann Sonata yarn is in DK weight, so I split it into two to become fingering weight yarn.

Tip to split the yarn:
1. Unravel about 2 or 3 meter yarn, then tied the ball using rubber band
2. Split the yarn apart, make sure you pull the yarn tightly (ask for help or use your toes to hold), then wind the splited yarn at the same time. In short, you pull, split, wind at the same time, and slowly release the yarn bit by bit using your toes to control (or ask your helper to release bit by bit. But, make sure don’t loose the tight tension, otherwise the yarn will be in a tangled mess.
3. Hang the ball and let it spin before you unravel for more.
4. If your yarn got 9 ply, you split 2 first (3 ply and 6 ply), later you split the 6 plyinto 2 again.

Once I got somebody to take photo, I will post the photo tutorial how to split the yarn.

5 comments:

Mimi said...

That is looking good, Lily! The yarn looks like perle cotton.
It seems tedious to split yarn, but I think its very resourceful of you and you get to save a lot on material cost ;)
I can see that you have problem with photobucket hosting your photos. Would you like to try Flickr? I didnt have any problem with it.

Lily said...

Thanks Mimi, I over limit my quota on my photobucket, so they freeze my account for temporary. It will go back to normal next week. I do have account in Flickr, but I don't know how to use it to post.

Mimi said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! You have great crocheting and knitting skills. Your blue top and the sage cardi shows it all!

It's sounds hard to split the yarn but you have done a good job! Thanks for sharing the tips.

Mimi from Mimi's knitting corner

Svetlana said...

Lily, I'm sorry you were dissapointed with Sonata, it's one of my favorite cotton yarns. It's not as soft as many other cottons out there, but I think unlike many of them, Sonata keeps its shape very well, both in knit and crochet.It wears like an iron, washes with no problems, no pealing, no splitting, no color fading. I'm working on a dress in Sonata and love it again. Which color are you using? I like it.

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