Swingy Shawlivest cardigan with pockets

I continue to experiment with my Swingy Shawlivest paid pattern. This time I decided to add sleeves to make a Swingy Shawlivest cardigan-style and also added pockets. I love how this turned out. It's so swingy and almost cape-like; I know this is going to keep me nice and cozy come next winter. You can browse my other Swingy Shawlivest blog posts at this link.

I used a regular DC mesh stitch for this one, rather than the EDC in the original pattern.

After working the body of the Shawlivest to the desired length, I continued working a twisted rope fringe across the hem without cutting the yarn.

To make twisted rope fringe: SC into next ch 1 space. Pull up 16-inch loop and twist 40 times before joining with sl st to top of next DC. Repeat across hem. (Mine ended up with 228 fringes.)

Mikey of The Crochet Crowd has a video tutorial showing an even better method (similar to what I did, but he uses slip stitches exclusively, and his version is probably more durable over time that way, so I recommend doing it Mikey's way). You can increase the space between the fringes by just working more slip stitches in between them, if you wish.

It only took me about two weeks to crochet most of this cardigan. But it took me over a year to actually finish the project because I stalled out while doing the twisted fringe. All that twisting was seriously aggravating the elbow tendinopathy in my dominant arm. I managed to work my way across maybe the first 25% of the hem over a period of about 11 months (that was less than 60 fringes in ELEVEN MONTHS, guys ... seriously — ouch!!!), and then I realized that I just couldn't do it anymore.

I showed the project to my husband and shared with him how defeated I felt by my disability. We both felt it would be such a sad thing if I wasn't able to finish it because of that. He asked me to explain to him what my process was for making the twisted fringe, and then in secret my husband went searching around on the internet trying to find something that would help me finish making the fringe without hurting my arm so much.

What he found was nothing short of magical.

Before my husband found it, I had no idea a tool like this existed.

He found and bought for me a Maple Quad End Fringe Twister from Etsy seller theknitstore. He knew I didn't need a tool with four twisters on it, since I was only making one fringe at a time on this project, but he decided to get the quad twister anyway (the seller also has a dual end option) so, in his words, I would have more possible options for using the tool when I make other things in the future. What a sweet and thoughtful man I married, right?!?!

When the tool arrived I watched a YouTube video on how to operate it, and even though I was only working with one loop being twisted at a time, the tool made the work SO MUCH easier on my arm. Yes, there's still some manual movement involved, but it wasn't nearly as strenuous as twisting the long loops by hand, and the tool made the process so much faster.

Bottom line: After only being able to make around 60 twisted fringe loops by hand over the course of about 11 months, with the fringe twisting tool I finished the remaining 168 loops in ONLY TWO DAYS with no painful aftereffects from the work. No matter how you slice it, that is a definite win.

After completing the fringe, the only things left to do were to add sleeves and also a couple of patch pockets on the front.

I attached the yarn at the bottom of an armhole to begin working the sleeves. I just crocheted in the same mesh pattern using joined rows. I put in some stitch decreases for the first five rows and then worked the rest of the sleeve straight, and then I finished the sleeve with a few rows of fpdc/bpdc ribbing.

For the pockets I used the pocket pattern from the Lazy Diamond Boho Pocket Shawl, and I think they complement the cardigan nicely. The pockets are about 10 inches square, so they're nice and roomy for keeping hands warm. I might add a fabric liner to the pockets later (useful if I want to keep anything small in there, like coins, which might otherwise fall out between the crochet stitches), but I'll see how I feel about that later.

Accessories for Miss Pam's funeral

This post is incredibly difficult for me to write.

My dear, dear friend of nearly 30 years has left this world.

Miss Pam's family asked everyone attending her funeral to wear something purple, because purple is the color of the pancreatic cancer awareness ribbon.

Crocheting the scarf and scrunchie using Red Heart Sassy Lace yarn is very fast and easy. I crocheted the double-wrap infinity scarf in about an hour, and the scrunchie was even faster. I was able to make both items from just one skein of the Sassy lace yarn.

Mikey Sellick of The Crochet Crowd has a video tutorial for how to crochet the Sassy lace scarf. (He also has a knit version for those who prefer to knit it.)

Kinga Erdem of My Hobby Is Crochet has a video tutorial for how to crochet the Sassy lace scruchie. Kinga suggests using about 2.5 meters of the lace for each scrunchie, so I cut off about 10 feet and set that aside for the scrunchie before using the rest of the skein to crochet the scarf.

Miss Pam's family chose a purple butterfly as the symbol to represent Miss Pam's journey. I have another dear friend who is an artist, Artified by Rae, and I commissioned her to create this butterfly for Pam's daughters. If you look closely at the butterfly's wings, you will see Pam's name inscribed there.

Another one of Pam's friends read this about the purple butterfly at her funeral service: "The purple butterfly is a symbol for Pancreatic Cancer. A purple butterfly is one of the rarest of all butterflies to see out in its natural habitat. It is a reminder for you to stay patient and faithful. It urges you to trust in yourself and have courage. Mrs. Pam, you are now and forever our purple butterfly!"

💜💜💜

Cozy candles

I used SlipStitchery's Halloween Witch Jar Covers pattern as initial inspiration for these quick and easy flameless (battery operated) candle cozies. I worked each cozy in a different stitch and different colorway for some variety in them as a grouping.

I still intend to make some of the actual Halloween Witch Jar Covers sometime, too! 😊

Luna Triangle Cowl

I really like pullover triangle cowls. They look amazing, they are so easy to wear, and they keep your neck, shoulders, and chest nice and cozy. So when I saw the super cute Luna Triangle Cowl paid pattern by Deni Sharpe, I knew I wanted to make one for myself.

I deviated from the pattern in a few ways. First, the pattern is written for bulky (size 5) yarn using an 8mm hook, but I made mine in aran weight (since that's what I had in my stash) with a 6.5mm hook. I also opted to hand knit the ribbed top of the cowl instead of working it in crochet.

The knitted part I did in a lofty and reversible fisherman's rib worked in the round over 80 stitches. I followed the tutorial for this technique at this link. Then I picked up the stitches for the first row of crochet to begin the triangle portion of the cowl. Since I was starting with a different number of stitches for the bottom part of the cowl than was listed in the pattern, I had to adjust the stitch counts for the triangle part of the work.

Light, wide infinity scarf

Another quick and easy machine-knit infinity scarf. Cast on with waste yarn, then switch to project yarn and knit through the entire skein, leaving about a 60-inch tail for grafting the ends together.

I wanted this scarf to be as wide as possible, so I used the Sentro 48 to knit it. I got 252 rows from one full skein of the Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the Chi colorway. Finished scarf is about 54 inches long.

Although Lion Brand calls this a size 4 yarn on the label, it feels more like a DK (3) weight, and this weight works into a lovely tubular scarf that will keep the wearer plenty cozy and warm despite the fiber's light weight.

You can see how to seamlessly graft the ends of the tube together by watching a tutorial video like this one, although there are many tutorials available for this technique online.

I gifted this scarf to my daughter, LadyU! 

And I made another one for Rose, whose favorite color is orange. It can be difficult to find pretty yarns that include the color orange, so this Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the Serenity colorway jumped out at me as being a great choice. I hope she likes it!

I also knitted this one on the Sentro 48 and got 267 rows from the skein (not sure why there's such a difference in the number of rows between the different colorways). Finished scarf is also about 54 inches long.