Once upon a weekend, there was a cottage. And in that cottage, there were three stitch n’ bitchers.

One stitch n’ bitcher brought a string bikini with her. One brought a bikini top she had crocheted.

The third stitch n’ bitcher didn’t own a bikini. However, she was enticed to try on the string bikini and was pleased. She also saw the clever pattern of the crocheted bikini, which was unlike any bikini top pattern she had ever seen.

This percolated in the back of her mind for two weeks. Then, one evening, the third stitch n’ bitcher looked at her yarn stash and her collection of crochet hooks and It All Clicked.

This is the end result. Hooray for figuring out how to access Photo Booth! I finished it this afternoon, after a day of hard, hard labour:

It’s made out of DK-weight Patons Grace, with a 3.5mm hook. I eyeballed it for the size, which in this case turned out to be 32 foundation single crochet on the base row. I did 20 rows of single crochet, then stopped row 21 at stitch 16 and did another 18 half-width rows for a total of 39. The final piece was seamed to make a cupped equilateral triangle. I joined the two pieces on the edging row, chaining out 80 stitches at the top and sides and coming back on the butt side of the chain to make a sturdy string and continue on with the next side.

If it weren’t so persistently icky today (two thunderstorms, enough rain to drench my garden and one funnel cloud warning), I’d have worn it outside already.

Ah, well, there’s always tomorrow…

and I am a yarnaholic.

hello Charlotte

I first got hooked 2 years ago at Christmas helping a friend out at Chemo. Her ma taught me how to knit. I frustratedly knit the tightest most misshapen “rectangle”. a few days later, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law taught me how to crochet. I soon abandoned the needles, and took to hooking, in the hopes that one day maybe someone would pay me for my craft. I put myself out there. At work, at home, sometimes even in public. I was a mess.

Summer came, and my hooking got put off to the side. I couldn’t bring that to Europe with me! I may get kicked off the plane! I never went back to it until that fall, where I picked right back up again. now, always with a hook in hand, I started discovering new forms of obsession, namely yarn, books, magazines. I got off the cheap, oily stuff, onto designer fabrics. Then, one day, I found a pattern that used knit and crochet. I decided my fate. I picked up the needles again. I’ve stopped eating. I’ve stopped sleeping, I’ve stopped working. Now. it’s all socks, sweaters, baby wear. it just doesn’t stop. Sometimes, I’m found hooking and picking up the needles in the same day. Never a 24 hour period goes by without a needle in hand or a trick turned. I’m doomed.

I’ve asked you here as support. I need like minded people who truly undertand what it is to wake up from the pain in our fingers, only to discover how to change that misshapen mess into the sister of the other perfect sock.

Help!

meet me on Sunday, November 25th. I need some support for my yarn addiction

Char