FO: Ogunquit

I've finished Ogunquit by Norah Gaughan in the Vol. 8 booklet. The yarn is Rowan Calmer, which is a really nice cotton blend yarn. It's very soft and feels very light. This sweater is a really nice cardi for warm weather.

My row gauge was tighter than the specified gauge so I had to change my number of rows between decreases. If I had to do it again, I would probably slow the decrease rate even more on the lower front sections so that the lower fronts would be wider. For the back, I actually put the decreases closer together to have it flare at the bottom instead of a swing shape.

My hem rolled too much, so I added my favorite edging of single crochet followed by reverse single crochet for both the bottom edge and the sleeve openings. I used a smaller needle to cast on for the sleeves to avoid having the openings flare out.
I knitted the front bands at the same time as the body instead of knitting separate bands and sewing them on. I also slipped the first stitch on the band edges.



Tomokee (aka Large Dog aka Butthead) has no opinion of my sweater, but he was kind enough to pose for a pic.

Antique crochet book

I recently came into possession of this crochet book, published in 1912. It's so old that I call it "antique" and not "vintage".

It's amazing how much fine detail is in the various patterns. I cannot imagine finding the time to make myself ribbon trims like these shown below, but I guess back in the day, these trims were all hand-made. It reminds of these lines from my all-time favorite movie, Gosford Park:
-- Elsie (Head Housemaid): "God, look at this, machine made lace."
-- Barnes: "Hark at her!"
-- Elsie (Head Housemaid): "I hate cheap clothes. They're twice the work and they never look as good."

I also like these collars:

Here are some more complex trims:

I had to search the web to find out that convolvulus is a plant. (To me, it sounds like something medical!)

And finally, these animal motifs are sort of cute:

As interesting as this book is, I'm not keeping it. I'm sending it off to my bloggy friend Ellen who loves to crochet far more than I do, and also loves to collect things far more than I do.