octagon medallion

Wow!
Where did the time go???
It's been ages since my last post.

I could tell you that I've been spending every spare moment at the gym, and that's why you haven't heard much from me... I can't very well work out and blog and craft all at the same time now, can I? But that wouldn't be entirely true. In fact it wouldn't even be close to true.

You've all been so wonderfully supportive of me with the whole underpants issue! And I really appreciate it. Thanks so very much to those who sent messages, especially those who shared some of their own experiences with me.

Now I just need to be a bit more supportive of myself.

I love the gym... when I go, that is...

Once I'm in the door, I quite enjoy it... and of course I always feel wonderful (and exhausted) afterwards... but the really hard part is forcing myself to go in the first place. I seem to come up with a million excuses, and reasons not to go. Not entirely sure why I avoid going, but it's a negative habit which I'm trying to break.

But that's not what this blog is about...

I'm here to share my craft



Still plodding away at the 2009 Block-A-Month CAL. For the first half of the year, I was really disciplined. I worked both squares each month, and was well on track for completing the project. But I hit a bit of a stumbling block in August. Both of the August squares used a popcorn stitch pattern, which looked good worked in a single colour... but was just already too busy for me to go all multi-coloured with it. So I didn't make them.

Well, I did start them... but the results were really disappointing, so I frogged them. Then I couldn't get back into a rhythm again... until now!

So this is the November Ravelry Square. It is called Octagon Medallion and was deigned by Priscilla Hewitt. Click here to see the free online pattern.

Octagon Medallion was fun to make. It's visually interesting but the square itself is a fairly solid and stable piece, which meant that it took on a nice shape. This is one of the few squares which didn't actually appear to NEED blocking, it just came together beautifully.

That being said... I have spoken with a number of others who complained that their squares seemed to buckle and bend, and not sit nicely at all. Having further discussed it with them, they seem to have followed the pattern correctly, but it just hasn't worked up nicely. Frustrating, huh?

The only reason I can think for why this may have happened is TENSION. Now I can't remember what hook size I used for this pattern, but I do work with quite a loose tension. So if you find that your work curls in those first few rounds, start again with a larger hook and see if that helps. No point soldiering on with the starting hook. The bucking just gets worse with every round.