u/carlfoxmarten

And I may need to back up a little bit to fix something. I'm missing two rows by the time I'm down to the bottom hem on here, so I think I was supposed to double up a couple of rows somewhere.

I suspect, the next time I have the space to check everything over again, I need to stop and examine what I've done so far, just to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be.

Fortunately, this is way, way less stressful than the possibility of needing to redo anything else on this project, so I'm not too worried about this little bit of work. =^.^=

Also, you can see just how tiny the ball of dark grey yarn is here. I was fully expecting to need to dip into the remaining 10 ounces of the second Lion Brand "Pound of Love" skein in "Charcoal" (dark grey) yarn, which turned out to be entirely unnecessary. Hopefully I get to pack way lighter next time!
(in case you're interested, the dark red yarn is "Pound of Love" in "Claret", which I've used almost one-and-three-quarters of a pound of so far)

Once the button bands are complete and the loose ends woven in, it appears that I merely need to attach the buttons and I'm done! Man! Almost complete, finally! =^.^=

Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that I don't have enough of this bright red yarn to make a full scarf. My math indicates that, at the five-and-a-half inch width it is now, it'll only be about thirty-four inches long. And I usually prefer my scarves around 48-52 inches long, so it's way, way short of that goal.

Fortunately, I have this black yarn that's very similar in thickness and shine (though it is subtly thicker and less glossy than the red), so I'm going to augment the length with the black yarn.

(I'd obtained both yarns from someone else, and they were missing their labels by that point, so I have no idea where to buy more)

I was looking for an interesting way to change colours, and thought this diagonal would be interesting. Turns out, it is interesting! I just changed colours too soon, and have about 10 grams of the red left over.

Unfortunately, it's not 100% the same on both sides, as there's an obvious line, so I'm tempted to try running the diagonal in the other direction. Especially since I'll be undoing this, pushing it upwards a bunch, to hopefully use up more of the red yarn...

I'll admit, it's a little frustrating to find so many limitations for the Tunisian Double-Knit Stitch. Enough that I really need to try actual double-knitting, especially for colour-work.

My row counting has needed to get especially careful for this part (especially since I think I'd corrected the right hem (left in this picture) in the wrong direction, on the boundary between the dark red section and the dark grey one above it, but it's otherwise working out well enough for now.

I'll admit I wasn't terribly careful about the button band I have on there already (the right-hand one, on the left in this photo) as it merely has the attachment points for the buttons (where I tripled the vertical bars on two consecutive TSS rows to make it a more solid place to sew buttons to). While the left button band (on the right in this picture) will have the matching buttonholes.

I'd attempted to make a slightly reinforced buttonhole, by doing some slip-stitches and chains around said hole, but it really, really didn't look right at all. So I'm merely doing yarn-overs instead of regular TSS stitches and hoping it's enough.

Though, now that I think about it, I may have needed to make the top buttonhole narrower, as the matching button on the collar is actually smaller than the rest of the buttons. But I think I'm going to try the cheap and lazy way out by stitching it more closed, once I'm certain I don't need to frog the rest of it.

But it's turned out far, far faster than I'd expected, and if I'd had an additional half an hour to an hour tonight, I probably would be almost done by now. Only a bit longer, I think, before the second button band is complete, then sew the buttons on! Woohoo! =^.^=

This was taken partway through the slip-stitch process on the second hem, but it is complete now! Which should mean I can start on the TSS button bands next. Hopefully I won't have to redo anything from this step, because that was actually a lot more tedious than I'd expected!

The lamp was a broken desk lamp I'd modified to run off a USB power bank, but it turns out it wasn't actually bright enough for this part of the process (turns out, I needed a lot of light to do this part!), and since I was already using magnets to hold various useful things to the lamp's arm, I had a couple of spare magnets to attach my flashlight to the head on this lamp. I'm actually kind of annoyed that my flashlight is way brighter than my lamp is. Fortunately, both are rechargeable!
(it's portable enough to throw in my backpack, along with the power bank, but is too big for my project bag)

And in case you were wondering, yes, I did count stitches along each hem, and aside from a single stitch being the wrong colour on one hem (which I took into account in my counting), it appears that both hems match up about perfectly! Though my fingers are still crossed, just to be on the safe side.

I did assemble a trio of photos together showing the back of both hems all the way up, but didn't think it was interesting enough to share. You'll just have to take my word for it, I guess! =^.~=

So, what I'd discovered on Tuesday was that the TSS button bands need something consistent to attach to, instead of trying to attach to the hem directly.

Now, as you can see by the lovely texture going on here, I've used the Alpine Stitch to make the vast majority of this cardigan's body and sleeves, and it appears that the three-stitch-wide "hems" I'd left are alternating between SC and DC by row. This is to match the alternating rows of DC/FPDC and SC that comprises the Alpine Stitch, and it appears to have worked very well.

But this means that I have something far weirder to attach to than I'd expected. So today's amount of progress was far, far, far less than I'd been hoping for. In an hour and a half, I only reached three-quarters in length up one of the hems.

Once I finally have both hems slip-stitched, I'll be attaching the TSS button bands directly to these. Hopefully it won't take anywhere near as long, but I'm not holding my breath, just in case I run into further problems, yet again.

Slow progress is still progress, but it is rather much slower than I'd wanted...

As the title says, I'm attempting to use the Tunisian Simple Stitch to make button bands that attach directly to the hem edges of a cardigan, so I don't need to do any sewing.

I have vague ideas for how the button holes will be made on the matching band, but need to make sure the TSS rows are matching the Single Crochet hem edges so both bands line up properly between the hems.

I know a few things so far:

1. Since the hems I'm attaching to are all Single Crochet stitches, I should be able to match TSS rows to SC rows, and it ought to line up on both sides of the cardigan. (I had a lot of trouble tonight as there wasn't enough light to see the individual yarn strands, as I'd left my portable lamp at home today)
2. Buttonholes in TSS are gaps between rows (or at least, that seems to be the easiest method), so the buttons also need to be between two rows on the matching button band. This is why I've tripled the vertical lines on two consecutive rows, to attach the buttons to.
3. Dark yarn needs lots of light. I should have brought my portable lamp today.
4. Apparently, working the TSS rows and making sure I attach to the correct part of the edge of SC rows at the same time is too difficult, so I need to start with a line of Slip-Stitches from the back, then attach the TSS button bands to that instead.

If anybody has experience with this idea, please let me know. And if you have suggestions, I'm open to reasonable ideas. But please mark whether it's experience or a suggestion, so I know how much weight to give it!

Unfortunately, due to the entire project being predominately regular crochet, the final project is well outside the scope of this subreddit, so I won't be posting it here.

Like I've said before, I'm trying to use the Tunisian Simple Stitch (aka, the Afghan Stitch) for the button bands on this cardigan, mostly so I don't need to do anything too difficult to attach them on.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten just how little light Tuesday's library has, and had left my modified desk lamp at home, thinking I wouldn't need it. Yeah, I needed it! It was incredibly difficult to see where I was supposed to put my hook for each row with such indirect lighting, so I'd kept pulling my flashlight out to try to see better. Not exactly easy when you really do need two hands (one for the hook, the other to hold the material so the hook goes where it needs to), and trapping it under my chin definitely wasn't helping.

On the positive side, it did show me that I should probably do some slip-stitches along the back side of the hems here, so I can attach the TSS hems to that far more reliably, reducing the number of things I need to keep track of at one time to what I hope is a manageable amount at a time.

Which of course means I didn't actually get any real progress done aside from this learning experience. Sigh. I knew it wasn't going to be a snap to put these button bands on...

In the second picture, you can see a slightly bulging vertical line across two rows. This is how I plan to reinforce the band so I can attach a button there. I'm relatively certain this is enough, plus it also highlights where I need to add a buttonhole on the matching band, hopefully making it a little easier to line everything up.

And before you try and say my tensions are perfect, they're very, very much NOT. I've got dips in the left edge and I'm not sure what's going on to cause them.

This may be the first scarf where I've needed to block it before use! And I haven't actually done any blocking yet, either!

On the positive side, this is the most portable project I've ever had. Much as a previous scarf or two have been able to fit into a pretty small (if long) box, this one has the smallest volume I've had yet. It even fits inside a messenger bag I've had for ages, while still fitting a fair few other things in there on small shopping trips.
(ie, shopping trips for small items)

As a result, I've actually been able to make progress on this while I've been on nearly every bus trip I've been on since I started this project a couple of weeks ago. Though, not so much when I've been at home or at library groups, as I have another, larger, older project that has priority when possible.

I'd obtained the yarn secondhand (from a late yarn-crafter's stash), with the label removed before I got it, so I've no firm idea what this yarn is, but the "burn" test merely melted it, which makes me think it's 100% acrylic. It feels basically like Fingering (Size 2), but nicely fluffy, which makes it perfect for this scarf.

On the slightly negative side, my intent with this project was a lightweight scarf, but it's coming out pretty warm. I may need to try something even thinner yet to make an actually lightweight scarf. Or actually go up a couple of hook sizes? I guess experimentation is needed...

I don't know if nine is too many buttons, but I am a little nervous about how tightly this is going to fit me, so my current thinking is that more is better.

Given how many times I've undone previous steps to ensure they're about perfect, I'm taking this particular (and potentially final) step a bit more slowly and carefully. Since it's an unusual number of buttons, I'm attempting to place them both evenly and aesthetically-suitable. For example, the bottom button should be in the middle of the "ribbing" band, and the button directly above that should be in the middle of the grey band of Alpine stitch above the ribbing, which means that I need to make similar amounts of space between all the rest of the buttons. Not just between the buttons, but between the buttons and the borders between the two colours.

I'm hoping I'll be looking at this cardigan for a very long time into the future, so I don't want to rush into this and make glaring spacing mistakes. Especially since I'm OCD enough to know they exist and be really bothered by it!

Today, I tried a couple of spacing options (and using another piece of yarn seems to be the easiest way to mark positions right now), and just sat and looked at it as I worked on another project, so I'm going to look at this for a little longer before deciding whether this is the spacing I want to go with.

Fingers crossed I won't need to do much frogging on this nearly-final step!

It really feels right this time! Woohoo! =^.^=

I only had time this evening to finish the last pair of rows, so I need to add a single row joining the tops of the last pair of rows together in some way. Last time I'd done this with HDC stitches, so I'm going to try that again. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll go up a hook size or two and try Linked-DC stitches? Because the LDC I've been doing for the inside stitches aren't laying properly with a 4mm hook.

Anyway, in theory, I should be able to test out a few collar ideas next, then add the button bands! And then sew the buttons on, and I'll finally, finally be done!!! =^.^=

I am so pleased that all my math and both of my charts have actually lined up properly. It just goes to show that, if you keep notes on all your previous failures, you will eventually get it right!

I've been needing another scarf I can wear in warmer windy weather, as all my current ones are ridiculously warm for our current conditions. And I only have one thinner scarf that's currently in the wash.

So I kinda need another one! =^.^=

This is some random yarn I obtained from a late yarn-crafter's stash, and she'd already removed the label, so I've no idea what this stuff is. It feels mostly acrylic (which is 100% okay, as it means I should be able to wash this in the laundry easily), and is nicely fluffy for something so thin.

Yes, that is a 2.5mm afghan hook! I'd used a 3mm regular crochet hook for the long-tail chain I'd used to start this, though if I have to do this again (making it a little skinnier to make it longer) I think I'd prefer to use a series of Stacked DC stitches, working the TDKS section into the "bottom" of the row so it's fluffier on the outside.

My tensions are looking really good here, too! Now it's just a matter of time...

Not much to say about this, save for the fact that the neckline is looking like it's on track!

Also, I do need to remember to put the toy Tricorder and Combadge in my photos more often. After all, I do have them, and they look really good against my cardigan! =^.^=

Reminder: The yarn is Lion Brand "Pound of Love", in both "Charcoal" (dark grey) and "Claret" (dark red). I need to weigh it at some point, but it's got a little over three pounds of yarn in it so far (having bought two one-pound skeins of each colour), and only have a certain amount of the dark red yarn left to make both button bands, so my fingers will remain crossed for quite a while.

It's merely taking time now, and my notes are doing a pretty darn job of keeping me on track! Just gotta keep going...

So, given just how many times I've frogged, rewound, and tension-controlled this section of the cardigan, it turns out I've been "untwisting" this bit of yarn quite a lot.

Fortunately, I have a yarn winder (not a very great quality one, it turns out), and by using it to wind the yarn from one cake into another, I can make its twist looser or tighter, depending on whether I push the end of the yarn through the cake when I take it off the winder, and whether it's a Z or an S twist on the yarn.

Further good news indicate that I'm still on track with stitch counts per row, at least as far as my notes show, so I haven't dropped any further stitches just yet. I'm being more careful this time around and checking more sections to be more certain than I was before.

Also, I'm very glad I found that out in the very early stages of this next ball of yarn (which is where the first one-pound ball of dark grey yarn ended, and consists of the very generous amount I'd pulled from the second ball, which should contain way more than needed to finish the shoulders and the collar), as it was pretty much immediately upon tying the new ball in and crocheting with it that it was untwisting on me very badly. I was able to undo that section and untie the knot I'd added to connect the two parts together without any difficulties at all.

The only negative thing was that I'd found this out halfway through yarn night at the library today, and hadn't brought any other projects to work on. Though, that did give me some time to hand-sew the edge of my project bag back together, as things might have started to slip through the hole if I hadn't caught it in time.

And in case anyone is interested that's an officially-licensed Lights and Sounds Tricorder by Running Press. I'd bought one of them from a relatively local bookstore a few years back (they have a small range of trinkets to buy near the registers), and have a second one I'd bought online that I want to modify so it "works" via touch pads under the stickers. Outside the scope of this subreddit, but it hasn't been an easy electronics project, and I've made little progress on that one yet.

I was sick for a week or so, and it's taking a while to get my energy levels back to where they need to be again.

Fortunately, I don't really need a whole lot of mental capacity to add onto this, as my notes should cover everything I need to do. So far, while progress is still a little on the slow side, it is still progress. And if this idea for the front neckline is correct, it should also be the last time I need to do this.

My fingers are crossed.

Reminder: The yarn used in this project is Lion Brand "Pound of Love", in "Charcoal" (dark grey) and "Claret" (dark red). So far, I've used one entire ball of the former (and a bit of a second ball is set aside for the next part of the shoulders), and about one and a half balls of the latter. This is not going to be a lightweight garment...

And yes, that is my hat. I'm quite surprised by how useful this method of holding a roll of craft cord has been. All I need to do is bring a knitting needle, as I've got a few "weights" of hats for various weather conditions.

This is the second time I'm crocheting a basket, and while both have been to protect Caron Cakes, this time I've done a far, far better job of matching diameter to the exterior of the yarn. I'm also trying for a shell pattern this time around, though we'll see how much worse this is for my wrist compared to just plain Single-Crochet stitches.

The Caron Macchiato Cakes yarn (in "Blazing Sunset" this time) is for my second attempt at a knit-in-the-round scarf. I don't think I'd posted the previous one to this subreddit, but it was an attempt to use what was left of a "Nourish" (nature greens) Caron Macchiato Cakes yarn to make a gentle chevron pattern in a double-sided manner. Unfortunately, I'd run out of that yarn, and that colour basically can't be found easily anywhere nearby, and I can't really afford to have it shipped to me either. So for now I'm trying it again with a different colour, though I do have a way to finish off the previous version, probably in a month or two.

Anyway, the yarn cake is fluffy enough that I just know it's going to get the fluff rubbed off it if I just toss it in my project bags without some form of protection (heck, technically it's already started!), hence why I want another basket.

And for those curious: I was sick last week, so have been taking a break from the TNG Uniform Cardigan project. I want to be sure that I'm mentally capable enough to keep from making too many more mistakes before I do more work on it. Otherwise, it's been progressing slowly but surely so far, but doesn't look all that much different from the last few times I've frogged and redone the shoulders.

This has been an interesting experience. Given variegated yarn, avoid having straight, horizontal lines (because I have enough ways to make that happen), as well as using short circular needles to see how easily it moves through this diameter of tube. And it's basically perfect! Enough that I've already bought this same yarn in shades of orange, red, and yellow. (Caron Macchiato Cakes, in "Sunny", versus, ugh, "Nourish" for the above)

Unfortunately, I've basically run out of this yarn, and the only store nearby (the one I'd bought it from) has been out for weeks now, and aren't set up to be able to order more in. While there are other locations that do have it, they're far enough away to need a far stronger reason to make the trip than for just a small trip.

It's around three feet long now, which is way too short for my usual scarf length (around 52/54 inches), but the nearby store does have a less natural shade of green, that seems to be a pretty similar colour otherwise.

Any suggestions on whether I should try the brighter, less grass-green yarn, go out specifically to get the exact same colour, or is there a way to make this work as-is?