No before picture for today’s installment. I came across a partial top down sweater while digging through my stash. The last time I remember working on it, we were living in the little Zen tea cottage* when we first moved back down to California — in 2004. I didn’t have enough yarn to make the sweater I originally intended. I wasn’t happy with the fabric. I should have gone down one more needle size, but that meant I would need even more yarn than what I had available. So it sat. For 9 years.
Last weekend, I pulled it out of the UFO box and ripped the sweater. I had thought that I could make another vest. That was a surprisingly wearable and comfortable vest. I wanted more.
But last night, I finished the last hexagon on my crochet hexagon shawl/blanket thing. Except it wasn’t large enough.
The current size is 15″ deep by 40″ wide. The width is workable — elbow to elbow on me. But 15″ doesn’t cover enough of my back to keep it warm, just the shoulders.
A light bulb turned on. Perhaps I can use the yarn from the former top down raglan to frame the hexagons to make it larger all the way around. I think I even have enough to turn it into a shrug.
Here is the hexagon piece on top of the shrug. The shrug is folded over so the hex piece is about 1/2 of a shrug. I weighed everything. The hex piece weighs just under 8 oz. The former sweater weighs around 9 oz. I definitely have enough to turn this hex piece into a shrug.
The shrug will be colorful. It will be wild. It will most definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea. But it should definitely keep my back warm while I sit and drink a cup of tea.