Long Hooded Cape

Finished!  I really love how my new cape came out.  I was worried about the length, because I'm very short, but it's perfect; warm but not cumbersome, coming to just below my knees.  If I were to do it again, I might find a way to have the arm slits start and end 2-3 rows earlier, because they do start just barely below my elbow, rather than at the elbow.  I was also concerned about the fit around the hips because the pattern is one size fits most and I'm a plus sized woman, but it is great.  Plenty of room without clinging, but not a giant tent of a garment either.

Some folks on Ravelry had expressed concern that the hood wouldn't be big or deep enough as directed, and mentioned various ways of making it larger.  The simplest of which was to go up a size or two in crochet hook.  Since I knew I was going to be close on how much yarn I had left, I decided to make it exactly as directed, and if it was too small, I could always go back and rehook it later without too much fuss.  I'm glad I did.  Once the edging was added the hood was a perfect depth, and I finished the project with about 1/2 of one skein of yarn left, out of the 20 balls I'd ordered.  I really liked the wool yarn, and would recommend it to anyone.  Warm and comforting in weight, without being overly heavy.

Test swatch for Silk Waves Shawl.

It took exactly 1 month to finish the cape, due to the fact I did a lot of extra crocheting to hook out my feelings over the tensions of this election season.  Now that I've finished it, I'm still geared up, so it's time for a new project.  A silk shawl to be precise.  I bought the pattern and yarn when I was laid up back in March, but they didn't ship my order for well over a week, so by the time I got it, I was all better, and onto other projects.  The pattern is the Silk Waves Shawl from Darn Good Yarn, made from their lace weight recycled silk yarn, in the color Enchanted Forest.  It's been a strange switch from the worsted wool and 6.5 hook, to the fingering silk and 3.25 hook.  It was like learning to crochet all over again yesterday as I worked on my test swatch. Since the swatch came out well, I have moved onto the actual shawl, and completed 2 rows yesterday afternoon.