"Crochet!"...a tale of redemption

Passing our house on a glorious day such as today, so glorious as to cause windows all over the state of MN to be thrown wide in hopes of catching every fair fall breeze passing, if the timing was just right, you may very well have heard the anguished cry of "WHY, oh why did I do this to myself AGAIN?!?!?"

And yes, you would have known that I once again committed the folly of purchasing the newest issue of "Crochet!".

Time and time again I've fallen into their trap, and time and again I've sadly lived to sorely regret it.

In hopes of staying out of the land of negativity, I'll just say I hope to some day learn that it's dear editors and I just don't see eye to eye...or perhaps that should be hook to hook. The styling, the yarn, the patterns tend just to not be to my taste.

Apparently today is not the day for that though, since I scooped it up, along with the latest Family Circle Easy Crochet, in a fit of crochet madness while perusing the local Barnes & Noble in search of the Oct/Nov Crochet Today.

Got home and while flipping the pages was again mentally berating myself for my folly when I stopped in shock. An article, and actual article I wanted to read. I started flipping pages faster, and there was another one, and a pattern I actually wanted to try out, sans fluffy edging, and another I could tweek to my liking I think. WOW. Guess this is what happens when we in the great white north get 2 successive days over 80 in October...

Here's the scoop:

• Designing from a different angle, part 2 covers vertical-row construction and utilizing short row shaping...not just for knitting any more it appears. (though if you've made the driving gloves from Happy Hooker you've already done it.)
• From Batt to Beautiful talks about taking wool roving or batt and making it crochet-able without spinning...can't wait to try this.
• the red holiday duster pattern is the one I'm imagining without the foo-foo edging (so not me) and in a nice natural wolly-ness for winter. Merino would be lovely.
• there are a couple of other sweater-y things I think I can adapt to suit my more "mature" mommy figure (can we stop with the crop tops yet???). want to try that tunic sans high fun furry neck and edges.
• and just yesterday, whilst proclaiming my love for wooly wormhead's latest hat-y creation aloud (ooohh and just was there to get the link and there's a note about a new online crochet zine?????? crochet insider, check it out!), was thinking about making a hat with earflaps that turned into a scarf and "bing" here it is today in "Crochet!".

So, they've got me again. You can lay money on me nabbing the next one in hopes that such heights will prove self-perpetuating. AGH.

Liking the FC Easy Crochet too...nothing revolutionary, as everything is definitely "easy" in terms of construction, but some things I hadn't thought of doing before...and a great fulled plaid table runner I can't wait to make into a bag!

Now that I've reworked the top of my sweet sweater 3 times, am hoping to make more progress and have some more pictures to share soon...next couple of days hopefully.