Yes, you read that right. It’s quite easy to do crochet cables. No cable needle required!

While out West I finally acquired car sunglasses since transitions lenses don’t work in the car if the windows are up. If the windows are down, then only one will sort of tint. They didn’t come with a case, so I needed some way to get them from our rental car in Denver through two flights and three airports into our car in one piece and without scratches.

While I had yards of yarn with me, it was all penny-weight yarn (all dk or lighter). I didn’t want to spend ages on this project and was desperate to buy something/anything that wasn’t cotton. Therefore when we went to a certain big box chain store that doubles as our rest stop of choice (they are more frequent than real rest stops), a skein of Caron’s Eco in Ocean was acquired. I need to note that it was the ONLY yarn acquired despite being miles from Brown Sheep. That’s all I’ll say about that. The benefit to that is it means I have a reason to go back, but I don’t want to start on that discussion tonight. Using the medium cable from Sólás Caomh by Jodi Euchner (Interweave Crochet, Spring 2009) and a 4mm (G) hook I went to town.

It was my first time crocheting something rectangular in a while and the first time I’d done post crochet or crochet cables. I found it super simple to do and the benefit to crochet cables is that there is no need for a special needle (or spare dpn) or to rearrange stitches off the needle to do the twist. Additionally the part of the bag that had the cables is perfectly rectangular. It was only after I stopped paying close attention to my hdc’s (half double crochets) on the back of the bag that things started to get a little wonky. I did make this entirely in the car! Overall, I think that the pouch turned out good and while it’s a bit big for my sunglasses I hope to find a new use for it in post-vacation life. I sewed the button on when I returned to NY. The seams on the side are sc’d together (single crocheted) because I forgot to buy a plastic tapestry needle to stay TSA friendly. Whatever. It works good enough for me.

The colour while quite lovely and rich, is impossible to photograph, mostly likely because it is a shiney Acrylic/Post Consumer recycled Polyester. The Ocean Blue is truest to the colour of the ball I photographed (see the “Ocean” link above) or go to Caron’s site to see for yourself.

Sólás Caomh swatch bag project page.

I’ve been knitting and crocheting up a storm lately. Much of it on 2mm needles. I’ve given up on writing (is this writing or just gibberish) them up in any particular order so I’m going to put topics into a list and then randomly choose one to write about. Maybe I’ll talk about my cable braid next week .. or my sock yarn challenge .. or who knows (sewing, mending)? Be warned: I do see more cable crochet in the future.