Closing the Door on Sweater Season

Another downside to this early Spring weather (or should we just call it like it is and admit it's Summer in March?) is that the multitude of sweaters I had in the queue have to be sidelined till fall.  Ugh.  That's so disappointing because there is nothing more rewarding than crafting a hand-crocheted sweater.

I finished up these three and put all future plans on hold.  Hopefully when the weather turns cold again they won't have been replaced by a new sweater-making frenzy, since to look through my closet one would think I have some sort of sweater ADD disorder.  Either that or I'm attempting to crochet winter wear for a small army.

First up is Eve's Rib Tunic.  What a joy this one was to create!  The design is by Doris Chan, from her Everyday Crochet book.

This sweater wins an award in two categories because 1) I actually followed the pattern AS WRITTEN, which is a first I think, and 2) it was my first foray into self-striping yarns.  What a challenge that was.  It seems that yarn labeled as "striping" may in fact only stripe successfully when knitting it.  Crochet uses such tall stitches, that many yarns didn't stripe but instead made horrible gobs of color chunks.  It was bad.  All kinds of bad.

So, after trying many brands and many colors and many thicknesses, this plum-colored stuff worked out beautifully.  The key was really long color runs, and a limited color palette overall so any color clumps that do occur kind of blend in.  Thanks to Lion Brand for creating the Tweed Stripes line.  Looking forward to using it again sometime.

When experimenting with the striping yarns, I found Yarn Bee Rainbow Wool (Hobby Lobby's house brand).   I am not a fan of wool yarn, but the colors appealed to me.  The striping seemed perfectly spaced.  I spent some time researching user feedback online, and those who had tried this yarn swore up and down that it was completely washable and would not shrink.  Not a bit!  Even though it's 86.4% wool and 5% mohair,  the added 8.6% acrylic would keep it from shrinking even a fraction.

You can see where I'm going with this right?

Liar, liar pants on fire...it DOES TOO shrink.  My daughter now has an Eve Rib Tunic sweater dress for next winter.

 
I really love how the striping turned out in that dress.  It looks intentional, but it's mostly a guessing game with a bit of hope thrown in that it'll turn out all right.

Now check this out:

This sweater also wins an award: Favorite Obscure Pattern.   What you're glimpsing above is the Sophisticated Swirls Pullover, designed by Doris Chan and published in 2004.  It was published in one magazine issue that is no longer available and the company refused to re-issue the pattern or make it available digitally, no matter how much I begged.  I coveted the photo I'd seen, stalked the internet crochet forums and eBay, and finally, after months and months, located one lost issue of the magazine.

In the meantime, Doris Chan, feeling the pain of all those who desperately wanted a spiral sweater, designed a new one very similar to the original and self-published it.  Isn't she wonderful?  It's called DJC Spirals.

Sophisticated Swirls is based on old fashioned doilies, with that delightful spiraling pattern.  I made this swirly bit of delight into a longer tunic to wear with leggings and boots.  I'm not good at taking my own picture, but you can kinda see the boots there.

This yarn is cheap acrylic, because I wanted easy care, machine wash and dry, lounge around in it kind of comfy thing.  And it's definitely all that.  Caron Simply Soft yarn in their new Lights version.  It's ridiculously soft and airy.   Good thing I bought 4 more skeins in pink, because I want to use it again for sure.

Perhaps the warmer weather will encourage me to get back to Realta?  It hasn't been completely neglected...only 18 more octagons to go.  Plus 24 filler squares.  Plus sewing them all together.  And then edging it.  Yikes.