After several other stops and starts I picked it up again this year. I think I get it now. . .you know all those numbers for the weights of the thread and the fiber content and the various stitch patterns. . . I can't tell you how many times I looked up the corresponding word name for the number of weight on my husband's phone. Now it's a little mental song, 1 fingering (4-ply), 2 sport (5-ply), 3 double knit (8-ply), 4 worsted (10-ply). Somehow, this time, it seems to be sticking in the crevices of my brain matter in a usable and hopefully permanent way. I know there is more to it than that and much much more to learn -- oh believe me I know.
Well anyway -- Katie and I made a master list for our baby hope chests. We have plenty of time to make lots of things, so we were trying to decide exactly what to make. Of course, I would much rather make the adorable things over the truly practical things (like little sweaters rather than diaper soakers).
This is the first sweater I made. It's the "hooded jacket with frog closure" from the the book Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies, which I checked out from the library. (I love the library, first thing we did when we moved back here was to get library cards. . .oh we are lame.) I modified it slightly by adding a button placket -- which I had never done before. I just looked at another sweater in the same book that was button-up and went from there.
This particular sweater is made in 6 rectangular pieces -- it's a lot of seaming but creating the rectangles is so easy that it balances that out for me. Plus, this sweater is so stinkin' cute, even without a squirming adorable little bean inside. If you want more technical information (yarn type, sizes, etc) you can check out my Ravelry page. And even if you don't want to know about this particular project you should check out Ravelry! They have so many amazing free patterns for both knit and crochet and tons of pictures of projects to ogle as well.
This is the second sweater I made -- exactly the same only one size up and in a different color. Please take note of the caterpillar on the sweater, I think all sweaters should be christened with small adorable fuzzy things crawling on them when at all possible.
I'd also like to take a moment to talk about buttons and my official button chooser. When I finish any project that requires a button -- no matter how girly -- I drag my poor husband, Chris, to the fabric store. I march him up and down the aisle until he picks me some buttons. It is an excruciating process, that usually takes well over ten minutes. He is the official button picker. I should make him a badge or a sash or something. Let's appreciate the thoughtful selection of buttons on both sweaters with a moment of mental cheering. (He would pick wood buttons for every sweater if he could. I retain some modicum of veto power.)
While crocheting the second sweater, I started to realize the entire thing was done in V-stitch and that potentially I could make the same garment using a more interesting stitch. (maybe that's a duh moment, but I seriously felt like a genius at the time.) So I have begun yet another sweater -- one more size up, in another color, with another stitch pattern. The stitch pattern I'm using for the front panels is called "blackberry salad." I checked out another book from the library that demonstrates lots of stitch types and tried about 20 of them before I finally decided. I think for the back, the sleeves and the hood I'm going to do in simple double crochet. The bobbles might be uncomfortable to lay on and babies sure spend a lot of time laying.
Maybe you are wondering why I keep making the same pattern? I know I have been wondering that. But when I stop to think about it, I really like the vintage lines of the pattern. (the hood is pointed!) The sleeves roll up --which I hope will give it longer wear potential, I don't have a baby so I don't know for sure. I also like it because it is crocheted in fingering (number 1, 4-ply!), which makes it look a lot more delicate than most crochet and is a light weight sweater which will be better for layering. ( I don't know when this baby will be born, I have no idea how big they will be in each season.) And finally repeating the same pattern seems to be a good way to get me to learn -- it bores me into really thinking about what is coming together to make the garment and how I can replicate it in my own way.
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