Gold?

Thanks so much to everyone who offered up a last minute vote for buttons here and on Flickr. It was a close race and for a while there I wasn't sure the vote was going to help me much. But... the golden buttons pulled slightly ahead and in the end I decided to declare them the winner. Partly because of the vote, and partly because I realized also how appropriate they were--gold for olympics, yellow/red for China, blah blah. It's kind of cheesy... but oh well! I personally don't think the finished project is cheesy at all.

The Details:

Pattern: Cropped Cardigan by Monica Welle Brown
Hook: D
Yarn: KnitPicks Cotlin
Modifications and other tid bits:
1. I mostly picked up on these mods as far as the look of this sweater: short sleeves, longer body, big contrasty buttons. Also followed the recommendation not to go up a hook size for the shell pattern. I can't imagine what it would have turned out like if I had.
2: I've always been a loose crocheter so I went down a hook size for the whole thing. However, I think my tension is under better control now and if I made this again I would probably use the pattern-suggested E.
3. Yarn. Pretty nice, but a tad heavy. I think it might not seem as heavy in a knit garment, rather than crochet.
4. I continued the half-double crochet after I connected for the sleeves so that the line between the two stitch patterns would be lower. If my row gauge wasn't so tight (a combo of yarn and hook size, I think), I wouldn't have needed to do this.
5. It was hard to attach the snaps so that the front didn't pucker. I still don't think it's quite right, so I'll probably re-attach them eventually.

So... it's not perfect, but I'm happy with it and also, I admit, pretty glad it's done. :) I'm not sure I qualify for gold; I finished this after the the technical end time because frankly I didn't pay a lot of attention to the rules until, oh, this morning. :) Ah well... the gold wasn't really the point. I wanted to make this over the course of the olympics and that I did achieve in my mind.

I have some other projects in the works now, one of which is going to be really time consuming and yet have to remain a secret from this blog. Over the next few months I'll try to keep it interesting, but, you know, secret projects make that difficult sometimes...

Comments

[frecklegirl jess]

Love it! It is so cute on you!

I wanna make one! Did you like the pattern?

[gleek]

very very cute! and your pattern adjustments were spot on.

[melissa]

cute! and I think the gold buttons were a good choice - even though I'm usually the one who goes for the more interesting combos.

[Kat with a K]

Looks great!

[maurene]

i LOOOOOOVE it! loveitloveitloveit. esp. the neckline and sleeve bits. total michael phelps.

[brook]

so cute!! love the color too. happy knitting!

[schrodinger]

So glad you went with gold, it looks right. Great cardigan and congrats on your win!!

[Rima Aranha]

Cute! Yours came out well. Love the red. It is my favourite color in the world.