MAYARN

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...

Olympics day 16--your vote counts

I went to M&J Trimings today and found the perfect buttons for my sweater. The problems is, there were TWO perfect buttons. So... I need help. Which do you like better? Anyone who's seen this in person is as torn as I am so I put this out into the Internet in hopes that you can help.

You should know the blue ones are more subtle and tealish-turquoise than in the picture; they were really difficult to capture....

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I am so torn, and the olymics are over tomorrow, meaning my project must be done tomorrow too! *gulp*

olympics day 7

While riding the train home after work tonight, reading my book, my olympics project at home, I had a sudden shudder over the fit of my cropped cardigan. I became convinced that it was doomed and why was I crocheting this thing anyway? Who did I think I was? I've only crocheted a handful of things before this and now, here I am, crocheting a cardigan. It was probably a lost cause.

When I got home, I tried it on, looked in the mirror, and imagine my surprise:

Ok, so my outfit is a little nuts-o... but yay! It seems to be working out better than I thought.

After connecting for the sleeves I realized if I switched to the solid-shell stitch, like the pattern says to, the yoke would end really high. But I want more of an empire-waist effect, so I decided to continue in the half-double crochet. I mean, it won't actually HAVE an empire waist, but I think the change was a good call. Blocking should loosen up the top and make the line between stitch patterns fall exactly where I want it to. I hope.

olympics, day 3

Friday night I, along with billions of other people, watched the opening ceremonies of the summer olympics (jaw dropping). I also joined several thousand other people in casting on for my Ravelympics project (representing). I am crocheting a cropped cardigan (which I plan to make short sleeved and longer in the body, like this) (I'm 'sweater sprinting'). I admit, I had a false start (disqualifying). I used too small of a crochet hook and after about 10 rows I realized it was waaaay too small (medal dreams fading?). Luckily, unlike the olympics, there are second chances in knit and crochet (do-overing). Saturday morning, I didn't even rip out what I had started (forgiving, forgetting). I just picked up a new ball and got to work (off and running).

Not so exciting--yet. Nearing the end of the yoke (thank goodness-- literally 300+ stitches around at the moment). I'm enjoying crocheting this. I even taught myself the "pencil hold" so I'm switching occasionally between that and the other way of holding the hook (which I don't know the name of). I think this is helping me have more stamina with crocheting. Right now, I'm anxious to get through this part. I'm so over half double crochet.

snip-snip time

It is almost perfect.... for a monkey.

Oh, Thermal. Just when I thought you were going to get me over the UFO hump, you go and prove to have go-go-gadget arms.

I suppose this is what I get for not blocking the swatch I did not make.

A real post about this otherwise home-run of a sweater to come after I fix the #*@$**! sleeves. Sigh.

PS - on a completely unrelated note, if you're up for a funny, yesterday Steve and I had a good laugh-till-you-cry time reading this humor piece from the New Yorker. May not be every one's bag, but we certainly found the hilarity in it. Enjoy.