thornberry

Do you remember me whinging about my learning curve when I started crocheting Clare’s Sweetpea Cardigan?  Unbelievably enough, it is actually finished!

I’m not going to worry about doing the silk ribbon embroidery on it as per the pattern instructions, as I think that it looks rather lovely as it is (and I’m over it).

The buttons really set it all off nicely - they’re from Spotlight - and the lacy edging was incredibly easy to do but quite effective.

And see those sleeves?  I crocheted FIVE sleeves for this cardigan - that is how many goes it took for me to get it right!  Lots of frogging going on there, I tell you!  But in the end I learned a considerable amount about gauge, drape, yarn substitution, reading schematics, and measuring as you go.  If I made it again I could do it in half the time.

The main thing?  It fits, she likes it and she’ll wear it!  Yay!  Oh, for those who like project details - the yarn is Harmony, by Bendigo Woollen Mills which is a wool/cotton/lycra mix (and has unfortunately now been discontinued); the pattern is Sweetpea Cardigan by Candi Jensen, from Interweave Crochet Spring 2006.

We’re back!  Did you notice that we’d been away?  We missed out on the blustery storms in Melbourne and spent the last week staying with my in-laws on the Sunshine Coast.  What beautiful weather, superb beaches, tremendous hospitality, and adventures to the Ginger Factory at Yandina and to Eumundi Markets!  It was lovely for the girls to spend time with their grandparents; we don’t get to see them very often.

While we were away I had my crochet with me, of course!  And boy, did I churn out the pieces of Clare’s cardigan!

This is the Sweetpea Cardigan from Interweave Crochet, Spring 2006.  I am using Harmony yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills rather than the yarn specified in the pattern.  And this is where learning the hard way comes in.

I did do a swatch, and chose which size pattern to do accordingly.  First step okay.  Back done, fronts done, sleeves done.  One sleeve done twice.  The instructions were a little ambiguous at one stage, and I chose the wrong way to interpret them.  Okay, pull it out, do it again. 

Time to sew the pieces together!  Shoulder seams together fine, then picked up a sleeve to set it in.

Did you notice that the sleeve head is about two inches too short for the armhole?  I certainly did!  What did I learn here?  When substituting yarns, READ THE SCHEMATIC.  I hadn’t been measuring finished dimensions as I went.  So when I merrily crocheted along, making sure that I crocheted until the piece measured 7″ long (for example) I didn’t take into account that I hadn’t corrected the width as well as the length.

So now what do I do?

Do I unpull a few rows from the top of the sleeves, and do increases every second row or so until I get it wide enough?  Which is also going to make it longer - potentially too long?

Or do I just pull both sleeves out completely (there goes four hours of work) and start both sleeves again, chaining on more beginning stitches in the first place to get the width correct AS PER THE SCHEMATIC?

Opinions welcome!  I strongly suspect that I’ll be frogging both sleeves are redoing them completely, dammit!  If only I’d realised to check width as well as length as I went along!

And if you’re wondering, the fronts and backs are possibly (who am I kidding - definitely) going to be narrower than the schematic as compared to the lengths (because once again, I did as the instructions said with continuing until each piece measured a certain length).  I don’t think that it will matter too much in the body of the cardigan though.  I’m still kicking myself.  At least I’ll NEVER make this same mistake again!  Moral of this story - check the schematic when substituting yarn!  Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggh!

By the way, thanks for all the positive feedback on the wrap skirt!  I wore it while we were away - it’s super comfortable.  And it even got featured on the Craftzine blog - thanks for the heads up on that one Jodie!  I’m very flattered (and a little astounded).

It was such a lovely surprise to receive another package in the mail from generous Floss of Another Day in Paradise.  This one contained this gorgeous vintage fabric, lace collar and buttons.  These colours will really suit Stella’s colouring.

And these stunning vintage patterns for Miss Stella as well!

Oh, look at that lovely Paragon pattern - I think it is the oldest pattern I have!  So sweet!  And the illustrations on the Butterick one are gorgeous.  But that’s not all!

All just perfect for little girls!  The Simplicity 8430 pattern was included for Miss Clare so she wouldn’t feel left out.  Floss, you think of everything!  Thank you so, so much.  I can’t wait to make a start on these patterns.

Christmas was a couple of months ago, I know.  But I hadn’t posted pictures of the girls in the white dresses that I made for them!  We had some professional photos taken, and we are thrilled with how they turned out.

Stella’s romper-dress pattern is Simplicity 5115.

Clare’s dress pattern is New Look 6613.

I love this photo of our two girls - although at first glance it looks as though there are three!  The photographer was Frank from one 2 one photography.

Remember this pair of pants?

Embroidered by me, worn by me quite a few times about ten years ago.  Not at all in style or my style anymore, but I couldn’t bear to get rid of them.  So finally - they’re a skirt!

I cut both legs off, cut them in half vertically, squared them up, then sewed them together to form a skirt with an elasticised casing waist.

So much better on Clare than on me!  And the left over “shorts” have now become running shorts for my husband (since they’re not worn for very long and he’s not too embarassed to wear bright turquoise shorts in public - what a tolerant man)!

Here’s another of the self-striped tops!

I did a better job of this one than the previous version - I’d managed to figure out the trickier bits of the pattern the first time around.  It probably took me less time to make.  I’m excited because it doesn’t contain any pink and she was still very happy to wear it.  Yarn and pattern details are the same as before. 

A couple of close-ups for those of you who really want to check out the “quality” of the stitches - the front:

And the back:

Enough of those tops now!  Time to move on to one of the other crochet projects.  I’m tossing up between starting yet another scarf (but a different pattern in a different yarn), doing the 12″ block from the CAL (crochet a-long) that I’ve joined on ravelry , or starting a top for myself.  I like to have a few things of differing complexity and time commitment on the go, so that I can work on whatever suits my mood.

And for added interest - Miss Stella has started to crawl!  Properly!  Straight for the power points and any cords that are attached to them.  I think my crafting time is about to reduce dramatically.

This is the last of the embellished t-shirts!  Miss Clare designed this one, after we had a good rifle through the ribbon box together.

The ribbon was secured in place with hemming web before I machine sewed the edges into place.  And of course, there is a yo-yo!

This one is a brooch.  Miss Clare prefers the t-shirt without it.  She wants me to crochet a flower to pin on the shoulder instead.  I’ll add that to the extremely long to-crochet list.

And you thought that you’d seen enough of yo-yos, didn’t you?  But no, here’s another t-shirt!

I think the yo-yos look like barnacles.  I attached them by machine with a narrow zig-zag around the edge.  Before sewing I used a little bit of hemming web to fuse them into place.  It was much simpler than pinning them!  Miss Clare added the little bit of lace - “that’s beautiful, mummy!”

The t-shirts I’ve been embellishing are all from Best & Less.  It’s very difficult to find plain t-shirts, and these are quite good quality at a low price.

I bought this pattern ages ago, when Clare was really too big for it.  It languished in the pattern stash, but I couldn’t bear to get rid of it.  Lucky for Miss Stella - it’s now been made!

It’s a little dress with matching pants (Miss Stella is in cloth nappies, so I like matching pants that have plenty of room in them, and most sewing patterns accomodate cloth nappies, unlike many bought baby clothes).  Here’s the front:

And the back:

And another close-up of the front.

I like the ric-rac trim and the self-covered button.  The fabric is a quilting cotton recently received from Z&S fabrics.  I can’t wait to see this one on her!

In the meantime, here’s a photo of her wearing the floral romper-dress I made a little while ago.  It looks so sweet!  (Gee, I’m a little biased, aren’t I!)

What else to do with those yo-yos?  How about turning them into headbands?  Stitch a few together (by machine if you’re feeling lazy like me) and attach them to elastic.  This one has eight tiny yo-yos.

And this one has five larger yo-yos.

And they go with all Miss Clare’s clothes (since the yo-yos are made out of the fabric scraps).

But here’s a tip - make sure that the elastic is long enough so that the headband isn’t too tight - I made the elastic too short and had to add a couple more inches.  Measure it against a child’s head if available!

Many thanks for the lovely comments and warm wishes for Miss Clare’s birthday.  She also received tickets to see Hi-5 - which we did this morning.  Every five-year-old girl’s perfect birthday!  Although I see a crowd surfer & mosh pit teenager in the making …