Ta daaaaaaa … Sweater!

It just hasn’t been a good month for projects.

Sewing, mending, some things I thought about with cork, even cooking.  At first it was just the pup’s illness, but then I got the flu (which still lingers) and all my good intentions went pfffft - up in smoke!  So last Thursday was an odd day – I was so tired I  just barely managed to heat up Lean Cuisine for supper, a new low. I was supremely lucky to receive on Friday a most appreciated and delicious gift from a friend of saffron-chickpea stew to ward off the continued boxed-food extravaganza.

Oddly, it was also on Thursday that I completed my first garment in any craft: a crocheted sweater.  Woo!  As it happens, I’ve been working steadily on the sweater through these last three weeks.  The repetitive nature of yarn craft is a soothing and meditative exercise when one’s mind is elsewhere and one’s body wants to do nothing but rest.

I’m so pleased with it I’m actually going to show you a picture of me wearing it, which is not normally something I would do.  Is it the perfect sweater? Nah, but who cares? It’s wonderfully symmetrical.  It fits pretty well, really.  It’s certainly a pleasing color. My stitches are remarkably even.  My ends aren’t visible.  What more could I ask, except that I actually attach the wooden button I meant to sew on.  The crocheting went pretty well except for sleeve #1, of which I had had to redo all but 4 rows.  I wasn’t paying very good attention, because I started the sleeves just when Audrey got sick, and so it took a wee bit longer.

This sweater is:  Matinee Swing Jacket , made with Cotton-Ease in lake blue. I suspect the yarn will relax a good deal as it’s washed more times. Right now wearing this feels kind of like wearing a squishy blanket – it’s a comfortable, thick fabric, even though it’s not heavy or really too warm.  The day I wore this it was 75 degrees here, and I was okay. I’m fond of the raglan style, it  was an easy armhole style to start out with .

The stitch for the whole thing was half-double-crochet, which means this sweater is really, really stretchy.  Why do people say crochet fabric isn’t stretchy?  This one stretched about 2-3 inches after I blocked it.  That was interesting, I’ve never really done blocking before. I put it in the washer – fearing greatly it would fall apart in the process – to loosen the yarn.  Then I just sorta stretched it into place while it dried.  I can’t see how blocking it once is ever going to be a permanent shaping solution, I’m guessing this will be a repeated thing.

Hopefully I will be up to getting some more work on my birches quilt done soon, it is my goal to do one little quilt a month this year, so I’d better get to work.