We're a little under a month until Valentine's Day, guys!
While I'm a fan of chocolates and sweet cards from my love, I am adding a new element to the table: a crochet sweater for the occasion. I'm not usually big on theme dressing--actually, that's not true: if I were another version of me, I'd be a full-blown cosplay queen. Plus, I loved Halloween costumes growing up. I took it pretty seriously, too... I never wanted to take that Jasmine costume off...
Parallel universes aside, I'm not big on crazy decorations or dressing specifically for the holiday. But I'd like a nice pink sweater, and it happens to be stitching up for Valetine's Day this year. That's okay, right?
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The Pattern
I am working up the Amalie Sweater from Hobbii's free crochet pattern library.
The drop style, textured sleeves and color pulled me in. Amalie is a pretty easy pattern, too; it's constructed of half-double crochets in the back loop, and the sleeve stitch has half-double crochets in both loops and chains in it. Being my first ever crochet sweater, this stitch glossary makes me happy. No crazy stitches to remember here! I'm confident I'll make it within the next month.
The Yarn
I may be in a pickle here with yarn selection.
One of the yarns I'm using, Cascade Yarn Llama Lace in Coral, is being discontinued. I bought it on closeout from WEBS yarn, which I didn't think of at the time. I went back to the site to check that yarn's details, and that color plus most others are completely gone from the line. I now have no backup stock to order from if I run out. I believe I bought more than I needed, so I should be fine, but stitches will tell.
Thankfully my main color isn't going anywhere; I bought Cascade Yarns 220 Sport in color 1065. It's the light pink yarn in the photo above. I was SO excited when this package came in the mail, guys. I opened it and my eyes lit up. They are so squishy and soft! The main color is subtle, but I love the coral laceweight yarn. SO pretty!
Both of the yarns I picked are similar to the Hobbii ones suggested in the pattern: a sport weight and lace weight to be held together. I didn't want to order yarn I wasn't familiar with, so I went with Cascade Yarn. I only know Cascade Yarn from finding it at our Benjamin Franklin store eons ago. I purchased one hank before they closed doors permanently, so I never got to experience it beyond the one squishy skein I had. This sweater was a good opportunity to test the brand out more, and I'm enjoying how it's working up so far!
Swatch Concerns
I was a good girl and actually swatched for this project!
I may've skipped swatching the sleeve texture, but I still swatched something!
Baby steps, guys. Baby steps.
I managed to get stitch gauge with the recommended crochet hook (size H), but my row gauge was off. read online that stitch gauge is more important than row for top-down or bottom-up garments.
The problem is that this sweater is worked right to left, meaning the starting rows are at the sides of the garment.
Whether that means row gauge is more important, I don't know, but when I swatched with a hook size larger (size I) it gave me neither stitch nor row gauge. I decided then that my H hook was the best one for the job. I may be a couple rows off from gauge, but my stitch count is solid. Having a slouchier sweater won't bother me, either.
Current Progress
I am 20 rows in on the front panel of my Amalie Sweater.
The project is moving quicker than I thought it would, but I'm not mad about that. It is a bit monotonous, though, and I'm fighting that by compartmentalizing the pattern. I'm only working a small bit of it every day so I make progress but don't go crazy doing it, because the pattern right now is only half-double crochets in the back loop across the whole row. It's about to get interesting with the neck decrease and center detail. That's next on my list.
I keep going back and forth with my color choices though. In some light, I love it, and in others, the lighter pink ends up looking too neutral and gray, draining the sweater of life. It looks gorgeous in the shot above, though, so that calms my nerves a little. It also looks nice against my skin, which is most important, so I think I went in the right direction. I do like a pretty peachy-pink.
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What do you think of the color? Did I choose right?
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