Yay - it's seven days and counting until our Back to School Sweater CAL starts on the 16th of September.... It has been SOOO hard not to get started on my sweater. Some people have been a little bit naughty and in their enthusiasm have already started on theirs (and even finished!) Anyway, please do go over to the chatter thread in the Crochet Circle Podcast group on Ravelry to join us and you'll see which patterns and yarn choices people are making. I've guestimated we have at least forty makers... going by comments in the group and those on Instagram using our hashtag #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL (this is another way to join in if you're not a Ravelry person).
And our accompanying blog hop is underway already. I was first up, two weeks ago and my post 5 reasons to make a crochet garment is already my third most popular of all time on my blog. And I'm stunned by how many comments I've had. I love it! Jo (JoJoTwinkleToes) wrote a fabulous second post last week on Current Trends and Choosing a Style to Suit you and it really got me thinking this week about my garment making history - the successes and the huge fails. Why did some garments turn out so badly? And when they looked good, how did this happen? I've come up two theories:
1. The style has to suit your figure
Jo was right that you've got to carefully choose a style that suits you and that you've got be honest about your body shape. I'm not going make a cropped top and my upper arms need covering up. A garment that is shaped to my waist works because of my curvy figure. And I find a wider neckline balance my hips. I very carefully scrutinize all of the project photos on Ravelry to see what the garment looks like on different body shapes.
2. Fitted garments look better in lighter weight yarn
I've found that fitted garments made from thicker than a DK / light worsted weight yarn just don't look flattering on me. I am not going to link you to one of these horrors. However, I have had success with a heavier worsted weight yarn with my Butterfly Garden Cocoon Shrug because it wasn't loose fitting. Helen is writing about this in her blog post this week Making at number 14 so I'm looking forward to more insight on yarn choice.
Anyway I'd love to know if you have any alternative theories about making successful garments! Let me know in the comments below...
Still on the subject of the CAL, I wanted to let you know that the Crochet Project have very kindly offered CAL participants a discount until the 20th of September on the patterns in their Ravelry store. The 25% discount code backtoschool25 can be applied to individual garment patterns as well as books that contain cardigans, sweaters or tees
A road trip and a crochet project go together perfectly in my mind. We have just returned to Houston, Texas after a whopping fifteen hour, two day road trip from a week in the mountain biking and waterfall mecca of Brevard, North Carolina. We drove through five further states: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I spent a large proportion of the trip just looking out of the window at the countryside, quite different from that of my home country. My hubby and I take turns driving too but I still managed to complete almost a whole shawl, starting the foundation row the day before we left and having just a few rows remaining at the top to complete.
My shawl is Humphrey by Joanne Scrace of The Crochet Project. It's my second make from their Shawls Book Two. I've become quite a fan of The Crochet Project recently. Their tagline is "Think Differently About Crochet" and their mission is to design, write and promote beautiful, modern crochet patterns. The first Crochet Project shawl, Missed Kingfisher, was made as a gift and I was quite sad to part with it. Having a photo isn't quite the same.
Next time we go on a road trip I am determined to combine shopping along the way. Ravelry has a tool for just this purpose: The Road Trip Planner. It's on the tab "Yarn" on the left hand side half way down just below the search box for finding a shop. Type in your starting location, your destination and specify how far you're willing to detour. Planning when to stop en-route is my department so perhaps I could coincidentally find a dog park or café next door to a yarn store. Somehow I don't think my family will be fooled for a second.
