Sweater Weather

As promised, here is a post about the sweaters I made as Christmas gifts this year. I did forget to include 2 other handmade Christmas gift I gave this year:

9. Knitted baby sweater in hot pink for DD's new niece, Joselyn.

10. Crocheted Chicken Potholder for DMIL. I finished it in the car on the way to Missouri for Christmas. We named her Henrietta!

But now on with the sweaters. I made my Mama a crocheted Short N Sweet Bolero from the Happy Hooker book in Berroco Touche which is mostly cotton in white. I added an extra repeat to the sleeves to make them just a bit longer so she can wear a regular t-shirt under it if she wants. I made this previously for myself in Classic Elite Premiere and I think I like working with the Premiere a bit better. It is softer and has a little more sheen.

The second sweater was also crocheted and was for my DMIL. It is called Spiderweb Cardigan from Interweave Crochet in the Spring 2007 issue. I selected a dusty rose and the color is lovely. This Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere splits ALOT but it might be better when knitting rather than crochet. Here are a couple of pictures of a friend of mine, Ann, who was gracious enought to model it for me.


My friend Gail is in the background of one of the pictures. I increased the sleeve opening to 3 repeats (36 stitches) on front and back and made the front opening in the center and added 2 rows of dc to each side seam area to make it a bit more roomy. I could have definitely added another repeat to lenghten the jacket. I shortened the sleeve to a long 3/4.

The third sweater was just not done by Christmas, it was for my DSIL. This is the Minimalist Cardigan from Interweave Knits.
I reversed the pattern stitch and made the body in stockinette and the shawl collar in seed stitch. This reduced the total amount of yarn used in case you ever need to judge yardage of stockinette vs. seed stitch. I used a lovely dutch blue yarn called Classic Elite Four Seasons which is 75% cotton and 25% wool. It gave super stitch definition for the seed stitch. I think this yarn will just get softer with each wash. I was really proud - I attempted a 3-needle bind-off for the collar in seed stitch and it turned out great. And that was after blocking it. Ta Da! I learned an important trick, don't end a skein on the collar side of the fronts, it's a pain to weave in the ends and hide them. Here is Jill modeling the sweater for me while shopping at Yarntopia. Thanks Jill!