First Crochet Sweater!
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Sorry, for the bad background, but the only space it would fit is laid out on my bed…
I am excited to post my first finished project on the blog! This has also been a large project of mine for a bit now. I saw this crochet sweater pattern while watching Michelle Jasek’s YouTube channel. Crocheting a sweater was something that I have been wanting to do for a while, but I didn’t want to sew the different parts together. The pattern seemed easy enough, so I decided to make it. The pattern is by Mjs Off the Hook Designs and the name is Easy Crochet Raglan Sweater. I did buy the pattern on Etsy so I could have a PDF of the pattern. Which was nice so that I could print the pattern out and keep better track of where I was in the pattern and to add notes. She does have a free version available on her website.
The pattern was easy to follow. The little seaming was nice. Especially since I am not a fan of sewing pieces together. I do want to start sewing things together more to get better at it. So, stay tuned for more projects that involve sewing. The instructions for each part were clear and if I was unsure at any point I would watch the video she made for the sweater and that would clear up any confusion that I may have had. I love the effect of the V stitch increases. I haven’t done the V stitch before, which surprises me because it is a simple and beautiful stitch. Ribbing is also something I don’t do often when crocheting, but I will now be doing it more often because the result is beautiful. The join as you go for the bottom ribbing and cuffs makes such a nice seamless transition. This is a pattern that I would recommend to anyone for their first crochet sweater.
I went with Lion Brand’s Scarfie Lite in the color Tiger Lilly to make the sweater. I loved the effect of the halo so I wanted to choose a yarn that had that effect. It was also one of the recommended yarns for the project. Overall it is a very beautiful yarn. However, having the halo and being a roving yarn, it can be a little tricky to work with. It is difficult to rip back the stitches if you make a mistake. Once I realized this it made me slow down when making it and read the pattern carefully. This way I could minimize mistakes. If I did make a mistake I just took my time when frogging to make sure that I didn’t damage the yarn. It was also important to make sure that I didn’t make any stitches too tight or that made it difficult to rip back. I wouldn’t recommend this for a beginner due to how hard it is to rip back. As long as you understand the yarn's construction beforehand I think that it makes a beautiful finished product and is worth the few drawbacks.
The yarn doesn’t come in a lot of colors and they are all variegated. The colors that they do have are very beautiful though. It was actually hard for me to decide what color that I wanted to use. I think I deliberated the color choice for a few days. All of the colors of the yarn would make a gorgeous sweater or any other project. I would actually like to make some other projects with the yarn in the future.
It took me about 3 and a half skeins of yarn to finish the project.
For my hooks I went with my favorite hooks to use Clover Amour. For the ribbing I used size H 5.00mm and for the body and sleeves I used size K 6.5mm. I have been using these hooks for years and I love the ergonomic handle. Unless I have been crocheting for a long time I rarely get hand cramps using their hooks. Since the hooks are smooth it makes it so that yarn glides nicely as I am working the stitches. It is also nice that all of the different colors make it easy to identify what hook size you are using.
The sweater took me about 14 hours to crochet give or take. I tried to time myself crocheting the best I could, but it was the first time I really timed myself crocheting a large project, so I did my best. I am confident it took about 14 or so hours to crochet. I did not time how long it took me to crochet my swatch. Which I definitely recommend doing to make sure that your sweater fits properly. I was actually impressed that it only took me about 14 hours to make given that it was such a large project. I love larger projects because I get such a sense of satisfaction once they are completed.
My original plan was for this sweater to be done sooner so that I could wear it during some cooler spring weather. That is why I chose the yarn and yarn colorway that I did, it reminded me of very spring colors. My hope is that I can still wear it at work since the office Air Conditioning makes the office cold. There is also the possibility that I can get a few wears out of it out and about before it is consistently warm here in Indiana. If not I can always wear it in the Fall and Winter when things start to cool down.
I made a knit sweater during 2020. Maybe because it was my first knit sweater, but it seemed a lot more difficult than making the crochet sweater. I am sure it is partly because I had less experience back then. In particular putting the sleeves on scrap yarn to knit later. It was a lot easier to just skip stitches and chain across to separate the sleeves. Being crochet it also worked up so much faster than my knit sweater did. I would still like to knit a sweater again and give it a try, but I think a lot of the sweaters I make will be crocheted now.
Me modeling my finished sweater!
Overall this was a fun project that I enjoyed even with the yarn being finicky to work with at times. At the end of Summer I actually plan on making this sweater again with some fall colors. I will probably use a different yarn for the project because I would love to see the pattern worked up in a different yarn without a halo. I also like the idea of making a short sleeve top soon for the summer. As always, thank you for reading my blog post. I hope that this has inspired you to make your own crochet sweater if not now when the weather starts to cool off!
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