A Quick Chicken and Egg Follow-up

Two of my favorite things: George Bailey curled up on
one of my crocheted blankets. Ah, home.

I want to thank those readers who responded with excellent comments to my last blog post. One of the comments (about why crocheters might be reluctant to create garments) suggested that crocheting a garment (let's say any type of sweater, just to give a concrete example) takes on average more yarn than their knit counterparts, and given the cost of good yarn, crocheters might not want to go down that road.

Now I absolutely agree that, on average, it does take a little more yardage to crochet a sweater rather than knit one. I also agree that crocheters would probably like to use good yarn to make said top.

I also know that crocheters love, love, love to make blankets. While there are just shy of 4,400 crochet sweater projects in the Ravelry database (with sweater being defined as anything with a sleeve, sleeveless falls under the "top" category), there are a whopping 10,725 crochet blanket projects. Of that sizeable number, over 4,100 of them took 1,200 or more yards of yarn to create; a whopping 2,338 blankets (about 1/5 of the total crochet blanket projects) took more than 2,100 yards of yarn! Even if every one of those crafters in the latter category used Lion Brand's Pound of Love (1,020 yards per skein), they would still need to spend $30+ to make the blanket (it retails for $9.99); they might spend a little less with a sale + coupons. But you know that many crocheters spend far more than $30 on yarn for a blanket, even if it is on sale.

Did I hear you say yes to a sweater? Have I got
just the thing for you, my crafty crochet friend.

Now let's look at the crochet sweater numbers: slightly more than 3,000 projects used 1200 or more yards of yarn, distributed fairly evenly across the yardage categories (about 550 projects used 2,100 or more yards of yarn). At the highest amount of yarn used, a crafter could make a beautiful sweater in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for about $60 (including shipping), since it retails for $2.69 per 110 yard skein. That's 100% wool for $2.69 per skein. For almost the same amount as a crocheter would spend on blanket yarn (and there's all kinds of glory in blankets, people - I'm not knocking the blanket love), she could make a 100% wool sweater.

So c'mon crocheters - I know you want to. Really, really I do.

Day 7 of 8 Days of Designs: One Awesomely Quick Pullover

Well, everyone, I am up to the penultimate design of my Romantique collection for autumne/hiver 2013, and we have come upon my pullover for the season - the Moody Bleu:

This pullover may have a rather detailed pattern, but it is actually quite simple to put together: it's bottom-up construction, worked in the round to the underarms. The sleeves are also worked in the round to the sleeve cap, so finishing is minimal. Intuitive, intuitive, intuitive.

What surprised me the most about this design is my final choice of fiber. The body of this is worked up in Red Heart  Boutique Eclipse, and people let me tell you this yarn is incredibly lightweight and springy. And look at those colors! I used two different colorways (carrying both but using one each on alternate rows) and I absolutely love how it turned out. Combined with the Berroco Cirrus I used for that spiffy collar, and I am completely pleased with the color play.

This is a pullover that will do well with a lightweight, very sproingy yarn - something with a tight twist, or with some amount of nylon. The chainette construction of the Red Heart also makes the texture of this almost crunchy, which I just love. Can you tell I'm completely bowled over by this yarn? Really, I had no idea.

Blogger is giving me fits this evening, so loading more photos will not be possible. However, look for more on the Ravelry pattern page as well as in the online preview book. I am just so thrilled with this pullover, I didn't want to wait any longer to post. :)

Ok, just one more to go. Let's hope Blogger behaves better later.

 

EDIT: Moody Bleu Part Deux

What a difference a good sleep can make - Blogger is now back to its ole' self, and uploading photos of the Moody Bleu pullover is easy as cake.

To the right is a back shot - I love how these colors and textures play together. The lace is a very easy stitch, picked up around the neck edge and worked in successively decreasing hook sizes; there's also one row of actual decreases, which gives a nice fit at the back of the neck. It can also be folded down for a slight shawl collar effect.

I am also a big proponent of Tunisian 1x1 ribbing - the other knit/purl ribbing, as I like to call it. I love its great stitch definition, although it behaves rather differently than it's knit counterpart: there's really no stretch to speak of, so whatever gauge you work the stitches is how it will stay - no expansion or contraction.

Nevertheless, I think it provides a neat finish to most edges, and is especially intriguing with this self-striping yarn (I used only one color at cuffs and hem).

Thanks so much for sticking with my Romantique collection roll-out. If you haven't yet seen the pattern preview book, feel free to check it out here.


And happy holiday making!