My Chevron Lace Cardigan

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I had 3 skeins of this wonderfully colorful DK yarn I got at Stitches West from Zen Yarn Garden (color way OOAK in Serenity DK) and thought to make an attempt at a basic short sleeve cardigan. I hunted around for awhile and after reading reviews from makers, wanting something that was a basic repeat and could be customized fairy easily in case I needed to adjust the sizing. After a bit of debate I settled on this Chevron Lace Cardigan by milobo for  a few reasons. 1 – it is worked from top down with (after a slight mod) no cutting/joining any panels, 2 – it’s a basic chevron repeat which can be easily modified from the start to the size that you want and 3 – it was not too lace-y or thick with the yarn I wanted to use.

Admittedly I am not one to like doing gauge swatches, but for this I thought I would do one, so I did, and after 30 rows, realized it was too short on the front panels and the arm holes were off, so I had to frog it back to the very beginning to add a few more rows, but such is life and learning, but at least doing that shows me that while it is good to do a swatch, sometimes you just won’t know exactly until you are half way done and that’s just the way it is!

I did a fair amount of editing to the pattern once I got past making the arm holes (using the FSC edit some of the makers suggested so you did not have to cut/join your yarn). I have copied below what I wrote for my Ravelry notes here:

“I followed the pattern to a degree, I started with 56 chains using a 5.5 hook with DK yarn on the thin side. I started the arms at row 13 and used the FSC option noted by a few makers of this pattern instead of breaking and rejoining, this worked out very well.

As I went I needed the front sides to be a little wider so for the first/last 20 sts on each side I did 1 increase and kept it for the remainder of the body. So 5 DC then ch 2 instead of 4 like the normal repeat.

After I got the length good I went around with a row of HDC around the bottom and switched to DC’s up the middle and then back to HDC around the collar to give it some width for buttons and an edge. I did this 2 times around.

The sleeves I did 4 rounds of DC then 3 rounds of HDC, then 2 rounds of shells. I also did 2 rounds of shells on the bottom edge as a finishing. Then added the black buttons about 2 inches apart. I didn’t block it prior to taking the photos so the front edge curls a bit, not sure if I will (too much work for something I don’t feel I really need)”

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Preferably I wish I could have made it about 2-3 inches longer on the body, but it still fits just fine and is not too tight or loose, which I am super happy about. The buttons are 1 inch black plastic buttons that I put on about 2 inches apart because I noticed after I finished my edging it wasn’t laying exactly flat and was flaring out a bit at the bottom, so the buttons fix all of that which I am fine with. Overall I am super happy with the final result, it fits well and I will certainly wear it!

Here are a bunch of pictures I took of the completed cardigan with some closeups of sections.

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Newly Completed Items

Here are some photos of some newly completed items I have made. The first is a completed photo of the Afghan stitch scarf I was working on earlier. This scarf was super fun to make because both sides of the scarf are interesting and could be the ‘front’. Check out my shop listing for more detailed photos.

I also finished my Catherine Wheel Stitch hat. Also recently new to my shop, it turned out cute I like the alternating colors too.

I have used this stitch before but did not get a great photo of the hat so I did another using just navy blue but I plan to make more colors of this hat, it uses what is called a Butterfly Stitch, and I watched this video to give me a start, however I did not follow the pattern exactly to get the hat I made.

I will be posting an update with photos on my squares blanket, I have more colors done so look for that later this week!

Afghan Stitch Scarf

I was watching a video about how to do an Afghan Stitch and thought I could make a skinny scarf with the pattern using only 10 stitches across.

Here is the video:

Here is a photo of my scarf so far:

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I am really liking the texture this pattern makes, will probably add some fringe to the ends once its done too!

Recent Fun Finds

I stumbled on this great tutorial for a Catherine Wheel stitch yesterday:

So I decided to try it on a hat:

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I made 2 more squares for my blanket too, so not real huge leap forward there yet but more yarn arrived today for that project so thats great!

Another cool tutorial about crochet cats!

Diamond Hats Pattern

One of the first patterns I fell in love with is this awesome diamond pattern. At first it was rather daunting to try and figure out how in the world this thing comes together, but once I got the hang of it I cranked out a whole bunch of them.

Here are a few that I started out with first:

Diamond Hat Single Color

Berry

Diamond Hat Single Color

Medium Blue

Diamond Hat Single Color

Leaf Green

I learned this pattern from a great tutorial I found here: Hodge Podge Crochet

I then played around with adding different colors:

Diamond Hat Triple Color

Diamond Hat Triple Color

I couldn’t stop there so I played around more with some different ways to do different colors too:

Diamond Hat Duo Color

Diamond Hat Duo Color

Diamond Hat Peacock Overlay

Diamond Hat Peacock Overlay

Diamond Hat Overlay

Diamond Hat Overlay

Diamond Hat Striped

Diamond Hat Striped

Diamond Hat Chunky Duo Color

Diamond Hat Chunky Duo Color

I love this pattern it is so versatile so I will be continuing to experiment with this pattern and post up more as I finish them. Hope you like them!