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15 January 2009

Suggestions Please

I have this sweater I bought a while back, which is soft and cuddly and warm. Thing is, it shrank when I washed it. I followed the directions but it still shrank dramatically. It's shorter in the waist and the sleeves than I feel comfortable wearing. It'll cover me... but only as long as I hold perfectly still. I've pondered chopping it up to make into something else, but I haven't been able to do it because I really love the sweater. So all this re-fashioning I've been looking at over at Wardrobe Refashion made me want to see if I could do something with it. Someone else lengthened a short shirt with a bit of fabric and this became my inspiration. I decided to crochet a border on the bottom.



So, here is my new yarn - my first merino yarn - and the sweater. I'm all ready to go. Except that I don't know what kind of edging I want to crochet. I'm all ears, folks. What do you think would be good? I'll probably put a few rows of plain single-crochet on as a start so that it's pretty dense at the top of the edging & thus will do a better job of keeping the belly button covered. But after that I'd like to put something on that's pretty, yet not too fussy. Though if I fell in love with a fussy pattern that swatched well in the yarn I'd try it. That's the lovely thing about these stringy crafts: you can try it out, nothing is permanent.

Any suggestions?


Also, a big thanks to Cocoa for the brush tutorial: it makes it easy to "copyright" my pictures if I want to!

5 comments:

Christy said...

cut it up the front and make it into a cardi. I am currently doing something similar to a too tight sweater.

Ritsumei said...

Well... I really like it as a regular sweater, and I've already got this beautiful yarn that I'm really excited to use, so I think I'll save the cardigan conversion for another sweater. The shrinkage would be a problem for that as well: I don't think it's long enough like it is to be a cardigan. It just doesn't cover because it shrank.

What I really need is just the right edging to crochet. I have checked my books and don't have anything that seems just right, so I need to do an internet search, maybe check the library. But I'd hoped that someone would have just the right edging for me without having to go hunt it down.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway!

Zanna said...

I don't have a specific suggestion, but Lion Brand Yarns has a weekly email newsletter that they send me with a "Trim of the Week". The website archives past weeks, so there should be a whole library of pretty trims you could try. They also give away free crochet and knit patterns. Check them out here:
http://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/newsletters.cgi

Keeley said...

Sorry! Knowing nothing about crocheting, I have only a couple of comments:

1. That combination of yarns will look yummy

2. No matter what you do, it'll turn out fabulous. You have a talent for that kind of thing.

Ritsumei said...

Thanks Suzanna - I'll have to check it out & see if I see anything that I like better than the one I found in my Mom's book. Plus, I think I'm on the lookout for a nice shell pattern, though I haven't decided. I may need to find a tank to wear under it though... I'm concerned about the holes that crochet always leaves. Ugh. This is more complecated than just slapping a bit of fabric on. But it should look really nice when I'm done. I just keep telling myself that. And restraining myself so I don't just put that yarn on any old way in order to get to working with it... I'm really looking forward to it!

Keeley! You're making me blush! But I do love the yarns together. And they're soft in a way that photographs can just never do justice to. It's delicious. I remember why I didn't want to give up the sweater, now that I've touched it again. It's a texture thing.

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