Even though I've been away from the land of crafty blogs I have still managed to keep the crochet fires burning. There's rarely been a day where I haven't sat down to hook. I've made lots of different things and I'm really proud of all of them. I guess that's the great thing about having an unintended break. I now have so many things to talk about. I don't have to think up things to post about because I've essentially established a blog post stash. It's the kind of thing posting slackers like me dream about but in truth I really don't need another stash. When there's too much to do procrastination inevitably sets in.
Now don't freak out but I need to confess something. In the time I've been away I have not crocheted one single jug cover. I know. Insane. The urge just stopped. The obsessive compulsion completely dissipated. The bugs hibernated, winter set in and I wanted to create bigger and warmer and cosier things.
First cab off the rank was this sweet little red cardigan for Ivy. I made it in a red merino bamboo. It's so lovely and soft and because of the bamboo it has a really lovely weight to it. I like a weighty hang, don't you?
I downloaded the pattern for free from here (the Anna pattern). It's a great pattern and is easy peasy. It's an all in one so there's no need for seam sewing. The pattern only goes up to a size two but because Ivy is petite I knew the pattern would probably fit her.
That being said I couldn't help getting paranoid about it being too small. I added one set of the V stitch pattern to the front edges to give it a little more width and made sure I crocheted the first stitch before following and counting my way across each row and increase.
Funnily enough it's actually ended up being a bit too big (surprise, suprise!) but that's the way I like it. I hate the thought of lovingly crocheting something only to have it handed down or packed away into a glory box after one season. The yarn is so beautiful I'd hate to only enjoy it for a short time.
The pattern also called for some rather fancy flowers around the neck line but I can't say they appealed much to me. I thought a tie threaded around the neck line with some lovely big pom-poms would look much better. Now I'm just waiting for the pom-pom faeries to get that done. Unfortunately they appear to be taking their faery time. I hope they're not procrastinating. Winter will be over soon.
M* xo
