no-sew-sweater v1.0

I tried to make a sweater imitating the style of the baby it's cold outside jacket featured in Crochet me magazine, except, I didn't want to make a jacket, just a sweater with as little sewing as possible.I intended to crochet from bottom back to bottom front with an increase for the sleeves and a hole for the collar, the finished fabric would have the shape of a cross.
I had a few problems...
First it looks like my daughter grew A LOT while I was constructing it, but it was ok, I improvised sides to widen it while attaching the sides of the sweater and I thought I would just lengthen the arms afterwards with a contrasting yarn.
Then it looked like the space I left in order to crochet a collar was much too HUGE, I tried to narrow it later, but it was just a hot mess.
Finally I had to acknowledge I was going to have a yarn-shortage-accident (again!) so I had to change my plans in the middle of the back and start the sleeves... lengthening the back afterwards with a contrasting color... with a very unbecoming outcome.
Besides, the yellow skeins I had were not the same thickness, so the final result was just too eneven, clumsy, awkward.

I took pictures just for the records, I'm going to undo it (as soon as I'm finished mourning a two months worth project) and I'll probably use those yarns to make a freeform sweater, a kind of project which is much more suitable to unmatching textures of yarn.


the yarn : unknown. Got it from my mother in law's stash... acrylic mostly, sport, some baby, and a silk ribbon in peach (Bouton d'or).

the stitch : basket weave stitch (I believe it's called this way, at least in the Crochet stitch bible) : foundation : single crochet/ row 1: single crochet, 1 chain stitch, skip 1 sc of the previous row, 1 single crochet into the second sc of the previous row/ row 2 : chain stitch, skip one, single crochet into the chain stitch of the previous row, chain stitch, skip one.)
horizontal stripes : for the collar and the wrists, I used the stitch I used for the popcorn shrug trim.

What I learned from this experiment :

• always be sure you've got enough yarn before starting a project! a swatch gauge can be useful in that matter,
• if different yarns are used, see if they match once crocheted : a swatch gauge can be useful in that matter too,
• if trying a selfmade pattern, build it real-life size in paper first to check if there are defaults and secure measurements.

Practice makes perfect as they say...