Crocheted Cardigan, the Third

This is my third time crocheting this Roseline Cardigan for my eldest granddaughter, Autumn. The sweater is from a 2014 pattern by Sylvie Damey available on Etsy. I made the cardigan in pink with lilac trim the first time at age 3, per my post for 1/13/2016, where it was a snug fit. For my remake in lilac in a larger size, less than a year later, see my post for 10/19/2016. She is still squeezing into the lilac one six years later because she loves it.

Now Autumn just turned 10 and requested yet another grandma made cardigan, but this time she picked her own colors. She told me "blue" and "purple". Those two colors are open to interpretation so her mom, my daughter Robin, got out her color panel and had Autumn show us precisely what she had in mind. I would not have called the Winter Cherry color "purple", but it does coordinate well with the Waikiki blue. 

Without Autumn's guidance, I would have assumed she wanted the classic Crayola crayon color purple – or what I remember the color purple to be – and I would have been wrong! Classic Crayola's color is correctly named, VIOLET. So what is the difference?

Per Paintinggal.com 

Purple and violet are two different colors. Violet is the true color that we can see naturally in the world. Also, violet is made from a single wavelength of light while purple is the color our brain perceives when our eyes receive both red and blue light at the same time.

So the color in the decades old children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon is technically correct as a more reddish hue than Crayola's Violet.

I picked out these two colors, Royal Blue and Burgundy, in 100% acrylic yarns. I was lucky enough to get pretty close to Autumn's vision.

 

I elected to make a size 10 using two strands of the yarn and a crochet hook size K, one increment larger than the pattern suggestion. By using a size K hook I was able to meet the gauge specified in the pattern, 13 sts / 6 rows = 10 cm in dcfl (double crochet in front loop). 

I furiously worked on the cardigan but preparations for Christmas and the arrival of household guest for the holiday thwarted my progress. Just as well. I decided to postpone the sleeve length decision until my granddaughter arrived. Also by delaying, I let her pick out her own buttons from three choices I had for her. The choices were whales, sapphire bling, or smiley faces (also to be interpreted as red cars in a blue race track). My personal favorite was the whales, based on texture, color, and size. I guessed that, as a young girl, she would pick bling; but, to my surprise, without the least bit of hesitation or indecision, Autumn picked the whales, just as I did. She must have her grandma's tastes.

Here is progress on the sweater without sleeves yet or blocking. I have a 2022 goal to complete one knitted or crocheted item. If I can complete the sleeves today, I will declare having met my goal since all that will be left is blocking and buttons. I have a decent chance, since family just left yesterday to return to Oklahoma. The pause while I had company was fortuitous since it allowed my granddaughter to try on the cardigan for sleeve length. I knew how many more rows to add before the lace edging... namely, zero. At the point I paused, the sleeves will be wrist length instead of three-quarters, but kids do grow.

Today, with 2 ½ hours to spare until midnight, I succeeded in finishing the crochet on the second sleeve. I still need to sew in all the random strings. There are fewer than expected because of the minimal seams in the pattern by design; but the double strand of yarn offsets this potential benefit. Once I have sewn these in, I will steam block the sweater so the lace skirt and sleeve edges will stand out more crisply. I will leave that blocking task until tomorrow, January 1, 2023, since it needs to sit pinned in place undisturbed for a moderate length of time. Since the needle work portion is complete, I am still claiming completion of my 2022 knit/crochet goal. I will however update this post or publish an additional post to show the completed product, blocked and with whale buttons.

Pair of Christmas Train Pillowcases

While I had the fabric combinations decided, I wanted to finish two more king-size pillowcases. The feature fabric was scenic with Christmassy red and green trains.  

I found the perfect pale blue to resemble swirling snow for the borders. For the accent red, I found a print with names from the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer TV classic special such as Clarisse, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, The Bumble, etc.

I needed to take care that the borders were on opposite ends of the pillowcases so all trains were upright. They were, and "Voila", I have two more king size pillow cases.

I was not completely successful in my fabric reduction because here is what I have left. 

Train Fabric: 30" x WOF + twice 3" wide x 41"

Swirl Fabric: 17" x WOF

Red Accent: 7" x ½ WOF 

However, it will go in with my scraps rather than back on my Christmas shelf. 

Christmas Season Pillowcases

There are piles of Christmas fabric on the dedicated top shelve of my stash closet. Each piece was irresistible when I purchased it, yet they do not necessarily go together with each other for a quilt. I got the idea of clearing some space in the crammed shelf by making pillowcases from these fabrics. I made four pillowcases before before running out of time/steam but I also set aside fabric selected for another pair.

A good portion of these fabrics were a raffle prize from my guild's 2017 quilt show (post for 5/2/2017). The fabrics I won there were of a party lady theme and a nutcracker theme. The party ladies I paired with some of my polka dots. Seems to me partying and polka dots naturally go together – kinda like the bubbles in champagne. I gifted this pair of pillowcases.

I made two other individual pillowcases out of snowy winter scenes. The fun part is coordinating the accent and border fabric choices with the fabric for the main body. They are king sized and will be used seasonally in our master bedroom.

Ironically, winter scene fabrics still take up the same amount of shelf space but at least it will be space on a different shelf. The occupied shelf will be in the hall linen closet rather than in my sewing room closet. 

Third Saturday of December 2022

I selected one quilt to display for Hang Your Quilt Day this month, the Third Saturday of December 2022. Christmas Valley with the central Christmas Cat panel is not a quilt I made, but rather one I purchased at the Voices in Cloth 2022 show by the East Bay Heritage Quilters (EBHQ). Christmas Valley measures 51"W x 58"L. It had been quilted and pieced by Sally Riggs with a central cat panel and two cornerstones made from other panels of a snowman and sleigh. The borders are made in a novelty fabric of a scenic snowy countryside. For more details about this quilt (and the show) see my blog post for 4/28/2021.

On two previous December Hang your Quilt Days, I had hung four Christmas quilts I had made myself. See my posts for 12/21/2020 and 12/18/2021 for those years. Since I'd recently acquired  Christmas Valley just this past April, I've never displayed it.

Hang Your Quilt Day
Beginning April 2020, my quilt guild members began a tradition of hanging quilts in the front of their homes on the third Saturday of the month as a source of enjoyment for the community and as a thank you for the essential workers during the pandemic. My initial post about this practice is in my blog post dated 4/22/2020.