Phew! Summer is finally over and I am glad. It was hot, muggy, sticky, wet and just gross. I am not a big fan of summer. Who wants to be that hot? Not me. Although I do like wearing those cute summer dresses and skirts. And, of course, tank tops.
Anywho, we get to move on to something more lovely. Fall, or at least for now, a little bit cooler weather and I can start thinking about what I will make for fall and winter. By the end of it, I will be begging for summer again like someone with amnesia. But for now, I will take the sweet of the promise of fall cooler weather. Plus, I don’t have to pay for someone to cut the grass. Yayyy.
So, let’s get into this current make. This is the Endless Eyelets Cardigan from Mama in a Stitch. Here is her blog. https://www.mamainastitch.com/ I have been eyeballing this cardigan for years. Literally, years. So, after making a sweater a few months ago, I decided to give this cardigan a try. Here is a link to the blog post, which includes the pattern. Endless Eyelets Crochet Cardigan. She also sells the pattern in her Etsy store if you want the pattern without the advertisements on her blog. I just used the one on her blog. If you know how to single crochet, double crochet, and slip stitch, you can make this cardigan. The most challenging part, was just having the time to make it, and the seams, which I will get into later.
Let’s talk about the yarn. A lot of people who crochet just don’t like acrylic yarns, but this yarn is an acrylic. It’s LionBrand Mandala and the yarn Jessica used for her cardigan. Here is a link for the yarn. Lion Brand Mandala. It can be purchased almost anywhere where they sell crafting materials, like Joann’s or even Walmart. But I bought mine from www.LionBrand.com and bought the bundle skeins. I believe I used almost all of the 3 bundle skeins I bought, which was basically 6 regular skeins.
I love the feel of this yarn. It is lightweight, so wearing it for long periods should feel pretty good. Mandala comes in a variety of colors. Lion Brand has about 27 different color schemes on their website. 27! What!! But even with all of those colors, I chose the same one as Jessica, because that’s the one I have been eyeballing for years. I wanted the exact same colors. Plus, you know I love mustard, and this scheme has mustard in it. My favorite. 🙂
The pattern, as Jessica describes in her post, as a “super fun and meditative project for advance beginners on up” is super easy. As I have heard someone say, “It’s stupid easy.” This is a very good pattern for beginners and after making it, I highly recommend it. Heck, I might make it again and use a different Mandala yarn. I love it, and I can’t wait to get some real use out of this sweater. I did change one thing. I did not like the way she did the front boarder, so I changed it and made three rows of half double crochets all around. I like the width of it and I think it turned out rather nice.
What I like most about making this cardigan is the easy pattern, the feel of the yarn, and the good stitch definition. What I like most about the finished project, and the reason why I chose it in the first place, is the boho feel I get from it. I also like the colors, the weight of the cardigan, and the length. I can wear this with so much. I can wear it with a tank dress, a pencil skirt, or a pair of jeans. And in the spring, a pair of shorts, even. I can’t wait to incorporate this into my wardrobe. But what I really want to do is make a cute slip dress to wear with it this fall, with a cute pair of boots.
What I have learned about myself regarding crochet is that I still love it, as much as I did when my mother taught it to me when I was about 8. However, it takes a while for me to get through a crochet project, and I have learned to take my time. My friend Jacquerian taught me that. I used to shy away from big projects, because I could only see (and feel) how long it will take to finish it . But she encouraged me years ago, to just do a little at a time until I finish. That advice has encouraged me to finish bigger projects and not to get discouraged and put it down, never to pick it up again. I definitely used that strategy when making my crochet granny square blanket. Here’s a link to my other crochet projects https://sewzaizay.com/category/crochet/listed on http://www.sewzaizay.com. The granny square blanket and granny square coat took forever. But perseverence and patience got me to the finish line on both of those projects.
I decided to make a crochet beret for the cardigan, to give it some pazazz. Actually, the beret was really a test make to see how it would turn out with the yarn I already had. I intended to get a different yarn for the actual beret, but when I finished with it, it worked just fine for this cardigan. I will make it again, or something similar but use a lighter weight yarn. This yarn was a little bulky and rough, but it was good for this project.
The beret was a free pattern, and if you want to use it, you can find it on my Pinterest board under Crochet Creativity. Here’s a link to the board. Crochet Creativity Pinterest Board This board contains all of the patterns I see and would like to some day make. Of course, I may never be able to make all of these beautiful items, but it is fun to store away these goodies for future reference.
One more thing. When I was sewing the seams together, I used the yarn I was using to make the cardigan. But when I was putting everything together, the seams looked horrible. I couldn’t live with it like that, so, I had to do a little research to find the right way to put the seams together and found the most perfect video on Youtube that showed me how to use the best stitch to put the cardigan together, given the different colors and the three chain stitches at the end of each row. This made a huge difference, and I was finally able to finish this and post it, and most importantly, to wear it. The problem for me was that the colors changed and the yarn I was using was a dark purple. I still ended up using the purple, but this stitch made the yarn used for the seams really invisible. Do you need a good way to gets these seam looking so perfect? Well, here is the video I watched. Youtube Video. Crochet Stitch. It is, of course, not the only video out there about this, but I thought this was helpful.
As long as these fingers still work, I will always crochet, but I have decided, if I don’t love it, I ain’t making it. Too much energy and time spent on a project that you don’t absolutely love, is time and energy waste. And I am not here for that. Luckily for me, I love this cardigan, and the hat.
Until next time, I will be making my life better, one project at a time, and I hope you do the same. For yourself, and for others.
Fine. I admit it. I’m obsessed!
