Wednesday, July 31, 2013

My Crocheted Summer Sweater the Bell Sleeve Pullover

I see I have neglected to show off my lovely, pink cotton top that I only took 2 months (5 weeks really) to crochet. It is called the Bell Sleeve Pullover and was designed by Doris Chan, an interesting person with lots of wonderful designs, many patterns available for free as was this one. I would like to mention the Bell Sleeve is not as hard as I originally thought it was, I merely had a steep learning curve in that I had no idea how to make a foundation single crochet (fsc) to replace the ubiquitous and quite miserable to work with usual starting chain. Everyone learning to crochet starts with the row of chains which in itself is not hard to learn, what is hard is the next row, sticking that hook into and under the appropriate chain over and over again. It is VERY annoying and often frustrating especially if you're making a king size afghan or using a fuzzy yarn. I learned the fsc by watching various you tube videos, just do a search and give it a try.

But back to my glorious pullover. I used nearly all of 7 skeins of Patons Grace 100% mercerized cotton yarn in the color Wildberry. (purchased on sale for $2.99 a skein) It is soft and easy to work with, plus it dealt well with continuously ripping out sections when I screwed up something or, as I did 3 times I think, have to change to a larger pattern size. I ended up using the large size (can't believe I really started with small first!) and added 20 rows to the body and 8 rows to the sleeves plus one for the actual bell. I'm a tall women so I always have to add extra whether I am using yarn or fabric.

Here it is.



I do believe I will be making another one in  but with short cap sleeves. I thought it looked very cute that way but I wanted to make the first garment in the original design to prove I could. I love it!

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