My First Wearable Crochet

Can you guess what this becomes? It’s really cool and very clever…

I was on the look out via Pinterest and blogland for wearable crochet, but something that wasn’t too out there. I might go for out there another time, but not just yet…

A bit of looking on Pinterest and I found something by The Green Dragonfly that I liked the look of, and following back the links I found a free pattern and photo slideshow at kootoyoo  (I do like to have visual aids to crochet patterns…) to make it.

Watching the slideshow, I noticed that this was just begging to be hooked up!  I loved the simplicity of it, and the fact that it seemed a pretty quick make too – I’m currently in the middle of a large project with a deadline so can’t afford much time out from it, although I really fancied a change for a bit. I was even more excited to discover that I didn’t need to do any measuring or counting to create this garment, as I have never actually done that before, and am not sure where my tape measure is currently hiding…

 

I didn’t have the huge chunky yarn called for in this pattern, but I did have a big 400g ball of Stylecraft Special Aran with wool in ‘Horizon’, and a 6mm hook. I figured this would work just as well, I would simply have more rounds of smaller stitches – and it did indeed work out just fine. In fact, there is no reason that I can see that this couldn’t be worked in DK as well, and I also fancy having a go of it in a nice soft cotton for a summer version. The possibilities seem endless!

Stylecraft Special Aran with wool in ‘Horizon’

I picked out most of the yellow bits as I went along...

I had no idea what they meant by ‘curly hexagon’ in the instructions, but it was kind of fascinating to see this weird floppy shape appear. It’s basically a granny square, but with 2 extra corners and sides in it. As the corners are still the corners of a square, the thing won’t lie flat at all – and this is the key to getting the ‘L’ shape you want.

  

I made the 2 sides out of opposite ends of the big ball – this worked out great with the 400g ball as there was plenty for both sides, and it meant that I could leave the yarn in place ready for sewing up, without creating any extra ends to sew in. If you want to do this too, just make sure you use the outer end first, then use the end from the middle second to avoid tangling. Once you have finished the ‘L’ shape, just pull the last loop bigger until you have enough yarn to tie it in a slip knot that prevents it from pulling through and unravelling your hard work, but you can undo it easily when you come to use the yarn again for sewing up.

Once I had my 2 ‘L’ shapes, it came to sewing them together. I chose to use the front as the right side and to slip stitch together on the front side, using the front loops only, to give a nice raised seam feature. 

I also decided to run an extra row of UK Doubles around the edges of the constructed shrug – so the bottoms of the sleeves and the whole of the neck line/front edges/bottom edge. This sparked a little idea, and I also did a second row of doubles around the bottom of the sleeves in a complimentary shade; Stylecraft Life DK in ‘Mixtures Blue Haze’. I wasn’t sure how this would work as it was a different yarn weight, but I used the same 6mm hook and it worked out fine. It also sparked a whole new train of thought on how to decorate future versions…

 

With the Stylecraft Life DK in ‘Mixtures Blue Haze’

Detail on the sleeves

But for now, this is it. My first completed wearable crochet (apart from scarves and wraps – so my first actual garment then…)   Ta daaaaaah!!