Capricious - I Don't Think So

When I got my copy of Inside Crochet Issue 5 my locally living niece saw Capricious cardi and liked it so I decided to make it for her as a surprise as she is so good with me. Taking me here and there when she can. The designer, Marlaina Bird, is from the US and whilst I am not bothered where the designer lives I do wish that they would use yarns more familiar in the UK as it is sold as a UK crochet magazine. The yarn suggested is Mirasol Nuna which is described on some web pages as DK but on others is listed as knitting to a fine gauge.

I know that I do crochet loosely so always chose a smaller hook and sometimes even a smaller size on the pattern but when I chained on using Jarol DK, which isn't a thick DK, it was huge. I persevered for a while as the pattern has shaped inserts at either sides of the hips, and is made all in one, so I thought that when I had reached the end of the insert shaping then it would be fine. I wasn't. I had to unravel it all as it would have fitted around me twice and I am not the tiniest of people. I have now started again and am using the pattern for the pattern stitch and the style but am not making the inserts over the hips.Instead I have shaped inwards by narrowing the pattern as you can see at the top of the second photo to give it some hip amd waist shape.Depending on the size I may increase back out again to give it fullness at the bustline. I have never had anything turn out so huge, I admit that my tension was slightly off so I had started making it a couple of sizes smaller than I wanted and was using a smaller hook. The pattern is done on a 4mm hook and even the smallest size starts with 258 ch so I think that a 4ply would be the nearest UK equivalent if I want to make the pattern as written in the book.

The second attempt is looking more like the size that I need for my niece but I am now going to be winging it for armhole and neck shaping and the sleeves. I have done this sort of thing before and it doesn't really worry me except when people ask me what i have done and I don't know as I do it all by eye and don't write anything down. I am always in doubt whether to put any mention of the pattern on Ravelry as I really won't be using it. I am just using the pattern stitch and the general picture but as it wil look similar to the original people may wonder why I don't link it together. I am just a bit worried that someone else in the UK will struggle to get the correct tension if I don't say anything unless they go on the Internet and buy the wool specified. I know that Inside crochet do give yarn alternatives, one of them being Fyberspates Scrumptious, but does anyone ever test the patterns for tension in UK wool when they come from a US designer? I have come to grief before with US patterns saying DK as their DK seems to be a different thickness to ours.

I plan to stay home today and crack on with my knitting and crochet. We still have a very light dusting of snow and it seems to be very cold although I haven't yet ventured outdoors.