Grey crochet cabled cardigan

I have finished another Christmas present. It has not been blocked yet but I thought I would post the photos anyway. It is from the Glorious Sweater Book edited by Nola Theiss which, although an old book, a couple of you have managed to buy from EBay. I like the way that the books shows that crochet is not just all holey and decorative and can be made into more wearable everyday jackets and sweaters. I made this jacket from 600 grams of Woolcraft Crepe DK. It does look rather long and slim on the photos but my niece is only a size 8 and wanted a long jacket. I have made this pattern twice for myself but used an aran thickness for mine as I am size 8 twice over!

My wrists has now recovered from all the round the post crochet and at the moment I am still knitting the February sweater and am about to start some doll's clothes for my great grand daughter's birthday Baby Annabel doll. As K is only 3 yrs old I think knitted doll's clothes stand up to a lot more tugging, and pulling than fabric clothes as little fingers drag clothes on and off. Her sister E is not 2 yet so I must enquire if she has a dolly or a teddy as I don;t want to leave her out.

My Tapestry crochet book arrived this morning and I will put some photos of that tomorrow. The Little Princess books for the babies arrived yesterday.I still have quite a few presents to make or buy yet. The snow is still around and the dustbin men didn't make it up my street yesterday. I think today is another stay in and knit day.

Whew - I think the aran will fit

As you know I have agonised over whether this aran will be large enough for my niece. I have finished it and blocked it out and provided it doesn't go any smaller when it is dried I am sure it will fit - but just not how it should fit as per the pattern. This will be a slim fitting jacket and not the baggy chunky jacket that I think she is expecting.

I have therefore started another jacket for her. It's cabled but it's crocheted. I chose one of the patterns that I featured yesterday from the book Glorious Crochet sweaters. Mattenylou - I hope that you find your copy of the book. Laurie - I do hope that you didn't throw your magazine away and yes I eventually did get rid of all the holly leaves even though the binmen gave me dirty looks for weeks as I kept filling up my dustbin for weeks. Cat - I hope that you manage to get hold of a copy of the book. I am sure that I saw one for sale on E-bay not long ago.

I am looking forward to doing a bit of crochet after doing that aran knitting. I still have to go back to knitting socks before Christmas but perhaps I should knit a few rows every day in between the crochet.

Glorious Crocheted Sweaters

This is one of my favourite books. I bought it some 20yrs ago for a couple of pounds from my local book store. When I queried the price I was told - It was ordered and then we discovered it had US crochet terms so no-one wants to buy it. How times have changed. Nowadays I can't buy a book that isn't US terms. I wanted to show that crochet isn't all openwork shawls and granny squares. This book shows many garments made in aran style stitches. I have made all of these garments photographed on here - some a couple of times and they make lovely warm jackets. Just in case you like the book and are lucky enough to find one on E-bay it was published by the Sterling Publishing Co.Inc. New York in 1989 and is edited by Nola Theiss. This book was one of my first introductions to multi coloured crocheting which is now called Tapestry crochet. I made many brightly coloured diamond patterned mohair jackets as was the fashion in the 90's. I also knitted some with colourful birds and flowers. Those were the days! I was unafraid to walk the streets wearing my technicoloured dream coats.

Why have I got the book off the book shelf now? Well after my aran knitting which I am still convinced is going to be on the small side I decided to have another go at making a cabled style jacket for my niece but as time is pressing on this next one will be crochet cables instead. The grey wool in the bottom photo is what I am going to use although I still have 5 balls of the never ending aran wool from the knitted jacket left. I am trying to make the collar of that jacket but having trouble trying to make my short rows on the collar look neat. If I can't get it looking right their way then I will unrip and do it my way. At the moment it is looking very uneven and amateurish. I may make a belt to hold the jacket together as it isn't really loose enough to wear as a swing jacket.

I should be doing some housework today but what the heck - I want to finish off this knitted aran as I am chomping at the bit to start some crochet.