Friday, December 01, 2006

FO: Floral Fantasy Pullover

The Floral Fantasy Pullover is a CAL at Crochetville. I definitely tweaked this pattern a bit by the time I had finished it. I changed the yarn, the hook size, the method of joining motifs, and the edging stitch. I ended up dropping the flared sleeves (no motif B) and skipping the collar entirely.
Yarn & Hook: I used 2 strands of Sirdar Salsa DK - a merino wool/acrylic blend, in place of the super bulky mohair/acrylic blend, with a 7.00mm hook. The sweater is made with motifs to be joined at the end. The super bulky recommended yarn makes a 7.5" Motif A with a J hook. Using a K hook (which actually measures 7.0mm) I was able to get the square to just over 7.25". I decided to go with that and use the shoulder and side gussets of the large size (instead of medium).
Joining: As someone at the 'ville suggested, I used a "join-as-you-go" method for assembling these motifs - anything to decrease the number of ends is a good thing!
Edging: With my 2 strands of yarn the 5 dc scallop edging was just too heavy and forced the sleeves (even without the larger motif B) to flare too much for my liking. Instead I simply put 3 sc in each loop to add a little weight to the sleeve ends and sweater bottom edge.
Sleeves: I used 2 motif A instead of the larger motif B at the end of each sleeve. I also modified the underarm gusset so that I began it at the middle of the 2nd motif, crocheted toward the underarm (joining to the side gusset), turned and then crocheted a 2nd sleeve gusset row from the underarm toward the cuff. On the 2nd side of the sleeve, I used this 2nd sleeve gusset row to seam the sleeve.
Collar: Try as I may I just couldn't get 4 motifs (particularly my slightly smaller motifs) to form a collar and lay nicely as the picture shows. I decided to just leave off the collar and added a few rows of arch stitch to tighten up the neck opening. I realize now that I didn't put the edging on the collar. I think it would be too heavy.
In the end this sweater fits a bit too tightly on me for my liking. In 2006 I regained about 15 of the 50 lbs I lost in 2005. I'll model it after I lose that 15!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wondrous pullover you've made, Ginny! Congrats! In my opinion, the changes you've made turned it more beautiful than the original pattern.
Lyl
from Brazil
member of CrochetPartners

sara said...

sounds like you made a totally new pattern.........i love it!!!!!!!!!! BTW......can you lose 15 for me

Anonymous said...

Wow, this one is so lovely.
You have done a very good job on this.

Anonymous said...

I also just made this same sweater about a month or so ago. The bell sleeves didn't work out for me either and the collar was a lost cause, too! Mine fits okay, but I can't decide what would work well under the sweater. A turtleneck, or a tank? Any suggestions?