Welcome to the March Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by My Pinterventures. The purpose of this Pinterest Challenge is to motivate all the participants of this hop (and you too) to not just pin, but to make it happen! As usual, I find myself drowning in yarn. I’m trying to crochet my way out of it only using what I have in my yarn stash. For a long time now, I’ve wanted to make a sweater. When it comes to sewing, I can often look at one item of clothing and figure out how it’s made. Sweaters seemed a bit harder to me. I decided I would try a pattern from Ashlea at Heart Hook Home. Her patterns are easy to follow and customizable in many ways, especially in sizing. So for this month’s Pinterest Challenge, I’ll show you how I customized my crocheted sweater using the lemon peel stitch.
Not My First Sweater
Truth be told, this wasn’t my first sweater. My grandmother started teaching me to crochet when I was 5, but only single and double crochet. Only straight. And she didn’t teach me to read patterns.
But by 5th grade, I decided I was ready to crochet sweaters. For my whole family. For Christmas…
I took a sweater out of each family members closet and crocheted a rectangle the size of the back and front. Then I stitched it together.
Sleeves were my sticking point. I couldn’t for the life of me get the sleeves to work.
Everyone got a sweater vest and legwarmers that year for Christmas!
It’s a good thing it was the 1980s!
Legwarmers were in. Although, probably not for my dad…
Years later, after college, I taught myself to knit because of Julia Roberts. McCall’s or Ladies Home Journal, some women’s magazine published an article about Julia knitting this sweater with the pattern.
Of course, the yarn she used would have run me over $100, so, let’s just say, I learned to knit, a sweater was made, but it didn’t fit anyone I knew.
I have no idea what I did with it!
A pattern for a Crocheted Sweater
I have often found inspiration from Ashlea at Heart Hook Home. Then I joined her FB group and have been even more inspired by all the crocheters and their creations. From using Ashlea’s patterns or others and even their own. The popular project at that time was her blanket cardigan. While beautiful and on my to-make list, I didn’t want to start with that.
The Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy pattern looked like something I could handle. After a few rows, I was already thinking about how I would change the hemline. Not sure of the best way and also not being far enough into the pattern to think it through, I started over.
Her second version of this sweater is called the Vertical Stripes sweater. It uses the same lemon peel stitch (which she has a great tutorial on) but is made vertically instead of horizontally. Because, well, vertical stripes are slimming, of course.
The way the shoulders were made for this, gave me the perfect way to change the hemline. Ten or so stitches shy of the length I wanted, I added 2 stitches in the same way described by the beginning of the pattern. Once I was happy with it, I continued my rows to the width I needed, decreasing the same number of rows to make the opposite side curve.
And I repeated it for the second side.
Per the instructions, I sewed the front and back together before starting the sleeves.
My mom has always said I have monkey arms. My arms are really long. Growing up it was always a problem to find clothes with long enough sleeves.
With this pattern, you make the sleeves as long as you need them to be.
In addition to adding thumb holes, I wanted to decrease the width of the sleeve as it got closer to my wrist.
I used stitch markers to remember where my decreases were since I needed to repeat the process for the other sleeve.
For the thumb hole, I simply chained 3 and skipped 3 stitches. Then crocheted 3 more rows as normal, with 3 stitches in the chain.
Finished Sweater
I love the finished sweater! In the end, I realized I could have used the original Easy Peasy sweater and then modified the hemline later, but this solution worked great for me.
Uhg, I hate having my picture taken!
Here’s a close up of a thumb hole.
No, I didn’t plan on my nail polish being the exact same color as the sweater! I just really like teals, aquas, turquoises… So I’m always selecting those colors, even in nail polish.
To join next month’s challenge, click here to sign-up ⇒ April Pinterest Challenge
Now let’s see what other things Pinterest inspired! Head over and visit the other hosts to see what they crafted, cooked, built, or tried!
Erlene – My Pinterventures • Shirley – Intelligent Domestications
Jenny – Cookies Coffee and Crafts
Joanne – Our Unschooling Journey • Emily – Domestic Deadline
Roseann – This Autoimmune Life • Kelli – The Olympic Nest
Lynne – My Family Thyme • Beverly – Across the Blvd.
Debra – Shoppe No. 5 • Pili – My Sweet Things
Laurie – My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies • Kristie – Teadoddles
Julie – Sum of their Stories • Gwen – Geez, Gwen!
Marie – The Inspiration Vault • Candice – Fearlessly Creative Mammas
T’onna – Sew Crafty Crochet • Kenyatta – My Design Rules
Cherryl – Farm Girl Reformed • Magen – The Kusi Life
Leslie – Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Micah – Home Faith Family • Kelley – Simply Inspired Meal
Lauren – Mom Home Guide • Deborah – Salvage Sister & Mister
Gail – Purple Hues and Me • Terri – Our Good Life • Lisa – Blogghetti
Lauren – Wonderfully Made • Sue – A Purdy Little House
Toni – Small Home Soul • Maureen – Red Cottage Chronicles
Marci – Stone Cottage Adventures • Michelle – Our Crafty Mom
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