First And Last Crochet Project

I started this project almost exactly a month ago on June 12. I saw a made up cardigan at the Textile Art Festival and thought "Yeah, I can do that. Shouldn't take too long."

RIGHT! The last time I did any crochet was when I was in Grade 8. We didn't even make anything real back then, just a few sample stitches for a little rectangle. The pattern that I bought only cost $3 but the recommended balls of wool was something like $15 per ball and it needed 4 balls. I felt confident that I could get something done but I didn't think I should be spending $60 on wool just in case it didn't work out. So, I bought $2 balls of wool. On hindsight, after all the work I went through, I do wish I got some $5 balls instead.

I was very excited about getting started. It quickly became apparent that I only knew the most basic stitch and that one isn't even used very much. The first step was for me to decipher the pattern.

Crochet patterns come in a language as foreign to me as programming languages. Look at this :

2ch, 2htrtog twice, 1htr in each st to end.

With the help of the Google and YouTube, I finally figured everything out and got started. I swear, I worked on this every day since June 12. It has been tedious, tiring, frustrating and not as much fun as I thought it would be. Its no like sewing something where I can see the results within a few days. This one month delay in gratification had me quite discouraged. I even forgot to follow the instructions for the buttonholes because I was in such a hurry to see the end results.

When I got to the sleeves, I started thinking that I'll make them extra long because all this hard work means that Adrian MUST wear the cardigan in winter 2011 AND 2012.

I finally got everything finished at about 1am last night. I got long buttons that fit through the gaps in the stitches.



It looks pretty cute on him but now I'm worried that he's going to get it dirty or hook it on something while he's climbing around everywhere. I don't even know how to wash woolen stuff!

I enjoyed the initial stages of this project when I felt that I was learning something almost completely new. And now, I do feel a sense of accomplishment that I've completed the cardigan but I definitely will not be jumping into another crochet project anytime soon. I'm grateful that Aaron has felt the need to ask me to make him one as well. Phew!