top of page

Cosplay your Crochet.

I love cartoons. They make me very happy, I love the silliness and the lack of office work and bill paying and just general adulting that show up in them.

For that reason I especially love Gravity Falls, and specifically Mabel Pines. At my first Comicon; ConBravo in Hamilton a few years ago, I swore the next one I attended I would wear a crocheted Mabel Pines sweater. I love the fact that Mabel makes her own clothes, loves glitter, and has the confidence to be silly, and herself. I did not make a sweater in time for the next Con. I had taken up spinning by then, and spent the Con spinning on my drip spindle, lurking from panel to panel by myself.


Like many others right now I have no excuse not to finish the projects on my list. In fact, I think I have finished more projects in these few weeks then I have in a long time.


So I started, I picked out the yarn from the Michael's website, we did a curbside pickup and I got started immediately. I am not an expert crocheted. I know basic stitches, just learned the rib stitch, and had never done colourwork before. Also, there is no pattern, not that I ever use a pattern anyway.


So Wildcard weekend comes and i find myself watching my Seattle Seahawks lose while starting my happy sweater.

I have discovered that I love a yoke down sweater, I can try it on, which is important to someone making their own pattern. One day I will write it down too. So first, a ribbed baggy turtleneck that sits quite loose because I don't like a tight neck in my clothing. When making something I plan on wearing, above all I want it to be comfortable. So 13 rib stitches with a size five crochet hook. This was also my first sweater playing with hook size to get the drape and feel I wanted.


Day one was the collar, yoke, and sleeves. I hate sleeves, so I did them both at once. I loved it! Not only am I done them early, I remembered the stitch count and gauge and the rest, but it was also lovely for the continuous and ongoing game of yarn chicken I play. I am getting better at it, mostly though, I think I am lucky I am short.


By day two, Sunday, I was deep into colourwork. Smart people, and organized people would make a colourwork chart. I had barely even seen one, but thanks to a brief period as a child when I wanted to learn how to do cross stitch (as well as playing pixelated video games) I had a general idea of how I wanted it to go. Dont let the stitch counters fool you, that is how I plan the next row. My crocheting plans are finished product, cost, and feel.


As far as cost goes, I keep mine low as possible, and though I spin, I work with acrylic right now to keep both the cost down, and the washing easier.

Also I stayed up late, and eventually had to go to bed so I could sort out the bottom half of the star. That was tricky. I knew I was tired when I realized I no longer knew what the bottom of a star looked like. I got some sleep, and persevered. This was lovely for me, and typically where I would put down a project and just go make another hat, or water bottle holder.


I decided to keep going, and keep going, my son took this picture, I love that boy, but this was the least blurry picture he took!


The star is not perfect, the colours aren't exactly what I wanted, but overall I am happy with it. I am already working on the next sweater, which will be a cardigan with a colourwork pattern panel. It will be heavy on the yarn chicken, made worse by the fact that the main colour I wanted to use is sold out. I am going to make this sweater mostly out of panels to keep me on the winning side of the game. I hope.


I can't wait to work with these colours, but I am waiting for a plan for it. In the meantime, I am loving my Mabel Sweater, it is a bit of joy I created for myself, and hopefully it will bring a smile to others faces.



14 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

I will be teaching two classes at the end of August on Spinning. The first will be the mini Drop spindle class, the other will be the Twirl and Whirl class - which focuses on spinning on our Sit and S

I didn't know where to put this, but it's here if it's any help to anyone. Its the short and condensed version of Percivals birth story. Women always seem to share and tell their birth stories. But no

bottom of page