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.