Tag Archives: #teamchelsea

Cal – Got Sleeves & Body

Like all crocheters, our team has found they don’t always have the time to stitch (who else wants more stitching time?) and now that we are several weeks into our CAL for My First Sweater, it seems our Rosie stitchers and our Chelsea stitchers are having varying degrees of success.

Ranielle has had the most progress and only has the ribbing left to finish on the body of her sweater. Plus she’s nearly done with the sleeves as well! We absolutely love the color combination she chose and can’t wait to see her sweater at the next check in – we think at the rate she’s going she’ll probably be finished.

Kate is also continuing to make steady progress and is nearly finished with her second sleeve. The lack of ribbing made finishing the body quick and easy work, and we love that crochet naturally creates a clean finished edge, no extra edging necessary.

Regan has finished the striping pattern on his sweater and has started the colorblock at the bottom.

We can finally see the beginnings of Jen’s planned color stripe modification and look forward to seeing her stripes progress. It will be particularly fun to compare the original colorblocked version with Kate’s delightful single color and Jen’s stripes.

Liz G is continuing to make progress and we really love the symmetry of her smaller stripes and love how her small change can completely change the look of this sweater.

Sadly, Liz L had no stitching time, and Andi’s sweater is still stuck in a box, but we are looking forward to sharing their sweaters in our next progress update.


CAL Progress – Slow & Steady?

While we are all enjoying the extended single crochet stitch , the stitch used in both the Rosie & the Chelsea, we are all having different levels of success finding time to stitch.

Kate is cruising along and has made a lot of progress. She seems to be making the quickest progress and said locking stitch markers have been the key to keeping track of her stitches. We really love how this single color version is turning out, even if we are little envious of her progress.

Ranielle is also stitching away and has nearly finished her body and has also found locking stitcher markers to be a necessity. She also had suggestions on how we could update the pattern to better call out the color changes, and we’re incorporating her feedback into a future update to make the pattern easier to follow.

Regan’s sweater has reached the body portion of the stitching, and we love how he modified the stripe pattern and are excited to see how his sweater continues to take shape.

Liz L, Liz G, and Jen had less luck finding time to stitch and while they have all added a few rows, their progress isn’t quite as noticeable. Which brings us to Andi, who is in the process of moving and accidently packed her project.

 #teamrosie / #teamchelsea / #wecrochetcal


CAL Progress – Yoking Around

Although we narrowed the CAL sweater options from My First Sweater collection to Rosie & Chelsea we gave everyone complete creative freedom with the color and yarn selections. Because we all are such huge fans of Swish, it was an easy choice to choose to use the original yarn. But for many of us our similarities to the original sweaters stops there. Both sweaters feature a seamless top-down construction beginning with the ribbed neck and yoke.

Andi is stitching Rosie, but she decided to use only three colors. She is modifying the color placement but using the same striping pattern.

Liz G. is also stitching Rosie but opted to use two colors and a narrow striping pattern throughout the entire sweater.

Liz L. loved the original Rosie and plans to follow the color striping pattern, but has selected a much brighter palette.

Ranielle also loved the original Rosie and decided to stick to the original pattern.

Regan liked the raglan shape of Rosie, but like Liz G., decided to change the striping pattern and is also only using three colors.

Kate opted for the circular yoke of Chelsea, but decided to omit the color blocked edging and let the pattern shine with one color.

Jen also opted for Chelsea but is using three colors to partially incorporating the color striping of Rosie.

So far we are keeping pace with each other, but we suspect that won’t be the case for very long.

What about you – are you stitching along with us? Which sweater and yarn did you select?


CAL! Got Gauge?

Crocheting a gauge swatch is not always the most exciting part of starting a new project, but it is one of the most important parts. This is especially true when stitching a garment.

It is important to match both the stitch and row gauge to ensure that your finished project will match the dimensions provided in the pattern. In addition to that, crocheting a swatch is the perfect opportunity to confirm that you like the fabric created by your chosen yarn. Once you find a hook that gives you the correct gauge and a fabric you love, you are ready to start your project.

Our Gauge Swatches

The original samples of Rosie & Chelsea were crocheted using Swish Worsted, a favorite here at the office. Everyone in the office is using Swish Worsted for the CAL, but the crochet hooks used vary in style and size.

Ranielle was able to achieve gauge using a 4.5mm Dots Hook, the suggested size in the pattern.

Liz G is using a 4.5mm Dots hook. She was slightly under gauge pre-blocked but was able to get gauge with blocking.

Andi was able to achieve row gauge but not stitch gauge using a 4.25 mm metal hook. Luckily Andi is an experienced garment maker and has plans to adjust for her stitch gauge discrepancy.

Liz L is using a 4.5mm metal hook and is slightly off gauge (approx 1/8″) making her swatch larger than gauge. This larger gauge means her finished sweater will be slightly larger than the measurements listed in the pattern, but because she wants an oversized fit, she’s happy with the result.

Regan tried several hooks to get gauge. He ended up on a 3.5mm metal hook.

Kate had no issues getting gauge using a 4.5mm Brights hook.

Jen also got gauge using a 4.5 hook and is using the new Ophire hooks.

Everyone was able to achieve gauge or come up with a plan to work with their personal gauge. Now that the swatching is over we are ready to start the sweater making!

What about you? Are you stitching along?


CAL! Yarn Selection

After deciding which sweater to stitch, the team still had the difficult choice of picking their yarn and colors. Luckily, this team has strong preferences making the decision a quick and easy one.

The original samples were made in Swish Worsted, a super soft and squishy 100% Fine Superwash Merino Wool. We are all huge fans of this yarn so yarn selection was an easy decision.

The decision for which colors and how many to use was a bit more challenging and we are all adding our own spin on our color choices. Because the stitch pattern for both sweaters is a simple extended crochet stitch it makes changing up the width and number of stripes, or color blocking, an easy modification.

Stitching Rosie, the raglan sweater are Ranielle, Liz G, Andi, Liz L, and Regan

Stitching Chelsea, the circular yoke sweater, are Kate and Jen

Which sweater, yarn, and color combo did you choose? Be sure to tag your own work under the hashtags #teamrosie / #teamchelsea / #wecrochetcal. We can’t wait to see your sweaters.


New CAL

Get your favorite hooks and your Swish Worsted, and crochet along with us!

Here’s the Hook:

What: Crochet the Rosie or Chelsea Sweater along with us

When: February 7th – March 19th

Skills to know: Extended Single Crochet, Single Crochet decrease

Who: Everyone who wears sweaters, especially first time sweater makers

Our team loved our newest collection My First Sweater, and it inspired us to stitch sweaters for ourselves. The collection features 5 designs covering most sweater shapes and is the perfect introduction to sweater making. From seamless to seamed, each pattern in this collection combines simple stitches with easy shaping to create sweaters you will reach for again and again.

We decided to limit our options to the Rosie & the Chelsea–both sweaters featured similar top-down construction with minimal seaming. The main difference is Rosie is a raglan and features colorful stripes, while Chelsea is a circular yoke with simple color blocking. We are all using Swish, a super-soft fine superwash Merino Wool.

Be sure to check back next week to see everyone’s color and sweater choices.

We’ll be sharing our own progress both here and on social media under #teamrosie / #teamchelsea / #wecrochetcal. Share your own work under the hashtags, too!