Tag Archives: #wecrochetcal

Hummingbirds Take Flight
by on Apr 30, 2024

When we saw the Hummingbird Cardi, featured in the Aviary Collection, we immediately fell in love. The simplicity of the knotted double crochet stitch creates the perfect backdrop for the colorful granny squares, letting the simple motifs shine. Several of us wanted to make our own version, and we decided a crochet along was in order. We all recently gathered at the office to take photos of our finished sweaters and love how unique each sweater turned out.

The construction of the sweater made for easy modifications and we all made simple but impactful changes to our sweaters. From the choice of colors to the length and collar finishes, each cardi is customized to make the perfect sweater for the stitcher.

Pictured from left to right: Ranielle, Carlene, Jen, Lee, Kate, Lex

Color Choices: Kate and Ranielle both decided they loved the original color scheme and tweedy yarn and kept to the same palette. Jen used the same colors as the original for her squares but used a neutral brown for her main color. Lee also used a neutral gray for her main color but selected bright pops of color for her squares. Lex used a gorgeous deep teal for her main color and then stuck to a blue palette with a pop of red for her squares. Carlene selected a bright happy green for her main color and then used multiple shades of purple with a pop of green for her squares.

Yarn: Lee used Swish DK, everyone else used City Tweed DK.

Other modifications: Carlene, Kate, and Lex all finished their sweaters with a ribbed or double crocheted collar and front bands narrower in width than the original shawl collar. Jen added a shawl collar, but she knit it it. Lee added a clever granny stripe collar. Carlene also added granny stripes to add length to her cardi. We could not be more delighted with how these modifications look.

We love the clever use of granny stripes on Carlene & Lee’s sweaters and think this is a great use of the leftover contrasting colors used in the squares.

What about you – will you stick to the original sweater or make changes to customize your sweater to fit your own style?

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff, Inspiration, Staff Projects

Cal – Got Sleeves & Body
by on Apr 23, 2024

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.

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff, Staff Projects

CAL Progress – Slow & Steady?
by on Apr 5, 2024

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

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, Fun Stuff, General Crochet Stuff, Inspiration

CAL Progress – Yoking Around
by on Mar 8, 2024

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?

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff

CAL! Got Gauge?
by on Feb 23, 2024

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?

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff

CAL! Yarn Selection
by on Feb 7, 2024

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.

Rosie
Dove Heather, Copper, Dublin, Cobblestone Heather
Clementine and Arctic
Nutmeg, Serrano, Squirrel
Mimic, Highlighter Yellow, Conch, Rainforest Heather
Copper, Squirrel, Pinecone Heather

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

Chelsea
Copper
Mimic, Bluebird, Dove Heather

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.

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff

New CAL
by on Feb 1, 2024

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.

Rosie
Chelsea

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!

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Tags: Crochet Alongs, General Crochet Stuff