FO Friday

It's been a while since I last linked up to Tami's FO Friday, but before I scoot off for the weekend I wanted to share a proper photo of my latest project.

Project: Rosie's Cardigan

Pattern: Waistcoat with Fan Pattern by DROPS design

Yarn: mystery yarn thrifted from an old shawlette. I think it's cotton, and roughly sport weight

Hook: 3.5mm

The yarn started out as a shawlette I was gifted, but I didn't think the colour or fibre suited the pattern used. I was never going to wear it. I made the decision to frog it and re-use the yarn somehow. Frogging the shawl was a nightmare of epic proportions. First up, the picot bind off took days to unravel, and I had to cut the yarn at least three times when I found myself stuck in a knot. Then, I found the yarn itself looked to have already been thrifted from something else, as it was full of knots joining ends together.

Eventually, though, I managed to unravel the damn thing and wind the yarn into a gorgeous cake.

Then I was left with the dilemma - how much yarn did I have and what weight was it? I weighed a small amount of yarn and measured the length, and used this to calculate an approximate yardage and weight. I reckoned I had 420 yards of sport weight. Having seen what the yarn looked like knitted up, and realising I would never wear it if I turned it into something for myself, I went looking for baby patterns. Our niece's Christening is on Sunday, so I decided to make something for her.

I originally decided to try this Jacket with raglan sleeves by DROPS Design, as I thought I'd have enough yardage for it. I started following the directions for the 12/18 month size, as Rosie is 9 months old now, and I have no idea how big or small she is! Unfortunately, I got to the fan pattern and realised I was going to run out of yarn way before finishing the body.

So the yarn was frogged a second time.

By this point, you can imagine my howls of frustration. I was really beginning to hate this yarn! I went back to the drawing board Ravelry and searched again. This time, I found the Waistcoat pattern that matched the jacket I'd already tried. Aha! I thought. No sleeves on this one! I'll need less yardage.

I got started, and ran into difficulties almost straight away. These patterns are so badly written! For starters, it had me crocheting two separate pieces for the first three rows of the back piece, then joining them together to continue the back as one. Instead, I started three rows into the pattern, and when I came to do the fronts, rather than crochet a separate piece and seam together, I joined my yarn to the top of the back and crocheted each front directly from the back piece, remembering to include my three missing rows for the back neck shaping. The only seaming that was required was the underarm seam, done before I started the fan skirt.

It took forever. I am not kidding you. I came so close to throwing it out and just buying her a gift from John Lewis. I detested it by the time I was done. I did the sensible thing, and put it away for a few days, before choosing buttons and weaving in the ends. I'm glad I did, because once I'd done the finishing touches, I fell in love with it again.

 I mean, how could I not love it with these adorable butterfly buttons? We'll be giving it to her on Sunday, and I hope she (by which I of course mean her parents) loves it too.