The Daily Hailey

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I made the girls cardigans? I’ve had it on my to-do list to crochet something, sometime, that is wearable beyond a toque or scarf. More specifically, a sweater of some kind. I like the big squishy open cardigans, so I made them for the girls to test out the pattern. It required a lot of change, because it called for bulky yarn and I intended to use a finer, worsted weight yarn. That would change the gauge greatly. I was willing to work with it, though. Once I knew I liked it, I started making one for myself!

I made the entire body piece, and crocheted the edging around it. It was at that point that I realized it was too short in the body. It wasn’t too short, but it was shorter than I wanted. I was thinking, I should just make it as the pattern stated, and then I would make another one with all the proper tweaks later on.

But I knew I wouldn’t wear the short one.
And all that time and effort would be a waste.
And it wouldn’t count as making a wearable item.

So I pulled it aaaaall out. That sucked.

I gave it a few days, and then started again. I made the body the exact same, but 20 stitches longer. It felt like it took WAY longer to crochet, but I think that was psychological. When I finally got the body done, I slipped it on and it was nice and long, as I wanted it. I added the edging, which rounded it out nicely and made it feel more like a sweater. Except at that point, it was much more like a long, weird vest 😆

Then, the arms. It was clear they were going to be WAY too short. So I tweaked the pattern yet again, and did the same arm a couple of times until it was how I liked it. Good thing I wrote down some notes because the next arm came together SO much faster.

After that, I just weaved in the ends, and I was DONE!

This thing was a labour of love, but I am SO happy with the results! I made it big and bulky, large enough to wrap around my body with room to spare, but fitted enough in the shoulders to look like it was meant for a person my size. There is next to nothing I would change about it, and there are very few projects I’ve completed that I can say that about. I hope to make myself another one down the line, because something tells me you can never have too many warm squishy cardis.

“Make wearable item” ✔️

Goal achieved 🏆