A new bolero in cotton-cashmere – and new works in progress

Posted on February 4, 2012 by fats

Yesterday, I gave the cotton-cashmere motif bolero a roadtest and here are some photos of the finished product. I made this with a 3mm hook and sport weight yarn from Lotus Yarns (Autumn Wind Yarn).

The finished bolero in cotton-cashmere yarn.

At the last moment, I decided to crochet the front of the bolero together since it easily fits over my head anyway. I also didn’t fancy an open front bolero and also didn’t want the bother of making ties (as I’ve done earlier with the modified “Glitter Girl Bolero” here and here) or using a pin.

The back of the bolero is something that I particularly like with its uneven hemline. I did about 3 rows for the sleeves working the last two rows in treble stitches at the cap (just over the shoulders). The seams are sewn with silky camel 2-ply yarn.

Cotton-cashmere yarn is smooth and tends to slip off easily thus weaving in ends took extra work. Also, as with most crochet garments, don't store on hanger like this! This could stretch and ruin the garment! This is just for photo purposes only!

The bolero – worked entirely with a schematic / pattern drawn on paper – fits very well, than goodness! Now I am using the same paper drawing for the blue silky cashmere bolero that I started earlier. By putting the piece over the drawing, I could easily see how I should be shaping the garment. I think the paper drawing also helps in creating new shapes and designs particularly for the neckline and sleeves.

Work continues on the sliky cashmere bolero. Still using the drawing on newspaper. My newspaper doesn't smudge, but yours might so use craft or Manila paper if you have one!

A new work in progress in the meantime is a (hopefully) bridal purse, taking after the Motifs on a Mesh Purse. I have been thinking of doing some items for weddings but never really got around to working on anything – well, now is the best time, thanks to reminder from Michelle!

Bridal purse a work in progress. Pattern to follow ...

My plan is a little purse that has a satin (or organza) handle, no zipper but rather a drawstring – plus matching crochet jewellery. It is just unfortunate that I wasn’t able to get those beautiful silk and silk blend yarns in my last order with Lotus Yarns! Silk would’ve been perfect! But for now, I must settle for cotton.

And finally, on the drawing board is a crocheted dragon amigurumi for my 10-year old nephew. My inspiration is this amazing dragon I saw in Chungli, Taiwan some seven years ago.

Dragons in Chung Li, Taiwan

February 4 is supposedly the start of the Dragon Year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. So … Welcome the Dragon Year!

Making a paper pattern

Posted on January 31, 2012 by fats

The other day, I gave the silky cashmere bolero a break and decided to make another bolero to try out a new yarn: Lotus Yarn’s Autumn Wind, a DK/sport weight yarn of cotton (90%) and cashmere (10%).

Autumn Wind - cotton and cashmere yarn from Lotus Yarns.

This time, I made a simple pattern based on my measurements. I drew the pattern on a clean sheet of newspaper. (The newspaper ink didn’t smudge on my yarn, but it may. So it might be better to use craft paper or Manila paper when available).

The first basic shape is a vertical rectangle with a width that’s half my bust measurements and a height that’s from the base of my neck to my waist. I usually add more ease around the arms and bust and less at the waist.

I am assuming that this will be a patter for a top that goes to my waist at the most. If you make a longer rectangle, then it could be a dress.

The bolero pattern as drawn on a newspaper.

The length of the rest of the lines on the pattern are based on my own body measurements, as depicted in the illustration below.

The basic pattern.

Afterwards, I crocheted the motifs and arranged them onto the paper pattern.

I made full motifs and half motifs when necessary.

Then I joined the motifs together using a combination of chain stitches, double crochet, treble crochet and single crochet. What stitches to use and in what number and order really depend on the distances that are being spanned.

Joining the motifs and covering some areas with mesh stitches.

I fasten off and join the yarn to other places to join and to cover, as the motifs are irregular in shape and it isn’t possible to crochet all the motifs together continuously.

Fasten off and start at other parts of the work when needed.

I work the left front, the right front, then the back of the bolero. When done, these parts are to be sewn together at the seams. But remember that before doing any sewing, use some yarn to tie the seams together first and then do a fitting.

The two front sections of the bolero.

Usually I work on the right side of the bolero, sometimes it is necessary to work on the wrong side. It all depends on which direction I need to crochet to join the motifs and to make a good lacy coverage of stitches.

The paper pattern and the bolero - work in progress.

This kind of work may seem daunting but once you have gathered the courage to begin joining the motifs, you will realize that it is fairly easy, especially with dk/sport weight yarn. Doing this kind of work in finer thread is much more difficult. I really recommend thicker yarn like dk/sport weight if you are just beginning to learn free form crochet like this.

A good yarn weight to start learning free form and joining motifs.

The use of a paper pattern has made work much easier for me too. Some people work with a tailor’s dummy. Some people work with dressmaker’s patterns. You can make your own pattern on paper or cheap cloth. You can make separate patterns for the front and the back of the garment.

From a basic pattern, you can easily develop shapes and fittings in crochet.

Exploring silky cashmere

Posted on January 27, 2012 by fats

Silky Cashmere Fingering from Lotus Yarns

Silky Cashmere Fingering
Fibre: 55% Silk/45% Cashmere
Yardage: 400 yards/20oz (365meters/55grams)
Hook: Aluminium crochet hook 4/0 (2.5mm)

The yarn came in hanks, and at fingering weight, can be easily unwound from the hank (either on a swift or the back of a chair) and made into centre-pull balls. Although I haven’t yet managed to make a decent centre-pull ball because the tail end of the yarn was always disappearing into the ball as it gets bigger. Maybe next time.

The yarn is viciously soft and shiny – thanks to the combination of silk and Mongolian cashmere. The yarn also has similar qualities to a thread that I am quite familiar with – rayon. Rayon is artificial silk (viscose) and is quite shiny too. However, Silky Cashmere has resiliency that rayon doesn’t have.

I started using this yarn following a necklace pattern that I designed (originally for cotton) some time ago. Then I enlarged this pattern to make a shrug/scarf. I thought that this was a good way to get to know the yarn better, using only small quantities of the yarn for testing.

Five motifs completed.

Now what I have in mind for this yarn at the moment is a lacy bolero made up of motifs joined together in the free-form way. I completed five motifs following charted patterns in Duplet 112 and Duplet Swimsuit 3.

Motifs from Duplet crochet magazine.

The motifs are then arranged on the table in the order that I intend to join them. I thought of the largest motif going on the upper back of the bolero and the smaller motifs on the shoulder/upper arm and the smallest motifs for the sleeves. The motifs are all different.

The motifs as joined.

Before joining the motifs together, I made a ch-mesh outline around the motifs. I prefer to work the mesh of the type “dc, ch 3, dc.” Then I started joining them beginning along the upper portion of the bolero (the shoulder line). I decided to keep ths line fairly straight so the bottom portion may be irregularly shaped and could be more visually interesting.

Detail of the motif on the right sleeve of the bolero.

The motifs selected for the bolero have strong edges reinforced by sc’s. I need good sturdy motifs and not light ones. I selected flat motifs for the back and shoulders and the last two motifs at the cuffs have 3-dimensional flowers. I wanted to keep the main body of the bolero fairly flat while the ends of sleeves can have a more 3-dimensional design.

Detail of the motif on thee left sleeve of the bolero.

Detail of the motif on the left sleeve of the bolero.

Hopefully, I will be able to make a size and fit that takes advantage of the mild resiliency of silky cashmere fingering yarn. This means a bolero that’s a bit fitting around the arms and shows off the lace design against the skin.

Detail of the motif on the back of the bolero.

I didn’t use any needle joining for the motifs. This time, I used wholly crocheted joins. Work is much faster this way and teaches me to join irregular shaped motifs.

The work in progress.

Lavender Bolero with Flower Motifs

Posted on January 22, 2012 by fats

With Dora Ohrenstein’s “Glitter Girl Bolero” (in “100 Crochet Projects”) as basic shell, I completed this flower trimmed bolero in cotton thread size 8. This is in size Medium for my mom.

The finished bolero as to be worn with a dress underneath.

Project Notes:
See New Paths with new crochet materials
Jan 5: I am working on a size M now using cotton 8 thread. I increased by adding the next multiple. For example, the pattern starts with ch 92 (110, 128) which are sizes S, M, L in increments of 18. So for cotton 8 thread that’s 128 for small, 146 for medium and 164 for large.

At row 3 the patterns says V-st in next V-st 14 (17, 20) times. Those are repetitions in multiples of 3, so for cotton 8 thread that should be 23, 26, 29.

In the original pattern, there are two additional rows for sizes M and L (starting at Row 10). I am tempted to add rows in multiples of 2 for cotton 8 thread but I’m not sure if that’s correct. That would probably need working out by actual measuring rather than adding rows. But I’ll need to double-check when I get there!

Finished the motifs and trimmings around the sleeves then ran out of thread to finish off the bottom hem.

Jan 7: Continuing my work on the bolero in size Medium and lavender colour.

So far I am at the back section of the bolero and I have been taking measurements as I work. I base my measurements on schematics in some knitting magazines that I got a few years ago. I don’t knit and these back-issue magazines were cheap, and they have proven their usefulness in terms of a chance to study garment sizing through the schematics.

I also found out that “The Glitter Girl Bolero” pattern has a rather tight armhole. When I worked in size Small I added two extra rows at the shoulders. This time, working in size Medium, I added one extra row at the lower section of the garment and then two extra rows at the shoulder to increase the armhole size. At the moment, I am confident that this will be the right fit for my mom.

The shops didn't carry any of the lavander thread anymore so I used variegated ochre-white thread for the bottom edging which matches the color of the ribbon and some of the flowers.

The shops didn't carry any of the lavender thread any more so I used variegated ochre-white thread for the bottom edging which matches the colour of the ribbon and some of the flowers.

I have done this bolero earlier in size Small, as shown in Crocheting in 2012 and http://crochetology.net/2012/01/first-fo-in-2012/

Detail of the ribbon and motifs.

New things learned while working on the lavender bolero:

Some of the flowers at the back of the neck tended to fold over. One way to stiffen them was to sew nylon thread through the edges of the motifs. I learned this method while washing a chiffon dress (beach dress) which used nylon thread along the hem to give it weight and keep the dress from being blown up by the wind.

Perhaps next time, I can make a bolero made entirely of flower motifs.

The use of tailor’s patterns for crochet is not such a bad idea. It provides a basis for shaping into what they call “tailored” or “tailor fit” which can be rather nice with certain garments. I would like to try this some time with skirts since crocheted skirts tend to hug the body in unflattering ways.

Running out of thread meant implementing a new design feature. This happened to the bolero in a small and simple way. The shops didn’t carry any of the lavender thread any more so I used variegated ochre-white thread for the bottom edging which matches the colour of the ribbon and some of the flowers.

First FO in 2012

Posted on January 4, 2012 by fats

Today I completed my first crocheted garment for 2012.

The finished bolero.

The bolero is based on Dora Ohrenstein’s “Glitter Girl Bolero” as found in the book “100 Crochet Projects.”

I selected this bolero as “base” for my motif experiment because it is a simple but elegant construction and looks easy to modify. There is also ample trim space around the sleeves and around the neckline and edges of the bolero where I may do my work of incorporating Irish crochet motifs.

Detail of the motifs. Frosted organza ribbon ties the front of the bolero together.

This turned out much easier than I expected. I have been thinking of a project like this for some time now and thus only a few challenging design decisions needed to be made throughout the process of completing this project.

Some notes:

To work with cotton thread 8 for my size (32-34) using the pattern, I use a hook 3mm (for lower half) and a larger hook, 3.5mm (for upper half). I use different hook sizes because I want the lower section of the bolero to be smaller and closer to the body to make a nice shape, and the upper section to be a bit loose.

I don’t sew the shoulder seams until I am sure of the fit: I tie the seams with yarn and wear the bolero. I see that the armholes will be a little bit tight, so I add 2 extra rows at the shoulders.

For the sleeves, I used 6-ch meshes, a total of 18 loops all around the armhole. The loops are joined to the armhole with sc in every space, rather than in the stitches. By round 5 I switched to the smaller hook. I also thought that 6 rounds was enough and let the rest be made up of joined motifs.

The idea of using a basic garment pattern to establish the structure (i.e. base or skeleton) for the intended finished garment turned out to be quite a good one. Although life would’ve been easier with a tailor’s dummy, this was a good alternative.

“Glitter Girl Bolero” was a good choice. Along the way, I realized that a whole dress could just as well be made with this basic process. More motifs could be added on the front of the bolero, and down towards the torso and around the body. The sleeves could be made up of motifs as well.

Color choices proved well. The photographs don’t show the exact colors (the base bolero should be more on the side of red than blue), but what I have here are combinations of purple, green and orange.

The small orange circles were a final touch and broke the boring alternating colours of green and purple. Multi-colour threads also gave the motifs better texture and altered the flatness of the bolero’s mesh pattern.

The edges of the sleeves are worked in ch2, hdc, picot, hdc, ch 2 and the lower hem of the bolero is worked in ch 3, 2dc-cl, sc. I was tempted to make the sleeves and hem wider, lacier and more decorative but decided to restrain myself. A good decision, I think, because it was better to focus on the motifs and keep the rest of the garment subdued.

The frosted organza ribbon works beautifully. I am so glad I got these ribbons – frosted organza in different colours is just so beautiful!

I am thinking of making another one of this, in natural cotton and more subdued colours and in larger size. The re-sizing for cotton thread is one of the more exciting stages in this project, and I am curious if I can re-size this for size L and XL.